Net-a-porter Suspends Dodo Bar Or Collection Due to Designer’s Video Post
LONDON — Net-a-porter has confirmed that it has suspended all merchandise from the Tel Aviv-based label Dodo Bar Or in response to the designer’s posting a video on her social media account that seemed to equate the Muslim call to prayer with terrorism.
Net-a-porter said it made the decision to suspend the label’s clothing because “discrimination, hate, and violence have no place on our platforms.”
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The retailer said in a statement to WWD that its policy “applies consistently to all brands we stock in all markets. After content appeared that was offensive and inflammatory, the brand in question has been suspended from our sites.”
On Tuesday, the Daily Mail reported that Net-a-porter and Mytheresa had withdrawn the brand’s merchandise after designer Dodo Bar Or “allegedly posted a video that compared Hamas to ISIS,” and suggested that “the West is next.” The post, the paper said, was accompanied by a video imitating a scene from the film “Independence Day.”
The video intercuts a scene from “Independence Day” with the Muslim call to prayer as the soundtrack and equates it with terrorism, Hamas and Isis as well as extreme violence.
Neither Mytheresa nor Dodo Bar Or responded to repeated requests for comment on Tuesday.
As reported last week, the European Commission has approved a long-awaited deal that will see Richemont sell a majority stake in Yoox Net-a-porter to Farfetch and Alabbar, YNAP’s longtime partner in the Middle East.
Europe’s competition watchdog unconditionally cleared the acquisition by Farfetch of a 47.5 percent stake in Yoox Net-a-porter in a decision that had widely been expected. A 3.2 percent stake will go to the UAE-based Alabbar.
The fashion brand was founded by Dodo Bar Or in 2014 and first gained traction for its Middle Eastern-inspired embroidered resortwear.
It has since added ready-to-wear to the mix, including more minimalist leather pieces and embellished evening dresses. The resort business has taken on a life of its own, with glamorous caftans and swimwear in vintage floral prints among Bar Or’s greatest hits.
She would later move into the lifestyle category, offering towels, umbrellas, beach bags on wheels and matching childrenswear. Bar Or, a mother of two, has in the past used her daughters as models for her look books.
Bar Or is a former actress who said she transitioned to fashion because she wanted to be more in charge of the full script.
“Now I can do it all, when I start to create a collection it feels like an entire play. I’m playing all the parts, I’m picking the music, the setting and telling the story in my own words,” she told WWD in 2019.
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