ROMBAUT‘s latest AW24 Resonance Campaign, “The Surgery,” presents a shocking contradiction to its claim of being a vegan brand. Despite Rombaut’s alleged commitment to animal welfare, the campaign’s content paints a different picture. The images show a disturbing scene of a horse upside down in pain during surgery, with the horse’s genitalia visible, while the “veterinarians” in the shot wear blood red ROMBAUT shoes. The creative direction is attributed to Mats Rombaut, Berre Brans, and Victor Vidal-Mar, with photography by Marc Souvenir, and the location set at Equitom Equine Clinic, a Belgian horse clinic specializing in treating sick and injured horses.
While the clinic’s role may focus on the medical care and rehabilitation of animals, the use of real-life suffering for a fashion campaign is deeply unsettling. This raises questions about Rombaut‘s ethical stance. The campaign exploits the horse’s suffering, using its vulnerability as an artistic device. This does not align with a truly vegan ethos, which emphasizes the avoidance of all forms of exploitation and cruelty toward animals.
The backlash from the vegan community has been swift, as many see this campaign as clear evidence that Rombaut is not an ethically vegan brand, and are now calling for a boycott. The emotional distress and physical pain experienced by the horse, compounded by the inappropriate use of medical procedures as part of a fashion statement, demonstrate a blatant disregard for the very principles of animal welfare that veganism advocates.
ROMBAUT, along with those involved in the campaign – creative directors Mats Rombaut, Berre Brans, and Victor Vidal-Mar, photographer Marc Souvenir, and the Equitom Clinic staff – are now facing rightful criticism for their part in the exploitation of animals under the guise of fashion.
