Controversy and the fashion industry go together like a pair of stilettos with matching clutch. So when the South Korean fashion label, Lewitt, released a 3:34-minute commercial directed by Ryan McGinley wherein the protagonist runs through empty alleyways and abandoned buildings only to jump off a building multiple times — in multiple outfits, of course — to her apparent death, should we be shocked? It’s important to note that South Korea has one of the highest rates of female suicide in the developed world, with nearly 19 out of every 100,000 women killing themselves in 2008. South Korea’s own rising fashion model, Daul Kim, hung herself at the age of 20 last November. Perhaps this data is preciously why Lewitt made the commercial they did: they know scandal requires context, and scandal sells.
[via scallywagandvagabond]