The last week has seen brands flock to social media to declare their support for #BlackLivesMatter – including Italian label Salvatore Ferragamo. But after the brand’s post – which featured a caption quoting Nelson Mandela and the words “Racism must end now” – 13 Reasons Why actor Tommy Dorfman has come forward to share what they say is their experience of working with the brand.

Dorfman, who worked as a photographer on a campaign with Ferragamo earlier this year, alleged that “the people who run this company are racist, transphobic and are not body-positive. They will say ‘But we have cast Black people and trans people’ which is true, but only by force of hand… And they fail to treat them equally.” The actor’s claims were made in a series of Instagram stories in which they shared Ferragamo’s Black Lives Matter post. The stories were then reposted by fashion watchdogs Diet Prada.

“They have said heinous transphobic, body phobic, and racist things directly to me. I called them out every time and they promised to change,” Dorfman says, going on to claim that: “I heard direct (sic) from their creative director that they asked if, in Photoshop, they could make a Black model white.” 

“I cut ties with them months ago when it became clear that they discriminated against talent I cast in a campaign AGAIN after promising not to."

Saying that they felt extreme shame for only speaking up now, Dorfman alleged that: “They threaten (sic) me with legal if I were to speak up, so because of that fear, I didn’t say anything.” They went on to discuss the importance of white people calling themselves out for complacency in the face of racism and transphobia.

We reached out to representatives of Ferragamo for a response, but at the time of publication had not received a statement.