Good PR

It’s been less than a month since clothing manufacturer supplier platform Sewport featured right here in this good PR column, yet here it is again.

I absolutely love all of the weird and wacky PR stories it is putting out right now, largely based around odd requests that people have apparently listed, that they need a designer or manufacturer to help them with.

Last time, it was the £60k per year job to be the CEO’s personal stylist and designer that hit the headlines and before that it was a lady looking to have her dead mother’s hair included in the design of her wedding dress.

This time, a woman has apparently listed on the site that she’d like someone to design and make her a handbag that featured the skin from her amputated leg. As you do.

Joan, apparently 55 and from Manchester, had an illness that meant part of her leg had to be removed and instead of letting it go to waste, she’s doing – well – this. Her budget is £3,000.

Again, I doubt that this is a legit posting; it’s much more likely to be one concocted to generate headlines and it’s done the job. I saw the story on the Metro, but it’s also on the Mirror, i News, some Manchester press and many other titles.

Bad PR

I don’t know about you, but whenever I see the latest fashion photos hot off the catwalk, my first thought is usually “WTF?! No one would ever wear that..!”

We’ve come to expect the off-the-wall, bizarre fashion trends (if that’s what you can call them) that often grace the catwalks, but Burberry took it several steps too far on the London Fashion Week runway on Sunday.

The high-end designer dressed a model in a hoodie that had a rope around the neck tied like a noose knot. Yes, awful.

With increasing suicide rates globally and a crisis particularly among young women and girls, a brand as influential as Burberry should have really thought this through, taken a good look at the design and though “this is absolutely not okay.”

A model named Liz Kennedy who was part of the Burberry show, but not the wearer of the hoodie in question, posted on Instagram to highlight the poor design choice:

The most alarming part of this for me is that she tried to flag this up in the dressing room and was allegedly told “it’s fashion. Nobody cares about what’s going on in your personal life so just keep it to yourself.”

Burberry has since issued an apology, but no fashion statement or show is worth making if you have to link it into suicide. All in all, this was a terrible move for the brand which has angered many people around the world and resulted in a load of negative media coverage.

Written by Shannon Peerless, 10 Yetis @ShazzaYeti on Twitter. Seen any good or bad PR lately? You know what to do @10Yetis on Twitter or andy@10Yetis.co.uk on email