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MAC has cancelled its Rodarte collaboration, which was inspired by the Mexican factory town of Juarez. The brand announced via Facebook yesterday that it has made the decision not to sell the products.
The collection, which was slated to launch in September, first came under fire last month when a blogger criticised the Mulleavy sisters for calling a nail polish colour "Juarez," after "an impoverished Mexican factory town notorious for the number of women between the ages of 12 and 22 who have been raped and murdered with little or no response from police." Juarez's connection with a range of beauty was also suggested by product names like Ghost Town and Factory.
Rodarte and MAC apologised, saying they would change the names and donate 100% of the proceeds from the collection to benefit the women and girls of Juarez, but yesterday, the brand went further and posted the following on its Facebook page:
"Out of respect for the people of Mexico, the women and girls of Juarez and their families, as well as our MAC Mexican staff and colleagues, MAC has made the decision not to ship the MAC Rodarte limited edition make-up collection. This decision will have no impact on MAC's commitment to donate all of its projected global profits from this collection to local and international groups that work to improve the lives of the women and girls of Juarez. We are currently conducting due diligence to ensure we donate to organizations with a proven record of directly supporting the women and girls of Juarez. MAC and Rodarte are deeply and sincerely sorry and we apologize to everyone we offended."
Read the full statement here.
What do you think? Did MAC do the right thing?