Fashion Moments That Sparked Controversy

We've all witnessed controversial fashion moments in our own lives. From the woman who wore a white dress to a wedding where she wasn't the bride and that guy with a baseball cap at a funeral, to the person who isn't quite wearing enough clothing at a religious service. But when those mistakes are in the public eye and you are a celebrity or major brand, the outcry can be far worse than a few nasty stares and whispers. Here are some examples of headline-making fashion faux pas that sparked controversy, public outcry, and tens of thousands of tweets. Will anyone ever learn?

Sitting on a gold wheelchair, Kylie Jenner appeared wearing a black patent leather bustier and not much more on the cover of Interview magazine. When the issue hit the newsstands in December 2015, disability advocates were outraged. Ian Ruder, senior editor of New Mobility, the member publication of United Spinal Association, told People, "It's disappointing to see people fall back on the tired and totally untrue idea that being in a wheelchair is limiting. I think most wheelchair users, myself included, would tell you that our wheelchairs are empowering and enable us to fully live our lives."

However, Interview gave a statement to People, defending the cover as art. "At Interview, we are proud of our tradition of working with great artists and empowering them to realize their distinct and often bold visions. The Kylie Jenner cover by Steven Klein, which references the British artist Allen Jones, is a part of this tradition, placing Kylie in a variety of positions of power and control and exploring her image as an object of vast media scrutiny."

While the publication didn't apologize, they said they didn't set out to be hurtful, "Our intention was to create a powerful set of pictures that get people thinking about image and creative expression, including the set with the wheelchair, but our intention was certainly not to offend anyone."

Kendall and Kylie Jenner might be big fans of the Notorious B.I.G. However, they showed their love in an interesting way when they used an unauthorized image of the slain rapper on the t-shirt for their Kendall & Kylie collection in June 2017.

Biggie's mother Voletta Wallac took to Instagram to express her outrage. "I am not sure who told @kyliejenner and @kendalljenner that they had the right to do this. The disrespect of these girls to not even reach out to me or anyone connected to the estate baffles me. I have no idea why they feel they can exploit the deaths of 2pac and my Son Christopher to sell a t-shirt. This is disrespectful, disgusting, and exploitation at its worst!!!"

Kendall and Kylie responded on Twitter, both posting the same message, which was, "These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologize to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists. We are huge fans of their music and it was not our intention to disrespect these cultural icons in anyway [sic]. The tee shirts have been pulled from retail and all images have been removed. We will use this as an opportunity to learn from these mistakes and again, we are very sorry."

Lady Gaga is known for her controversial fashion choices and perhaps no fashion choice is more infamous than her meat dress from the 2010 MTV VMAs. But the dress wasn't just a wardrobe choice — it was intended as a protest against the U.S. government.

PETA expressed their disgust for the singer on their blog, saying, "Wearing a dress made out of cuts of dead cows is offensive enough to bring comment, but someone should whisper in her ear that there are more people who are upset by butchery than who are impressed by it — and that means a lot of young people will not be buying her records if she keeps this stuff up."

But Gaga's intention was a little different than many people assumed. In an interview with vegan talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, Gaga revealed her dress was meant to bring attention to the rights of LGBTQ soldiers in the military. "It's certainly no disrespect to anyone that's vegan or vegetarian. As you know, I'm the most judgment-free human being on the Earth. It has many interpretations, but for me this evening it's, 'If we don't stand up for what we believe in, if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones.'"

In 2002, Abercrombie and Fitch made people cringe when they released several t-shirts that depicted Asian stereotypes: "Wong Brothers Laundry Service — Two Wongs Can Make It White," "Wok-N-Bowl — Let the Good Times Roll — Chinese Food & Bowling," and "Abercrombie and Fitch Buddha Bash — Get Your Buddha on the Floor."

Michael Chang, the vice chairman of Stanford's Asian American Students Association at the time, told the SF Gate, "It's really misleading as to what Asian people are. The stereotypes they depict are more than a century old. You're seeing laundry service. You're seeing basically an entire religion and philosophy being trivialized."

Abercrombie spokesperson Hampton Carney responded to the publication saying, "We personally thought Asians would love this T-shirt. We are truly and deeply sorry we've offended people." But the apology was thinly veiled. Carney continued, "We never single out any one group to poke fun at. We poke fun at everybody, from women to flight attendants to baggage handlers, to football coaches, to Irish Americans to snow skiers. There's really no group we haven't teased."

Sometimes a controversial fashion moment contains no fashion at all. At least this was the case for Miley Cyrus who appeared topless with a draped cloth covering her chest on the cover of the May 2009 issue of Vanity Fair. Shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, Cyrus told People she wasn't happy with the end result. "My goal in my music and my acting is always to make people happy. For Vanity Fair, I was so honored and thrilled to work with Annie [Leibovitz]. I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed."

She added, "The pictures of me on the Internet were silly, inappropriate shots. I appreciate all the support of my fans, and hope they understand that along the way I am going to make mistakes and I am not perfect. I never intended for any of this to happen and I am truly sorry if I have disappointed anyone."

Cyrus was starring on The Disney Channel's Hannah Montana at the time. Needles to say, their executives weren't exactly thrilled and gave their own statement to People. "Unfortunately, as the article suggests, a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines."

One can only wonder why JCPenney would sell a shirt that says "I'm too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me," on their website. To make matters worse, according to The Frisky, the caption for the product read "Who has time for homework when there's a new Justin Bieber album out? She'll love this tee that's just as cute and sassy as she is." 

Lauren Todd was so disturbed by this shirt that she created a petition to "Tell JCPenney to stop promoting sexist messaging to girls." It garnered a total of 1,620 signatures.

The company responded by issuing a statement. "We agree that the 'Too pretty' t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message, and we have immediately discontinued its sale," the statement said. "Our merchandise is intended to appeal to a broad customer base, not to offend them. We would like to apologize for any concern we may have caused and assure you that we are taking action to ensure that we continue to uphold the integrity of our merchandise that [our customers] have come to expect."

Even royalty can be guilty of an outfit repeat or two, but Kate Middleton is a serial offender of this fashion rule. According to Fashionista, the Duchess of Cambridge has a grey tweed Michael Kors coat that simply can't part with. 

In 2014, she was spotted wearing it throughout her tour of Australia and New Zealand. Two years later she was photographed wearing it again at the opening of the Magic Garden playground at Hampton Court Palace. That same day she repeated another one of her outfits, wearing a pastel blue Roksanda Ilincic dress to a charity luncheon at the Anna Freud Centre. According to Elle, Middleton wore the same dress at least four times from 2011 to 2016. Perhaps she donated the money she was going to spend on something new. Then again, who really cares if you wear the same outfit more than once?