Urban Outfitters came under fire on Monday for selling a tapestry that resembles the uniform gay male prisoners were forced to wear in Nazi concentration camps.
The Anti-Defamation League slammed the store for selling the tapestry and urged Urban Outfitters to remove the item from stores.
“Whether intentional or not, this gray and white stripped pattern and pink triangle combination is deeply offensive and should not be mainstreamed into popular culture,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said in a Monday statement. “We urge Urban Outfitters to immediately remove the product eerily reminiscent of clothing forced upon the victims of the Holocaust from their stores and online.”
The tapestry was available in stores on Tuesday morning, according to Bloomberg News, but it is not available online.
This is not the first time Urban Outfitters has sold insensitive items. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the company also sold a shirt “associated with the yellow Star of David symbol.” The store also sold a sweatshirt with fake blood stains that evoked the Kent State shootings in 1970.
Spanish retailer Zara last year removed a striped children’s shirt with a yellow Star of David that resembled a concentration camp uniform.
Image courtesy of the Anti-Defamation League
Anything for a buck…
Third time, it’s not an accident. I have no doubt that profound historical illiteracy is the norm at Urban Outfitters, but that’s consistent with crass, callow exploitation as much as accidentally blundering into fraught topics.
Horrible, awful, terrible company trolling for our attention, and (sadly) getting it.
Took the words right out of my fingers.
What’s wrong with the marketing team at this company? After the bloody Kent state shirts not even 4 months ago, you’d think they’d learned their lesson. Unless against all decency, they still see sales go up after the fact, I don’t understand how anyone is keeping their job over there.