Jeremy Scott caused controversy as his designs for Adidas sneakers featuring shackles were pulled from production recently, the sneakers were unsurprisingly linked to references of slave era and deemed to be unacceptable for retail, and therefore, for the public, highlighting a particularly delicate zone between humor and offense that designers like Jeremy Scott choose to occupy, but how serious should fashion be? There is a sort of shaming process that designers are put through when making these crucial mistakes, and the weight of the fashion industry falls on them like a house of cards.

Read further with Robin Kawakami’s article for the Wall Street Journal here:

http://blogs.wsj.com/runway/2012/06/20/adidas-%E2%80%98shackle-sneakers-just-another-in-a-history-of-racial-fashion-flaps/?KEYWORDS=ROBIN+KAWAKAMI