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Zara's head women’s designer, Vanessa Perilman, has come under fire for an extremely inflammatory Instagram message she sent to a male Palestinian model back in 2021.
In light of a brand new controversial Zara campaign showcasing imagery related to the current Israel-Palestine conflict, Perilman's old message to Qaher Harhash was dug up by netizens who demanded the boycott of the brand.
Vanessa Perilman said in her DM to Harhash, a pro-Palestine advocate:
"Maybe if your people were educated, then they wouldn't blow up hospitals and schools that Israel helped to pay for in Gaza."
According to her official LinkedIn profile, Perilman is a veteran of the industry, having worked for brands like Forever 21 and Calvin Klein. She is currently working at Zara.
Vanessa Perilman is a veteran fashion designer
According to her official LinkedIn page, Vanessa Ivy Perilman works as the "Head Designer for the Zara Woman´s Collection," a position based in Spain that she has held for eight years, having obtained the role in 2015.
She has developed the women's collection in every area of design and has even designed "limited edition eveningwear collections" for specific stores and events across the globe.
Apart from working alongside stylists and photographers for the brand's campaign studio collections, she also leads the company's apparel design direction team and manages a team of six designers. Before Zara, she worked as a freelance head designer at Revolve for four months, where she developed a "new women's wear collection and brand."
Moving further back to 2014, Vanessa Perilman was a freelance senior designer for Michael Stars, Los Angeles, where she was in charge of the brand's complete woven category for the 2015 Spring and Summer collection.
Before heading into the freelance market, Vanessa was a full-time Forever 21 Head Designer for two and a half years, from 2011 to 2014.
While at Forever 21, she was in charge of the creation and design of "all soft wovens, including dresses and skirts." She also gained experience in communicating with the overseeing factories of the LA-based brand.
Before Forever 21, she worked as a womenswear woven senior designer at Club Monaco in New York, where she created, designed, and launched a beachwear collection.
Before Monaco, Vanessa held another freelance designer position at The Donna Karan Company (DKNY), where she worked directly with Donna Karan to design their URBAN ZEN line. Before DKNY, she was a Calvin Klein designer, where she designed all woven categories.
Her first job was as an associate designer for LANVIN, where she worked directly as an associate designer with creative director Alber Elbaz for the "2004/2005 winter collection in Paris."
Vanessa Perilman and Zara vs. Qaher Harhash and Palestine
Back in June 2021, Vanessa Perilman received a plethora of backlash for her behavior towards Palestinian model Qaher Harhash. Harhash, a pro-Palestine advocate, constantly showcases support for his homeland through his Instagram posts and stories. On June 9, 2021, Perilman responded to one of his stories with extremely inflammatory sentiments.
"Maybe if your people were educated, then they wouldn't blow up hospitals and schools that Israel helped to pay for in Gaza," she said.
She even alleged:
"I think it's funny that your (sic) a model because in reality that is against what the Muslim faith believes in and if you were to come out of the closet in any Muslim country you would be stoned to death."
Harhash, who was initially stunned at seeing such a response coming from a person holding a high position at Zara, screenshotted the text and posted it. Netizens were outraged by Perilman's comments and demanded the firing of the designer and a boycott of the brand.
Zara's parent company, Inditex, even released a statement claiming that it did not accept any kind of "lack of respect" for any belief, culture, religion, race, or country. The company further said in a statement to NBC News:
"Zara is a diverse company and we shall never tolerate discrimination of any kind."
"We condemn these comments that do not reflect our core values of respect for one another, and we regret the offense that they have caused," it added.
Perilman later texted Harhash regarding his story and told him that it was "weird" that he would post anything about her job. She revealed that she posted the text because many people had been "super mean at work" and told terrible things about Jews, which she took out on him. Vanessa stated that she felt "really bad" for doing so. She revealed:
"Someone just wrote me in Arabic saying they will find me and murder my kids."
The model also shared these messages on his Instagram stories. Newsweek reported that the designer repeated sentiments about her feeling bad and "this is not who I am" claims multiple times. Her last message to the model, before deleting all her social media, read:
"If you want to keep your posts of me on your stories, that is your right but just know, I am literally getting death threats about my children now."
Qaher Harhash revealed that Zara had asked him to publicly share Vanessa's apology, but he refused to do so. He demanded that the brand "address Islamophobia" and treat the designers the same way they treated designers who were fired for saying "antisemitic things." He stated:
"For me an apology means to fully acknowledge the pain or suffering you caused someone. She came into my DM's wrote hateful comments, why should I accept a half assed apology?"
As of now, Perilman still works at Zara as the brand's head designer for its women's collection.
Zara under fire for controversial photoshoot
Vanessa Perilman's two-year-old comment was dug up by netizens furious about Zara's new campaign, "ZARA ATELIER. Collection 04_The Jacket." The promotional photoshoot for "The Jacket" went viral for all the wrong reasons.
According to netizens, the photoshoot posted on Saturday showcased some unsettling imagery in the context of the current Israel-Palestine conflict.
Some of the images from the shoot featured mannequins that looked like bodies wrapped in white body bags, which, according to social media users, bore a heavy resemblance to traditional Muslim burial attire. Netizens equated this with the burial shrouds used to bury those who had lost their lives in the grueling conflict.
In one of the shots, American model Kristen McMenamy sporting "The Jacket" could be seen carrying a body.
Netizens claimed that even the cardboard cutout in the background amid broken rubble bore a heavy resemblance to the map of Palestine. A majority of disgusted netizens called for a boycott of the brand, but a few defended the shoot's artistic integrity.
However, Zara had intended the post to represent an "exercise in concentrated design" that showcased the best aspects and "unlimited possibilities" of the brand's "creative and manufacturing capabilities."
