Fashion brand Zara may have thought their “sheriff” pajama top looked like striped shirt sheriffs wore in Westerns, but that’s not what it looked like to everyone else who has eyes. No, the shirt looked exactly like what Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
To make matters worse, the shirt was available at Zara’s Israeli online store. In addition, the shirt was on the brand’s French, Albanian and Swedish sites. According to 972Mag.com, the shirt was made in Turkey.
Obviously, the moment social media caught wind of the shirt, Zara finally had to issue a statement. The Guardian reports that the label said the shirt was supposed to be a reference to sheriffs in Westerns, with the giant star resembling a sheriff’s badge, not the yellow Star of David Nazis made Jews wear.
“We honestly apologize, the T Shirt was inspired by the sheriff’s stars from the Classic Western films and is no longer in our stores,” the company tweeted.
@zh1nt0 We honestly apologize, the T Shirt was inspired by the sheriff’s stars from the Classic Western films and is no longer in our stores
— ZARA (@ZARA) August 27, 2014
Oddly enough, as the Guardian notes, the Spanish-owned company has had a problem like this before. Back in 2007, handbags were pulled because the designs looked too much like swastikas.
Someone at @ZARA is about to get fired.. and their boss.. and their boss... #disgusting pic.twitter.com/YzCSHqC1ty
— Daniel. (@zh1nt0) August 27, 2014
image via Twitter from Zh1nt0
Some fashion labels seem to have serious problems when it comes to offensive designs. For example, two years ago, Victoria’s Secret apologized for having a model wear a Native American headdress and for a design based on Asian stereotypes.