MAC for Rodarte

It's not very often I feel sickened in the way I feel tonight. Let me explain...

A few days ago, I was reading US Vogue and was surprised to see a letter from a reader, outraged by the feature on Rodarte's A/W 2010 line, which was allegedly inspired by the Texan landscape. Weird, I thought, why is she that bothered? Reading on, it became clear that part of that landscape includes the Mexican border city of Juarez. The reader alluded to the female homicides and other atrocities that have become part of daily life in the city and suggested the collection was in sincere bad taste.

Imagine my absolute horror to read tonight that this bad taste has been sponsored by one of our favourite cosmetic brands. MAC and Rodarte have joined forces to create a make-up line inspired by the city, with products called Ghost Town and Sleepwalker.

Juarez is a town stricken with gun and gang crime, where women live in constant fear of being raped, tortured, kidnapped, mutilated and murdered. The rise of maquilladoras (factories), draws thousands of girls looking for work, albeit dangerous and poorly paid work. Imagine having to produce a used tampon to your boss, once a month to prove you're not pregnant, in a bid to keep your job. I'm not going to elaborate here any further on this as you can choose to read further here, if you wish.

The fact is, MAC have signed their name to, and developed a range of products that are, in effect, designed to replicate the gaunt, ill, despairing asthetic of these poor, poor women. I'm fairly certain MAC would not ever admit that's the purpose of the products, but you only need to see a few to see that is surely what they were aiming for....

MAC is a brand that women of all ages, races, colours and backgrounds look to for edgy, awesome cosmetics with a cool story behind them. Forgive me MAC, but modelling your range on women who risk their lives everyday to a weekly wage that wouldn't even buy one of your lipsticks, is without a doubt, absolutely disgusting. Ladies, any of you have daughters?? Interested to read that one of the products is named Quinceanera a latin term for a girl 'coming of age'?

I'm not going to tell you not to buy the range, if MAC decide to press ahead and actually sell it. But I hope you can read this and all these other blogs who have taken exception to this vile commercialism of destitution before hitting your nearest MAC store and creating another MAC epic sell-out range. If I haven't yet convinced you that passing on your hard-earned money to MAC for a product from this range would be criminal, you might be further interested to hear that MAC have suggested, in a statement released by them, that they will donate a portion of the proceeds from this collection. A portion?????????

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