The fashion brand is apologizing to the Gypsy, Roma and Traveler community for using the “sad and dangerous image” of a turbaned magician to promote its new range.
Snag Tights, based in Livingston, West Lothian, recently launched a collection of tarot cards and witchcraft clothing.
The company, which has an annual turnover of more than £45 million, insisted its aim was to honor Scottish women who had been silenced and accused of witchcraft centuries ago for “stepping out of what was expected of them”.
Instead, it drew criticism for promoting a comedy video that was accused of using culturally insensitive imagery. Brie Read, chief executive of Snag, confirmed the video, which has since been taken down, showed “a tarot reader in a 1920s burlesque turban in front of a velvet backdrop and smoke machine”.
He said: “My person in this video is a tarot reader and he loves his work very much. “Our idea was to give it the elegance of the 1920s, which was the important day of the tarot.
“We realized we didn’t want to fall into the crosshairs, and we thought we could embellish it a little bit. We were so wrong.”
Bala, 43, said members of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveler community had contacted the company to raise concerns about the images. He said: “We realized that all the plans of the world don’t matter.
If it could be considered as a manipulation of the Romanian culture, that is something very sad and dangerous for that society.
“I hate hurting people and we learned a lot from that experience and we continue to learn and grow as people.”
Read the links posted to public representatives and organizations on social media as part of the public apology.
“Even if we didn’t intend to rely on dangerous caricatures, that’s how it got to people who live with that reality every day,” he said in his apology. “History is something we all need to know more about and we’re taking the time to get involved now.”
Professor Margaret Greenfields, of Anglia Ruskin University, an expert on marginalized groups, said the image was inaccurate and unhelpful. He said: “We know that theories linking the Romani and the Nomadic people with divination and magic began to appear in late antiquity and modern Europe.”
“Although there is evidence that some women have sometimes engaged in traditional divination practices, such as palmistry or divination, to help their families financially, expert evidence shows that the images of ‘Gypsy’ women looking into crystal balls or reading tarot cards, which are very common in art, are inaccurate, inaccurate.”
He insisted that members of the community work in many professions “from lawyers to health professionals, hairdressers, academics, musicians, teachers, social workers and cleaners”, adding: “Yet in the public imagination they are often reduced to ‘witches’ who undermine independence, independence and dignity.”
Community members applauded the firm for publicly showing repentance. Emily Ramsay, a lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, said: “Thank you for listening to my fellow countrymen, our culture is not a dress.
Freddie Le Brun, writer and artist, said: “Thank you for taking responsibility and learning.”
Snag is now promoting its Tarot collection with images of the model wearing a pointed witch’s hat and holding a crystal ball.
Tarot cards first appeared in Italy in the 15th century, where they were used in a game similar to bridge. It wasn’t until the 1780s that the tarot became associated with divination and witchcraft, with false suggestions that arose in ancient Egypt.
In recent years tarot has become more and more fashionable, especially among young women, after the introduction of TikTok videos. Studies show that young people are increasingly embracing astrology and other “spiritual” practices in an effort to find meaning and order in an increasingly chaotic world.
Christina Ricci, a Hollywood actress, announced her tarot deck that “incorporates a dark version of feminine magic”.
#sad #kind #fashion #Gypsy #images #tarot #advertising #purposes