Rodarte and Mac Cancelled?

[LagerfeldBoy]

The whole issue was a little complex for me to grasp, but after doing some research, I now know what the whole basis of the issue is about. I mean, it seems like it correlates with their last collection so the hype for it was there for me. I, personally, think the names sound pretty interesting for a cosmetics brand but understanding what is happening in Juarez and what's really going on just makes me sick. They really should've done their research. It's very disrespectful to the people who actually are enduring this problem.

 

[CrisGalaxy]

Hmmm... I dont know what to think. I come from Mexico and through my whole childhood I always heard about murdered girls in Juarez, but I guess it is offensive because they're naming their make-up line after a town that has way too much crime and how pretty would it look if they had named it "Holocaust" or "Hurricane Katrina".

 

[indepwe]

The thought of a ditzy girl skipping around MAC picking up "Quinceanera" and "Factory" to show off on her Youtube makeup channel made me sick.

How devoted to the cause are the Rodarte sisters exactly? They don't strike me as activist designers, like for example Franco Moschino, who constantly used fashion to convey a witty commentary on politics and the fashion world... which is why I am disgusted that they would choose this ongoing violation of human rights as their oddball inspiration of the season.

I totally agree

 

[Fashionturnip]

Sorry but thats just an over reaction. Its not like they based the line on the violence that occured in this town and called a red lipstick 'murder'....

I think ghost town and factory sound cool...why would anyone be offended by that?

 

[Nemova]

My goodness, the shallowness of some people...

I'm glad that some of you in this thread spoke out to counteract the insensitivity of the other posts. Would anyone feel comfortable buying an eyeshadow duo called 'Twin Towers' or a blush called '9/11'? Or maybe an 'Auschwitz' gray-ish green nail varnish would be more to your liking?

 

[Meg]

It shows disrespect because they are taking real issues and glossing them over as "exotic" or "edgy" to make money and fit with a design aesthetic. It's like the London bar/club 'Favela Chic' which capitalizes on a perceived sexy dirty glamour of favelas. I'm sure people living there don't necessarily feel that way.

To me, the most disturbing thing is that they took a road trip through Texas and then decided to do a collection about Mexico. So what - they couldn't even be bothered to go to Mexico? Of course, their cultures overlap in many ways but I think it's quite bizarre, especially for two such educated women.

Regardless - I don't think they should have cancelled the line. I think re-branding and establishing a charity was a good move and brought more attention to the cause. But as someone else said, these colors and packaging will certainly be brought out as part of another collection.

 

[Katie123]

i don't know about the name favela chic, i'm a native from rio de janeiro, home of the biggest favela in the world, rocinha, and two days ago 70, seventy, thieves armed with machine guns ran on the streets of that neighbourhood shooting aimlessly towards the buildings (it was 8am, people were still sleeping), the police and anyone that was around could've been hurt. that being said, i'm not taking direct offense of the fact that the restaurant is named that. first of all, one (if not two, i forget) of the owners is brazilian and knows fully well of our day to day reality. second of all, i do think sometimes people do it with good intentions and try to show the beauty of it, or even, a "beautyfied" version of some place or something that is usually seen as sad. that being said i don't think they intentionally ignored the reality in the favelas and just thought the name sounded good, specially knowing that the people involved are indeed brazilian and well familiar with the reality.

bear in mind, juarez is still a mexican city and a lot happens there apart from all the cruelty and violence. as i've said before, i DO think it's offensive but to be honest i consider two possibilities a) either the designers themselves had nothing to do with the name choice (MAC went up to them, suggest is 'oh it's a name of a city? cool, i like the sound of it, let's do it') or they went with the 'looking for beauty somewhere that's known for being sad' sort of thing.

i don't know, it's confusing and i think they should've released a clearer statement of facts before just pulling it altogether.


