Ghetto Chic

¶ … Headline: Favelization Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Museum The author argues that the image of the Brazilian favela is being misappropriated to market high fashions to non-Brazilians. The author argues that such usage of the favela as image is offensive, and beyond that it is also inaccurate with respect to what life in a favela is actually like.

The author, who never set foot in a favela other than on a guided tour for tourists, discusses this marketing impact, what it means for the companies using it, and what it might mean for the people who live in favelas. There is also a section on how the favela is becoming, increasingly, a sign of Brazilian identity, a phenomenon for which so-called favela chic is a symptom. Link: In possession of the author.

Global Issue: The global issue being discussed is the use of imagery relating to the poor in the marketing of high fashion. The marketing materials for a number of fashion products, including many that are distributed outside of Brazil, invoke the favelas or Brazilian slums. In some cases, the designer in question has some roots or connection to the favelas, but in other cases the connection is tenuous and potentially little more than marketing fantasy.

The problem, the author, notes is that there is something offensive about appropriating this imagery to help sell clothes and shoes, when none of the proceeds of those sales will actually benefit those who live in the slums. The author sees this practice as a form of the rich exploiting the poor, and raises her objections. The fashion world should have some sensitivity to this issue, in light of things like offshore production at sweatshops, and several incidents of cultural insensitivity in different corners of the industry (Zara, for example).

How does it relate to design? There is a complex relationship between this issue and design. The author's website highlights some of the specific examples of so-called favelization. These include designers with roots in the slums, and in one case a designer working with a charity in the favela that provides jobs for women in these areas.

In one sense, it is clear that the favela connection is something featured in the marketing, and where that connection is genuinely non-existent it would be a clear case of exploitation, of the type that designers should avoid in their marketing. However, the author's ire raises some interesting issues about the promotion of designers with such roots.

Designers come from all walks of life -- at what point is trading on elements of that life considered to be exploitative of a broader community? As we see designers emerge from underprivileged areas, this is an ethical issue that will occur.