WATCH: Russian Influencers Slash Chanel Bags After Designer Halts Sales Over Ukraine Invasion
Russian influencers and models have been cutting their Chanel bags in half to protest bans the luxury designer implemented following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to the disgruntled influencers, when they attempted to buy Chanel items while out of Russia, they were told it is the brand’s policy not to sell to customers who had plans to bring the products back to their home country.
“Since I often come to Dubai for Fashion Week, Chanel managers recognized me, approached me, and said: ‘We know that you are a celebrity in Russia, we know that you will take your purchases there, so we cannot sell you our brand items,'” Russian socialite Anna Kalashnikova said in a recent Instagram post, according to Insider.
Kalashnikova accused Channel of “Russophobia,” adding that she was unable to buy a pair of earrings and a handbag while at a Chanel outlet in Dubai.
“The actions of her legacy, her brand make you think about the biography of Coco Chanel. Supporting fascism and Russophobia is so low,” Kalashnikova added, also calling Coco Chanel the “mistress of a Nazi.”
While the Chanel founder did have links to Nazi Germany, Kalashnikova’s decision to highlight the brand’s past hits at the Russian government’s claim that they invaded Ukraine in order to expel Nazis from the Ukrainian government.
Russian model Victoria Bonya is also unhappy with Chanel’s ban, taking to Instagram to show herself cutting one of their bags in half:
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“Never seen any brand acting so disrespectful towards their clients as [Chanel] #byebyeCHANEL,” she wrote in the caption.
TV host and actor Marina Ermoshkina also cut up a dark grey Chanel handbag, with garden shears as her weapon of choice.
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“Not a single bag, not a single thing is worth my love for my Motherland,” she wrote in her caption, according to Insider. “It’s not worth my respect for myself. I am against Russophobia, I am against a brand that supports Russophobia.”
“Chanel is just an accessory,” she added. “An accessory that at some point decided to humiliate people, my compatriots, decided to discriminate against people on the basis of nationality, which I will not tolerate. After all, the main thing is principles, and not what is in your hands, but what is inside you.”
Russian DJ Katya Guseva followed suit and filmed herself destroying a black handbag with metal and pearl chains attached to it.
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“I always dreamed that a Chanel handbag would appear in my wardrobe, and it happened last year,” she wrote in her caption, according to Insider. “But after I learned about the brand’s policy towards Russians, I decided to remove these bags from my daily life until the situation changes.”
“I am against Russophobia, I am against the brand, which supports Russophobia and discrimination against women based on nationality. We Russian girls are beautiful whether we have a Chanel bag or not,” she continued.
Insider reported that a representative for Chanel stated that the luxury brand complies with “all laws” applicable to its operations and employees.
“This is why we have rolled out a process to ask clients for whom we do not know the main residency to confirm that the items they are purchasing will not be used in Russia,” the representative said.
“We recognize that this process of walking through the law has caused disappointment to some of our clients. We are currently working on improving this approach and we apologize for any misunderstanding this may have caused, as welcoming all our clients, regardless of where they come from, is a priority for Chanel.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
