There is a time and place for everything, but it seems some famous visitors to China’s Forbidden City didn’t get the memo.
American fashion designer, Rick Owens, his wife Michele Lamy, as well as two other designers were asked to leave the site due to ‘inappropriate dressing’.
The two designers, Hannah Rose Dalton, and Steven Raj Bhaskaran are the creative brains and co-owners of the curiously named Canadian-based fashion label, Fecal Matter.
Yes, we know what it means.
In a picture posted online, both Hannah and Steven were seen wearing heavy make-up along with avant-garde pieces from their collection.
While there is no official dress code to enter the Forbidden City, visitors are reminded to be properly dressed.
Fecal Matter took to Instagram to vent to their followers, saying security had told them to “remove [their] make-up and change into normal clothes” before they could be allowed in.
The group refused to do so and left the site.
Describing the incident as “humiliating and dehumanising”, they tried to gain sympathy by saying, “it’s the price we pay for being ourselves without compromising values.”
“We know many of you experience this and aren’t allowed in public spaces around the world due to your visual expression, even if you aren’t doing anything wrong,” they added.
The duo also said videos of security escorting them out were filmed by Rick.
However, many netizens agreed with the Forbidden City’s decision to deny them entry and took to both Fecal Matter’s and Rick Owen’s social media to express their displeasure.
“Respect the places you want to visit. If you cannot do it because of your ‘identity’, then just don’t go there,” read a comment.
Another wrote, “It is their freedom to dress how they like, and it’s the Forbidden City’s freedom not to let them in.”
An opinion piece in a Beijing daily also supported the Forbidden City’s decision, writing: “Respect is mutual. In this case, it’s clearly not that these people’s freedom to dress is not respected, but rather that they don’t respect Chinese history and culture.”
Sounds about right to us.