The fashion industry has its own Rene Rezdepis

Why does fashion keep protecting abusive creative geniuses when other industries finally start to reckon with them?

By India Birgitta Jarvis

When New York Times reporter Julia Moskin published her investigation into the toxic work environment at Noma – the global hospitality brand and former Copenhagen-based institution five-times named Best Restaurant in the World – retribution, of a kind, came swiftly. Within five days Noma’s founder and executive chef René Redzepi had resigned his position at both the brand and the food education non-profit organisation MAD, which he had set up in 2011. Corporate sponsors including American Express and Blackbird withdrew support for a sold-out series of pop-up dinners in Los Angeles (although the series itself, which costs $1,500 a seat, has gone ahead, the luxury experience somewhat sullied by the presence of protestors outside its Silver Lake venue). Not only this, but Redzepi’s reputation is seemingly in tatters. The accusations levelled against the twenty-first century’s most influential chef were as far-ranging as jabbing his employees with sharp utensils, humiliation rituals reminiscent of Succession’s Boar on The Floor hazing game, and deplorable threats to have people and their families deported. The Times report, and the Instagram page of chef Jason Ignacio White where many of the alleged abuses were originally documented, make for upsetting reading.

Luxury goods and experiences which are built off the back of a culture of fear and punishment are a familiar concept to many employed in the fashion industry, and yet no matter the validity or veracity of the claims made by workers against their superiors – particularly those with significant creative clout – seldom do they lead to any kind of long-term repercussions for the perpetrator, or, as at Noma, meaningful amends for the victim. There are bad bosses everywhere, of course, but the parallels between the food and fashion industries are worth interrogating particularly.