Dolls Kill is one of the most popular online alternative fashion brands, perhaps best known for dressing half of Coachella. The brand was established in 2011 by former DJ Shoddy Lynn, and her husband Bobby Farahi. The brand prides itself on outfitting the misfits of the world, selling clothes within the kawaii, goth, punk, festival and streetwear cultures. It’s grown enormously in popularity since it’s inception and currently has 3.2 million followers on Instagram.
Dolls Kill entered into hot water last week when Lynn posted a photo of police officers in riot gear in front of the Los Angeles storefront with the caption, “Direct action in its glory,” to her personal Instagram. In an Instagram TV video posted to the Dolls Kill page, Lynn explained that the post was intended to show her solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, however, many fans on social media interpreted the post differently.
Shortly after the post began gaining attention, Dolls Kill released a statement on Instagram with the caption, “We fucked up. We should have been quicker + louder and this is what we r doing about it,” and announced they would be committing $1 million to buying clothing from black-owned fashion brands. They also announced that they’d be donating $100,000 to the NAACP, as well as matching all employee donations.
Many celebrities and influencers have called out the brand, including SZA, Rico Nasty, Elijah Daniel and Willam Belli. Broken Promises and Killstar, brands who’ve sold their products on Dolls Kill for many years, have also cut ties with the retailer, sharing the news on their Instagram pages.
Lynn posted a second IGTV video on June 8th addressing some of the comments from her first video, specifically discussing two products formerly sold on the site. One of these products was a t-shirt that read “Goth is White,” from the brand WIA . “According to the brand, their intent was to say that goths can wear any color and not just black,” Lynn explains. Another item mentioned in the video was a Native American headdress sold with a Halloween collection in 2011. “It was culturally insensitive and inappropriate to sell,” Lynn says of the headdress. “At the time, which is now more than six years ago, a customer service rep answered some complaints and one of them was answered pretty immaturely and it was pretty embarrassing.”
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