This image is a famous banned ad from Gucci’s 2003 ad campaign under the direction of Tom Ford. It depicts a woman against the wall with her arms spread, the image cuts off from just under her breast up. She is wearing a green and black kimono and teal underwear. The thumb of her left hand is hooked into the top of the waistband of her underwear, revealing her pubic hair which is formed into the shape of a G. Kneeling in front of her is a man with hair down to his chin. He is wearing a baby pink and blue silk bomber jacket with white pants. His hand is placed on her knee and he is glancing at the G that she has revealed to him. Both of them seem to be in their early twenties, at the latest. I think what Tom Ford and the creators of this image are trying to convey is that Gucci is a sexy brand for young people. The ad is inherently sexual and drew considerable backlash, which led to it being banned in the U.K. I think the way the creators of this image think about bodies is very apparent in the bodies present, the eurocentric concept that only young white people are attractive. “This is because up until very recently, plus-size fashion has been regarded as both patently unfashionable and commercially risky, if not irresponsible. If the high priest and priestess of fashion — Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour — declared as late as the aughts that “nobody wants to see curvy women on the runway.” (Peters, 2018)
