Louis Vuitton faces backlash for selling scarf inspired by traditional Palestinian keffiyeh

Louis Vuitton faces backlash for selling scarf inspired by traditional Palestinian keffiyeh

Louis Vuitton is facing criticism for selling a scarf inspired by the Palestinian keffiyeh.

The brand sells the “monogram keffieh stole” for $705.

The black-and-white keffiyeh has become synonymous with Palestinian liberation movements.

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Louis Vuitton is facing backlash for selling a scarf inspired by the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh.

The luxury brand is selling the “monogram keffieh stole” for $705, saying on its website that it’s “inspired by the classic Keffieh and enriched with House signatures.”

“A jacquard weave technique is used to create the intricate Monogram patterns on its base of blended cotton, wool and silk,” the description on the Louis Vuitton site says. “Soft and lightweight with fringed edges, this timeless accessory creates an easygoing mood.”

Diet Prada, a popular Instagram account that seeks to expose wrongdoings in the fashion world, called out the designer in a post on Tuesday shared with its 2.7 million followers.

A post shared by Diet Prada ™ (@diet_prada)

The post included several photos of the traditional keffiyeh beside the Louis Vuitton stole. “So LVMH’s stance on politics is ‘neutral,’ but they’re still making a $705 logo-emblazoned keffiyeh, which is a traditional Arab headdress that’s become a symbol of Palestinian nationalism,” it said. “Hmmmm…”

The caption alluded to a statement sent to Diet Prada on May 21 after the model Bella Hadid posted about Palestinian causes on her Instagram account. Diet Prada quoted a source associated with LVMH as saying, “LVMH’s stance on politics is neutral, but they are not cancelling Bella’s contract.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, about 100,000 people had liked Diet Prada’s post about the stole.

Representatives at LVMH did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on the criticism.

Khaled Beydoun, an author, scholar, and lawyer, criticized the scarf as disrespectful and exploitative in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

“Let me be clear, companies and designers like @virgilabloh have the right to make whatever they want to make within the bounds of legality,” Beydoun wrote, speaking of the brand’s artistic director, Virgil Abloh.

“I typically champion artistry and the freedom that comes with it,” Beydoun wrote. “But this is patently disrespectful and insensitive, on a myriad of levels.

“Especially right now. Amid 11 days of bombings, land dispossession and 215 Palestinians killed,” he continued. The UN has estimated that 58,000 Palestinians were internally displaced and made homeless in Gaza after a week of Israeli airstrikes in May.

Beydoun also suggested that Louis Vuitton’s color choices could have been a way of nodding to Israel’s flag and taking a political stance.

“The blue and white colors are either tone deaf or an insidious form of passive political commentary. Or a disastrous attempt at political irony,” he wrote in the post, which had over 61,000 likes on Wednesday.

A post shared by Khaled Beydoun (@khaledbeydoun)

The traditionally black-and-white keffiyeh, or kufiya, has become synonymous with Palestinian liberation movements. Hirbawi Textile Factory, which describes itself as the Palestinian territories' last and only keffiyeh factory, dubbed it “the unofficial Palestinian flag.”

The intricate pattern, according to the factory’s website, “is said to represent a fishing net, a honeycomb, the joining of hands, or the marks of dirt and sweat wiped off a worker’s brow, among other things.”

It also has symbolic significance for Palestinian communities. Omar Joseph Nasser-Khoury, a Palestinian fashion designer, told The Guardian in 2019 that the scarf represented “dispossession, systematic displacement, extrajudicial killings [and] oppression.”

According to a Middle East Eye report, the origin of the fabric is uncertain. The news site reported that some say the keffiyeh, “sometimes called the hata in the Levant, has origins that pre-date Islam and can be traced back to Mesopotamia, when it was worn by Sumerian and Babylonian priests around 5,000 years ago.”

