French luxury house Louis Vuitton is in hot water for one of its latest men's scarves.
On its US website, the label offers a blue, jacquard-woven stole decorated with both the Vuitton monogram design and the distinctive checked pattern of the traditional keffiyeh. The scarf is priced at $705.
Louis Vuitton describes the scarf on its website as being "inspired by the classic keffiyeh and enriched with House signatures". The company says that the scarf, made from wool, cotton and silk, is lightweight and soft, and that it "creates an easygoing mood".
The backlash has been swift, however, with the industry watchdog Instagram account Diet Prada calling out Vuitton for the product, placing an image from Vuitton’s website alongside the Wikipedia definition of the keffiyeh.
The pattern is used as a traditional headscarf in the region, often worn by Arab men. It’s also regarded as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism, and solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
At the time of writing, the scarf in question was available on Louis Vuitton's US website, but not the UAE site.
With 2.7 million followers, Diet Prada regularly highlights issues of plagiarism, racism, sexual misconduct and cultural appropriation within the fashion industry, demanding high-profile figures, designers and brands take responsibility, apologise and, where appropriate, pay reparations.
What started as a small account in 2014 has grown to a serious fact-checker of the industry, and has been involved in many high-profile spats with major fashion brands.
This is not the first time Louis Vuitton has been called out. In February, it released the Jamaican Stripe Jumper, in homage to the Jamaican flag, but in the wrong colours.
Further down the fashion food chain, this week high-street stores Zara and Anthropologie faced claims of cultural appropriation for using traditional Mexican motifs.
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MATCH INFO
Everton 2 Southampton 1
Everton: Walcott (15'), Richarlison (31' )
Southampton: Ings (54')
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
