As the oh-so-wise Hannah Montana once said, “everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days,” even our beloved Zara. Despite giving us absolutely fantastic sales and pretty much always sorting out our wardrobes with their fabulous fashion, Zara has had its fair share of major slip ups over the years. Slips ups even worse than Topshop’s new clear jeans- so yeah, they are pretty bad. Here are some of the most offensive fashion that has ever graced Zara’s shelves.
Holocaust Children’s Top
(Photo Credit: Pintrest)
This ‘Sheriff’ inspired shirt for kids caused a huge controversy backing 2014 because of its uncanny resemblance to uniforms worn in the Holocaust. The blue and white striped long sleeve top and negative space embroidery which makes the ‘sheriff’ lettering illegible was removed from stores almost immediately as customers took to social media to express their outrage. However, Zara managed to rub further salt in the wound with their apology that stated the offensive item would be ‘removed from shelves across the word and destroyed’. Destroyed, definitely being the worst possible word they could have chosen, making further connections to the Nazi death camps.
Swastika Handbag
(Picture Credit: Polyvore)
However, Zara’s albeit unintentional, Holocaust themed top wasn’t the first time the high street retailer has got in to trouble for Anti-Semitism. In 2007, the brand were forced to revoke an embroidered handbag that had four green swastikas emblazoned on the front along with flowers and bicycles. Speaking of the incident, a Zara spokesman defended the brand stating: “We did not realise Swastikas appeared on some of these bags, the swastika was not on the bag which was sourced by us after being supplied by an external producer. Of course we apologise to anyone who was offended by the bag, and we will be withdrawing it from all our stores”.
White Is The New Black T-shirt
(Picture Credit: Daily Mail)
Whilst I’m sure this next major mess up from Zara had no malicious intent, the design team need to admit defeat because their t-shirt printed with the words ‘white is the new black’ is just asking for criticism. Whilst some have defended the top, claiming that the slogan is simply a play on words or a reference to Netflix’s popular show Orange is the New Black, surely the brand must have seen the backlash coming? The T-shirt which also comes in a style that reads ‘leopard is the new black’ was revoked immediately from stores due to its racist associations.
Love Your Curves Advertisement
(Picture Credit: The Telegraph)
Here, Zara put a step wrong before their product even hit the shelves with their ‘Love Your Curves’ jeans campaign. Shoppers were absolutely outraged at the advertisement which featured two very thin models wearing the brands body curve jeans. Shopper Maireann O’Connell’s tweet about the ad was retweeted over 7,000 times and liked almost 15,000 times. She did add that it was the fault of the marketeers and not the models who were posing in the photo.
Are You Gluten Free?
(Picture Credit: BT.com)
It seems as though Zara can get under the skin of absolutely everyone, with the coeliac community the next victims of the brands ill-worded slogan t-shirts. This offending item had the words ‘Are you gluten free?’ sprawled across the front and was taken down after a petition protesting against the top gained a whopping 53,000 signatures!
Copy-Cat
(Picture Credit: The Fashion Law)
This is a disappointing one from Zara who we all know and love for giving us on trend designs with their own quirky twist- only last year it seems they took the inspiration for their designs a little bit too literally. LA based artist Tuesday Bassen, who has worked with brands such as Nike and Urban Outfitters took to twitter last year to express her annoyance that Zara had directly copied her work. Bassen posted a picture of side by side images of her own work and Zara’s and its pretty clear that they have been caught in the act- they look identical. Zara hit back at the designer stating: ‘the lack of distinctiveness of your client’s purported designs makes it very hard to see how a significant part of the population anywhere in the world would associate the signs with Tuesday Bassen’. Zara have been accused several times for copying other designers work
Pepe The Frog
(Picture Credit: Teen Vogue)
This is the most recent, and perhaps the most absurd mess up from Zara we have seen so far. I meme, it involves pepe the frog on a denim skirt (pun intended). But there is actually a much more sinister basis to why many want the store to revoke the limited edition design from the ‘oil on denim collection’. Whilst many see Pepe the frog as a harmless meme, the amphibian is actually heavily associated with alt-right hate groups such as the Anti-Defamation League that, again, is extremely Anti-Semitic.