Pyer Moss Wants Us to … Loot?

Pyer Moss is celebrating a decade this month but isn’t doing a show or party to celebrate the milestone. Instead, it’s hosting a “loot-out.” What’s a loot-out, you may ask? Exactly what it sounds like: a shopping event at which people are encouraged to loot. The brand posted a video to its Instagram page yesterday featuring an AI host who asks, “Have you ever wanted to feel like a real-life criminal? This is your chance.” Ironic from a brand that sent shirts down the runway reading, “Stop calling 911 on the culture”? Maybe. But we digress.

The looting event “draws inspiration from the luxury fashion industry’s global decline, the burgeoning dupe culture, and the recent looting sprees across America,” according to the Pyer Moss website. The brand’s type of looting, however, has rules and tickets priced at $100 and $300. For the $100 ticket, you will have access to a one-minute experience of looting during which you’re allowed to leave the undisclosed location with everything you can possibly put on your body. For $300, you will have a slightly more extended five-minute experience. The clothes available for looting will include unreleased apparel, footwear, archival collections, and runway samples.

Kerby Jean-Raymond founded Pyer Moss in 2013 on the premise of celebrating Black culture. His first show in 2015 featured graphic cell-phone and body-cam footage of police brutality against Black men. But in the ten years since, things have taken a turn. Aside from collaborations with Canada Goose and Reebok, the brand hasn’t released a new collection in over a year.

The shopping looting event takes place on December 21 and 22, right before the holidays, quite an oxymoron. The comments under the video on Instagram are mixed. While some people think it’s “genius” and “high art,” other comments call out how problematic it is. “Why would you do this or encourage this behavior? This is so fucked up. Our culture is so backwards and upside down. So why promote this?” one commenter wrote. Another said, “Black people are not criminals; why is this funny? Y’all want to laugh and make light but stealing isn’t ok. The people who work at stores, living on [minimum] wages lose their jobs when people do this; why can’t we do better? Support the culture by putting your money into black businesses. This is a fail but good for you getting clicks.”

Ten years in, it seems there’s still a lot for Pyer Moss to learn.