- Italian fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli recently hosted a slew of tech executives at his home in Solomeo, Italy.
- But an image posted from the summit is being slammed after it was revealed that the two women present were added into the photo after the fact.
- The fashion house said in a statement that the doctored photo was created “when we realized we didn’t have a shot where all attendees were represented,” it had been approved by all the participants before it was posted, and that it “meant no harm or had any malicious intent.”
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A photo featuring Italian fashion designed Brunello Cucinelli and a slew of tech executives is being slammed online for Photoshopping in the only two female executives present.
The photo, which Cucinelli posted to his personal Instagram account on May 30, features familiar faces like Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was also reportedly present, but is not in the photo).
But if you look closely, something appears to be off with the two female executives pictured, Peek CEO Ruzwana Bashir and Sunrun co-CEO Lynn Jurich. See for yourself:
The photo took place at what was nicknamed the Solomeo Summit in Solomeo, Italy. According to GQ, Cucinelli invited the crew of tech elites to his hometown to talk about how to make the world a better place, to eat, and to take walks in nature.
GQ spoke with Cucinelli and one of his guests, Nextdoor cofounder Nirav Tolia, after the summit, publishing a deep dive into why Silicon Valley is so obsessed with Cucinelli.
But on Wednesday morning, BuzzFeed reporter Ryan Mac noticed that the image had been Photoshopped:
Business Insider reached out to Brunello Cucinelli’s press line and received the following statement:
The gathering was an informal affair between friends where we captured some group photos. When we realized we didn’t have a shot where all attendees were represented, we added in photos of two female CEOs taken during the weekend. The photos were shared and approved with all the participants including the two women, Lynn Jurich and Ruzwana Bashir, before posting them on Instagram and they also shared the group photo on their own instagram handles. We meant no harm or had any malicious intent in doing this and we are sorry.
GQ has since removed the image from its post, saying the photo “did not meet GQ’s editorial standards.”
While the Photoshopped image appears to have been an odd workaround for forgetting to take a group photo at the summit, it points to a larger issue: there were only two women present at the event in the first place.
While Photoshop fails can happen to anyone, including more women in the event in the first place might have avoided the issue altogether.
Brunello Cucinelli
Solomeo Summit
Drew Houston
Jeff Bezos
