Vanessa Perilman, Zara’s head women’s designer, has come under fire for an extremely inflammatory Instagram message she sent to a male Palestinian model in 2021.
In light of a new controversial Zara campaign featuring imagery related to the current Israel-Palestine conflict, netizens dug up Perilman’s old message to Qaher Harhash and demanded a boycott of the brand.
Vanessa Perilman wrote to Harhash, a pro-Palestine advocate, in a direct message: “Maybe if your people were educated, then they wouldn’t blow up hospitals and schools that Israel helped to pay for in Gaza.”
Perilman, according to her official LinkedIn profile, is an industry veteran, having worked for brands such as Forever 21 and Calvin Klein. She is currently employed at Zara.
Vanessa Perilman is an accomplished fashion designer
Vanessa Ivy Perilman’s official LinkedIn page states that she is 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 expanded the women’s collection in every design category and even created “limited edition eveningwear collections” for specific stores and events around the world.
She leads the company’s apparel design direction team and manages a team of six designers, in addition to working with stylists and photographers for the brand’s campaign studio collections. Prior to Zara, she spent four months as a freelance head designer at Revolve, where she created a “new women’s wear collection and brand.”
Vanessa Perilman worked as a freelance senior designer for Michael Stars in Los Angeles in 2014, where she was in charge of the brand’s entire woven category for the 2015 Spring and Summer collection.
Vanessa, former Forever 21 Head Designer, now excels in freelancing
Perilman worked as a full-time Forever 21 Head Designer from 2011 to 2014 before venturing into the freelance market.
At Forever 21, she was in charge of “all soft wovens, including dresses and skirts.” She also gained experience communicating with the LA-based brand’s overseeing factories.
She worked as a womenswear woven senior designer at Club Monaco in New York before joining Forever 21, where she created, designed, and launched a beachwear collection.
Vanessa previously worked as a freelance designer at The Donna Karan Company (DKNY), where she collaborated directly with Donna Karan to design their URBAN ZEN line. She previously worked for Calvin Klein, where she designed all woven categories.
Her first position was as an associate designer for LANVIN, where she collaborated directly with creative director Alber Elbaz on the “2004/2005 winter collection in Paris.”
Qaher Harhash and Palestine vs. Vanessa Perilman and Zara
Vanessa Perilman faced a slew of criticism for her treatment of Palestinian model Qaher Harhash in June 2021. Harhash, a pro-Palestine supporter, frequently shows his love for his homeland through Instagram posts and stories. Perilman responded to one of his stories on June 9, 2021, 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 taken aback by such a response from someone in a high position at Zara, screenshotted and posted the text. Netizens were outraged by Perilman’s remarks and demanded the firing of the designer and a boycott of the brand.
Inditex, Zara’s parent company, even issued a statement claiming that it would not tolerate any “lack of respect” for any belief, culture, religion, race, or country. In a statement to NBC News, the company added:
“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.
Zara designer’s offensive message sparks backlash, death threats follow apology
Perilman later texted Harhash about his story, calling it “weird” that he would post anything about her job. She explained that she posted the text because many people had been “super mean at work” and had said horrible things about Jews, which she had taken out on him. Vanessa admitted that she felt “really bad” about it. She disclosed:
“Someone just wrote me in Arabic saying they will find me and murder my kids.”
These messages were also shared by the model on his Instagram stories. According to Newsweek, the designer repeatedly stated that she felt bad and that “this is not who I am.” Her final message to the model before deleting all of her social media accounts 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.”
Zara had requested that Qaher Harhash publicly share Vanessa’s apology, but he refused. He demanded that the brand “address Islamophobia” and treat the designers in the same way that they treated designers who said “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?”
Perilman is still employed at Zara as the brand’s head designer for its women’s collection.
Zara is under fire for a contentious photoshoot
Vanessa Perilman’s two-year-old comment was unearthed by netizens enraged by Zara’s new campaign, “ZARA ATELIER. Collection 04_The Jacket.” The “The Jacket” promotional photoshoot went viral for all the wrong reasons.
According to netizens, the Saturday photoshoot featured some disturbing imagery in the context of the current Israel-Palestine conflict.
Some of the images from the shoot showed mannequins dressed as bodies wrapped in white body bags, which bore a striking resemblance to traditional Muslim burial attire, according to social media users. Netizens compared it to the burial shrouds used to bury those who died in the grueling conflict.
In one of the images, American model Kristen McMenamy wearing “The Jacket” was seen carrying a body.
Even the cardboard cutout in the background amid the broken rubble, according to netizens, bears a striking resemblance to a map of Palestine. The majority of outraged netizens demanded that the brand be boycotted, but a few defended the shoot’s artistic integrity.
Zara, on the other hand, intended the post to be a “exercise in concentrated design” that highlighted the best aspects and “unlimited possibilities” of the brand’s “creative and manufacturing capabilities.”