• Gucci unveiled its Spring/Summer 2020 collection during a fashion show in Milan, Italy, on Sunday.
  • The show included a range of uniform-inspired clothing, as well as some pieces that resembled straitjackets.
  • Ayesha Tan-Jones, a nonbinary model who walked during the show, protested the latter garments by holding up their hands to reveal the message “mental health is not fashion” written in pen.
  • On Instagram, Gucci said the jackets were meant to be “a statement for the fashion show and will not be sold.”
  • Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

A model took a stand against Gucci’s newest styles while modeling in the brand’s Spring/Summer 2020 fashion show on Sunday.

Ayesha Tan-Jones stepped out on the runway during Milan Fashion Week wearing a white pantsuit from Gucci. While their ensemble looked like an oversized work uniform, other garments seen during the show resembled straitjackets.

In protest of the latter garments, Tan-Jones held up their hands during the show, revealing the words “mental health is not fashion” written in pen.

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Foto: Ayesha Tan-Jones protests during Gucci's Spring/Summer 2020 fashion show in Milan.sourceJacopo Raule/Stringer/Getty Images

On Instagram, Tan-Jones shared a video of themselves on the runway, as well as a statement about their protest.

"I chose to protest the Gucci S/S 2020 runway show as I believe, as many of my fellow models do, that the stigma around mental health must end," Tan-Jones wrote.

"As an artist and model who has experienced my own struggles with mental health, as well as family members and loved ones who have been affected by depression, anxiety, bipolar, and schizophrenia, it is hurtful and insensitive for a major fashion house such as Gucci to use this imagery as a concept for a fleeting fashion moment," they continued.

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Gucci says it used the straitjackets to make 'a statement' and doesn't intend to sell them

While the brand did not directly respond to Tan-Jones, Gucci did share its own statement on Instagram.

"Uniforms, utilitarian clothes, normative dress, including straitjackets, were included in the Gucci S/S 2020 fashion show as the most extreme version of a uniform dictated by society and those who control it," the brand wrote.

"These clothes were a statement for the fashion show and will not be sold," the brand continued. "Alessandro Michele designed these blank-styled clothes to represent how through fashion, power is exercised over life, to eliminate self-expression."

"This power prescribes social norms, classifying and curbing identity," Gucci said. "The Creative Director's antidote is seen in the Gucci Spring Summer 2020 lineup of 89 looks. He has designed a collection that conveys fashion as a way to allow people to walk through fields of possibilities, cultivate beauty, make diversity sacrosanct and celebrate the self in expression and identity."

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Speaking to the New York Times, Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele said he wanted the Spring/Summer 2020 collection to show how "Gucci can be the antidote" to restricted individuality.

"I wanted to show how society today can have the ability to confine individuality and that Gucci can be the antidote," Alessandro told the New York Times. "For me, the show was the journey from conformity to freedom and creativity."

"Uniforms, utilitarian clothes, such straitjackets, were included in the fashion show as the most extreme version of restriction imposed by society and those who control it," he continued. "These clothes were a statement for the fashion show and part of a performance."

The New York Times also reports that because the fashion show "was partly about freedom," the brand "felt the model should be free to protest."

gucci straitjacket

Foto: Straitjacket-inspired clothes from Gucci.sourceVictor Boyko/Stringer/Getty Images

When asked for comment, representatives for Gucci referred Insider to its Instagram page, as well as Michele's interview with the New York Times. Representatives for Ayesha Tan-Jones did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.