Mental Health isn't fashion: Model protests over Gucci's 'straitjacket' collection

While being propelled along the runway/conveyer belt, Tan-Jones held up their hands to show the slightly-smudged message: "Mental Health is not Fashion."

Tan-Jones shared a video of their protest on Instagram along with a statement which slammed Gucci for using mental health for a "fleeting fashion moment."

Tan-Jones said that Gucci's outfits "alluding to mental patients" were in "bad taste."

Further, Tan-Jones stated, "Straight jackets (sic) are a symbol of a cruel time in medicine when mental illness wasn't understood, and people's lives and liberties were taken away from them, while they were abused and tortured in the institution."

They added, "Presenting these struggles as props for selling clothes in today's capitalist climate is vulgar, unimaginative, offensive to millions of people around the world."

However, Gucci defended the collection as the "blank-styled clothes" were the designer's own protest against how "through fashion, power is exercised over life, to eliminate self-expression."

After the straitjacket-inspired looks were paraded, the lights went out momentarily, and the designer presented the "antidote" as 89 models now strutted along the runway donning the vibrant spring/summer collection.

Gucci said the white clothing wouldn't be sold.

Meanwhile, the designer in question said at a press-conference, "A uniform is something that blocks and constrains you- that makes you anonymous. That makes you follow the direction of travel" adding that the straitjacket was "the highest type of uniform."

However, Gucci told The New York Times that since the show's theme was freedom, it's only fitting that the model should be free to protest.