After the Clean Clothes Campaign took to Versace’s Facebook page to protest the company’s use of sandblasted denim styles (which involves a process that has led to workers’ deaths, albeit not specifically for Versace), the luxury label responded by cutting off the public’s access to freely post on their Facebook wall.  However, now they’ve also abandoned the practice of sandblasting.

Current Versace advertising.  Image courtesy of Versace.

Beyond merely banning the practice within their own company, the Clean Clothes Campaign also noted in the Telegraph that Versace will join other brands, like Burberry and Gucci, in the call against sandblasting.

While it may not be what fashion houses had in mind when they embraced social media (and it seems Versace’s Facebook page is still closed to fans’ posts, though they are able to comment on the brand’s own updates) the results of the C.C.C.’s Versace Facebook campaign are a pretty momentous example of what can happen when labels open themselves up to public commentary.