Anu Lingala, the author of the essay “A Sociopolitical History of the Keffiyeh,” told the publication that it was “traditionally associated with working classes,” while Jane Tynan, a cultural historian, said that it was used “as a tool to disguise the identity of the wearer from British authorities” and that it “became shorthand for the Palestinian struggle.”

Nasser-Khoury told The Guardian that designers co-opting the keffiyeh were not drawing from a “random design.”

“There is a context, there is a power imbalance,” he said.

He added: “You have people who were dispossessed in 1948 and made refugees and they still live in camps in Lebanon and then you use this garment, which carries all that pain, for personal advancement.”

Louis Vuitton faces backlash for its $705 ‘keffiyeh-inspired’ scarf

French luxury house Louis Vuitton is in hot water for one of its latest men’s scarves.

On its US website, the label offers a blue, jacquard-woven stole decorated with both the Vuitton monogram design and the distinctive checked pattern of the traditional keffiyeh. The scarf is priced at $705.

Louis Vuitton describes the scarf on its website as being “inspired by the classic keffiyeh and enriched with House signatures”. The company says that the scarf, made from wool, cotton and silk, is lightweight and soft, and that it “creates an easygoing mood".

The backlash has been swift, however, with the industry watchdog Instagram account Diet Prada calling out Vuitton for the product, placing an image from Vuitton’s website alongside the Wikipedia definition of the keffiyeh.

The pattern is used as a traditional headscarf in the region, often worn by Arab men. It’s also regarded as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism, and solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

At the time of writing, the scarf in question was available on Louis Vuitton’s US website, but not the UAE site.

With 2.7 million followers, Diet Prada regularly highlights issues of plagiarism, racism, sexual misconduct and cultural appropriation within the fashion industry, demanding high-profile figures, designers and brands take responsibility, apologise and, where appropriate, pay reparations.

What started as a small account in 2014 has grown to a serious fact-checker of the industry, and has been involved in many high-profile spats with major fashion brands.

This is not the first time Louis Vuitton has been called out. In February, it released the Jamaican Stripe Jumper , in homage to the Jamaican flag, but in the wrong colours.

Further down the fashion food chain, this week high-street stores Zara and Anthropologie faced claims of cultural appropriation for using traditional Mexican motifs.

Tidak Peka Soal Keffiyeh Mahal, Louis Vuitton dan Fendi Dikecam Netizen

DESKJABAR – Dua rumah mode terkenal dunia yakni Louis Vuitton dan Fendi, mendapat kecaman dan dituduh tidak peka karena menjual kefiyyeh yang menjadi ikon Palestina dengan harga yang sangat mahal.

Louis Vuitton menjual syal tersebut seharga 700 dolar AS atau setara dengan Rp 9,8 juta. Sedangkan Fendi menjualnya 835 dolar AS atau sekitar Rp 11,7 juta.

Kecaman muncul dengan tuduhan menggunakan budaya Palestina untuk keuntungan komersial sambil menghilangkan simbolisme dibalik kefiyyeh tersebut.

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Kecaman juga ditujukan karena penjualan keffiyeh tersebut dilakukan pada saat rakyat Palestina tertindas oleh kebrutalan serangan tentara Israel pada sepekan pertama Mei lalu.

Keffiyeh adalah kain umumnya bermotif kotak-kotak hitam putih yang sering digunakan sebagai penutup kepala atau syal, dan telah menjadi symbol perlawanan rakyat Palestina terhadap kolonialisme dan pendudukan Israel.

Syal biru diiklankan di situs web Louis Vuitton dan menyertakan logo “LV” yang ikonik. Digambarkan sebagai “stola” atau nama lain untuk syal atau selendang panjang , terinspirasi oleh Keffieh klasik, yang oleh mereka digambarkan sebagai aksesori abadi yang menciptakan suasana santai.

Louis Vuitton bukan satu-satunya rumah mode yang menggunakan keffiyeh Palestina dalam desainnya. Fendi, merek fashion mewah Italia, menjual syal tersebut seharga 835 dolar AS.

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