/end rant

 

[eternitygoddess]

rather a shame people are that sensitive. yes there is a lot that's going on down there,but perhaps the girls were just trying to search for a bit of beauty amongst the ugliness that exists there.

Please! People are so whiny. Everyone has to walk on eggshells these days. For God's sake, it's MAC! They have a pale pink lip gloss called 'underage'...it's always been a little edgy.

or they went with the 'looking for beauty somewhere that's known for being sad' sort of thing.

To put in in perspective, giving this line names such as "Juarez" and "Ghost Town" is the same as if MAC were to name the line "Auschwitz" and "gas chambers"; or "Chernobyl" and "radiation". Or "9/11" and "Twin Towers."

Not so tragically beautiful or worth "beautifying" anymore is it?

Juarez has been featured heavily in the media, as as another poster said, makeup companies spend a lot of time on deciding names, so I HIGHLY doubt MAC was unaware of the sensitivity of this name - which makes their decision to go ahead with it all the more disgusting.


The Juarez murders are not what I would lightly label as a "sad" situation. It is not something one should take lightly or "glamorized". Girls are being kidnapped, raped and murdered in horrific ways and numbers.

I encourage everyone to google Juarez first and read up on the situation that is going on before commenting on the MAC-Rodarte collaboration. It seems that a few of you don't quite grasp the magnitude of these murders.

 

[Nemova]

In case anyone is actually interested in knowing the dark, ugly truth about the femicides in Juárez, here's an article from 2003: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/ciudad_juarez/

 

[MulletProof]

^ thank you, Nemova.

The whole situation is just sad as it is frightening.. I don't think even the investigators have really come close to find out what type of organization is really behind it.

Jennifer Lopez produced a film on Juarez some years ago, now I know "J-Lo" has a certain reputation, which made me hesitant on watching the film but she really managed to capture and transmit the reality and risks and fear these young working women go through everyday. Here's the link if anyone wants to watch it.

As for the favela comparison a few posts above, I'm sure they're both distasteful but I think it's a violence that's bound to occur out of social segregation, which on different (smaller, bigger, mafia sponsored.. or not?) scales exists in most countries.. I can think of similar words for that in different places, from ghetto to barrio to villa miseria, it may not be as organized as in Rio but it exists mostly everywhere, it's loud and explicit and at least by word of mouth it often has a face, the problem is that it has not been controlled... I guess it's really expected someone will take the piss out of it, especially if you're a local and have learned to find humor on the whole situation (not the violence, but the lack of control by the people that are supposed to control it) and like you said, Katie, sort of find beauty or identity on such an unfortunate situation, too.

The Juarez murders are completely different, that's where the issue lies for me, like I said in the previous page, they're a series of attacks that target women only, of a certain ethnicity, a certain occupation, specific social class and follow horrific (and often identical) methods before killing them, it's been happening since around 20 years, NO ONE has taken responsibility for it (if you ignore decoys) and everyone has proved to be involved in some way (governments on both sides of the border included).
So, they're both sad situations but very distinct.. and I think even the Rodarte girls got confused about that too and thought what's happened to women in Juarez is what that exotic 'ghost' town in a country that celebrates the dead is just bound to do when it's actually an unsolved genocide that continues to this day.

 

[Katie123]

To put in in perspective, giving this line names such as "Juarez" and "Ghost Town" is the same as if MAC were to name the line "Auschwitz" and "gas chambers"; or "Chernobyl" and "radiation". Or "9/11" and "Twin Towers."

Not so tragically beautiful or worth "beautifying" anymore is it?

Juarez has been featured heavily in the media, as as another poster said, makeup companies spend a lot of time on deciding names, so I HIGHLY doubt MAC was unaware of the sensitivity of this name - which makes their decision to go ahead with it all the more disgusting.


The Juarez murders are not what I would lightly label as a "sad" situation. It is not something one should take lightly or "glamorized". Girls are being kidnapped, raped and murdered in horrific ways and numbers.

