How did nobody pick up on this at PL?!

I find them offensive.
Tsk Tsk on you Philip Lim.

seriously? come on it's a happy face on a black tote... lets not read too far into this... it's an ugly happy face tote bag... what you should be worried about is the people who actually think this is fashionable and pay way too much money for it.

if you don't like it then don't get it
and it does not look similar
i wouldn't of even noticed it if you haven't mentioned it

You

You know, at first it didnt seem like anything, just kind of silly. But then it came to me that it was a black face face. Its not that its looking too much into it, its that you didnt look enough. Its offensive and pointless.

Very offensive!

I don't think it's at all offensive. Like SheRocS said, it's just a happy face on a black tote. I really don't see the recemblance either.

this is the worst thing i have ever seen aside from the "obama is my slave" horror that some new york hipster trash tried to promote for his career. guess what? his career was ruined.

to think that a tarbaby and a blackface minstrel is appropriate in this day and age is appalling.

this is OBVIOUSLY based on blackface.

Philip Lim is awful. I refuse to buy any of his products. i hope his career withers and dies, like his taste and sense obviously have.

In France, right up to the 80s, there used to be a chocolate drink and on the packaging was a similar minstrel face a la Al Jolson urging people to taste 'exotica'. It took decades but eventually the packaging was banned as the majority of people found it offensive.It may seem harmless to some people but its also a slap in the face to others.
This is neither the time nor the place to preach but people please listen to Billy Holiday singing 'Strange Fruit'.

if looking at a picture of a smiley face with red lips (last time i checked thats usually what color they are) is offensive to you and all you can read from it is "black face" then you obviously have some sort of deep rooted racist issues. im black. i didnt find it offensive. i just saw a sexy version of the standard smiley face. i'm going to keep using this bag because i like it. and you're a dumb ass. get over yourself.

Not at all...

THIS BAG IS BASED ON ONE OF PL's MUSES- A MODEL, just because she's black doesn't mean PL's racist. Note, the beauty spot above the face's lip, note the face on PL's bag is female, not male and the eyelashes and pout make it more akin to Betty Boop, not blackface. Just because the face is black doesn't mean that it is racist. If anything it's more discriminating saying that it is racist. Think about it, you're only saying it looks like blackface because the bag is on black denim; if it were on white, there'd be no resemblance what so ever.... ok apart from the fact PL's face on the bag has red lips and so does blackface (what's so racist about red lipstick?)...
There is nothing about this bag that suggests that the face on it is a minstrel.
Racism is of course something that has to be addressed, known about and fought. and yes, Billy Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' sends this message well, but when a simple pouting face on black denim is labelled racist, it's just ridiculous.
If we can have white pouting faces on bags, why can't we have black faces on bags?

And if this bag really did have racist routes, the media would've been all over it.