For the first time in its history, Prada has chosen a Palestinian ambassador, the musician Saint Levant.

Of course, the controversy quickly erupted on social media, sparked by a detail in the artist's outfit at Milan Fashion Week.

The young Palestinian artist Saint Levant has just become an ambassador for Prada. The announcement took place during Milan’s Men’s Fashion Week, where Prada unveiled its Spring/Summer 2027 Men’s collection.

In posts and videos published Thursday on Prada’s official social channels to announce the partnership, the singer appears in a black suit and a necklace. A detail, the necklace, that has caught the public’s attention, raising the predictable controversy: the necklace is shaped like historic Palestine, the country prior to the Nakba of 1948, that is, before the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land by the militias and troops of the emerging State of Israel.

The choice related to the accessory has sparked outrage among many Israeli users and pro-Israel activists, who accused the singer of wanting to “erase” the Jewish state, threatening to boycott Prada. On X, a user commented: “The Prada brand and Palestinian musician Saint Levant are promoting their product by wearing a pendant with a fake map of Palestine (from the river to the sea). If Prada supports the EXTINCTION of Israel, we support not buying from Prada.” Israeli activist and writer Hen Mazzig also weighed in on the issue, arguing that the pendant effectively erases his country: “If an Israeli, or any Jew, wore a pendant that included Gaza, the outrage would be immediate. But erasing Israel, ‘from the river to the sea,’ gets a luxury campaign.”And further, “Prada must be canceled for supporting people who want to eradicate Israel, which is usually defined as genocide.”Despite attempts by pro-Israel accounts to overshadow the campaign, the initiative has achieved notable success, quickly nearing 100,000 likes, with hundreds and hundreds of comments in favor of Prada, Saint Levant, and Palestine. Writer and content creator Ruqaiya Haris also commented on the stylistic choice, explaining: “I think it is definitely significant for Prada to celebrate Palestinian heritage, national identity, and the homeland cherished by those living in the diaspora, showing that map around Saint Levant’s neck.These decisions in the fashion world do not happen by chance; every aspect of the look is curated with extreme attention to detail.” 

While this statement is true, and brands are very attentive to what their ambassadors wear, especially during a social exposure moment like the fashion show, Prada has not officially commented on the news, and as far as can be learned so far, the “incriminating” pendant is an accessory owned by the singer himself, and not part of a collection from the brand.

For the artist, fashion is not uncharted territory. Already in 2023, he became the first ambassador for Dior fragrances in the Middle East. Furthermore, his collaboration closely follows that of Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid, who became a global beauty ambassador for Prada in March. But while Hadid was born in Washington, Saint Levant represents a historic first; he is the first ambassador of the Italian house to be born in Palestine itself. Marwan Abdelhamid, this is the artist’s real name, was born in Jerusalem to a Franco-Algerian mother and a Palestinian-Serbian father, grew up in Gaza before his family moved to Jordan in 2007, and then studied and made his way in the United States, where he became famous only in 2022 thanks to the viral success of Very Few Friends, a song that blended traditional Arabic music with R&B and hip-hop. Marwan sings and raps seamlessly switching from Arabic to English and from English to French, often mixing all three languages within the same piece.