I encourage everyone to google Juarez first and read up on the situation that is going on before commenting on the MAC-Rodarte collaboration. It seems that a few of you don't quite grasp the magnitude of these murders.

i happen to know quite well what it's like to live in a city with a parallel power and feeling that you're a prisoner in your own home. as i said in the post, i went through a dangerous situation two days ago where i was woken up by gunshots that were so loud and continuous i thought they were fireworks.

i actually take offense in people coming here thinking that just because our opinions differ, it obviously means we didn't do our homework. i've already said before that i do understand why there's a reason to be offended by i don't think it should've been pulled, and tried to understand and argue why the company would do such thing since i agree they have enough money and structure to do a thorough research. And i don't think comparing a horrible event like 9/11 is the same as a TOWN, not just an event. juarez is much more than just all the horribleness that happens there.

i get extremely annoyed when people automatically think of crimes and sl*tty women when they mention Rio, since we're much more than that and we live our lives in this city, we don't just exist. As screwed up as the situation in Juarez is, as it's in Rio btw, where the crime and murder rates are sky-high, there are still people living there trying to make ends meet and i'm sure a constant reminder of how dangerous their city is is not something they enjoy. so maybe, just MAYBE they'd rather be seen differently at least once. that was just looking at it in a different angle and thinking maybe MAC didn't mean to rub their wounds and were actually trying to be nice but as you can obviously tell it backfired.

 

[Meg]

I think my point about favela's has been taken way out of context. I wasn't trying to draw an analogy between what happens in Juarez and what happens in favela's at all - my only point was that it was an example of someone taking something that is considered "exotic" and "dangerous" to outsiders and glamourizing it. And the Brazilian owners are playing to a foreign perception of favelas - not a Brazilian conception.

 

[Katie123]

i didn't think you were, i just noticed you bring up a favela topic and decided to compare it myself because it's something that's close to home for me and i do understand and not only discuss it after reading on the internet etc.

yeah i do think the owners did a foreign perception of the favelas, they opened the first one in paris, didn't they? that doesn't mean they don't understand about it!

 

[mimo]

As being someone that lives in a city next to Juarez (I can see it from my backyard), I understand why people might be offended by it. Its a problem that is happening everyday for the last couple of years. Just go to a website for any news paper in Juarez and you will see that lately around 10 people are killed everyday. There are real people in the city, not just criminals, and sadly they chose to focus on that. Really want to help the family of the girls? There are so many things in that city that could inspire a makeup collection. If it was to fit the collection, which had a lot of matte colors, why not focus on the dunes? There is a lot of rich culture in the El Paso-Juarez border but I guess controversy does sell.

 

[Katie123]

how do you know they focused on the criminals because they used matte colours?

 

[mimo]

how do you know they focused on the criminals because they used matte colours?

I said Rodarte's latest collection had a lot of matte colors, I never said matte colors had anything to do with criminals. If they wanted to pick something significant of the region, the dunes would have fit in perfectly with their collection.

 

[Katie123]

Oh i just assumed that when you said "There are real people in the city, not just criminals, and sadly they chose to focus on that." you were saying that they did the collection focusing on the criminals and the violence of the city, which we'll never know cos they never explained their inspirations and whatnot. I suppose the people who are definitely focusing on the criminality aspect of it are the ones criticising the name choice.

But i agree with you that the region's got a lot more to offer.

 

[masquerade]

Sorry but thats just an over reaction. Its not like they based the line on the violence that occured in this town and called a red lipstick 'murder'....

I think ghost town and factory sound cool...why would anyone be offended by that?

It may sound "cool" to you because you live with the privilege to not have to deal with this on a daily basis. For the people of Juarez, especially the women, this is something they deal with daily. To call makeup "ghost town", "factory", and "Juarez" when every day they have to deal with murders, rapes, and terrible working conditions. It diminishes their reality by commercializing it and making it into makeup that can only be afforded and access by the privileged.