Fashion is typically used to express opinions, interpretations, emotions and events; however, a series of recent occurrences call attention to a different side of the garment industry. Distasteful and offensive pieces have been seemingly making their way into cult favorite stores, causing an uproar of shock and distress.

Fashion’s largest retailer, Zara, had controversial hiccup in the midst of their average $13.5 billion sales success, (Worlds Most Valuable Brands, Zara.) A children’s pajama shirt, reckoned, by the company’s Twitter, to be a “sheriff uniform inspired by old Western films,” was interpreted by most as a disgusting Holocaust artifact. The dark blue and white striped shirt is adorned with a six-pointed yellow star, which is the center of the shock for Zara’s customers, recalls images of skin-and-bone Jewish people behind the barbed wire of concentration camps. This was a final strike for some usual Zara customers, such as myself, after another controversial piece. This time a woman’s tee printed with the phrase in bolded letters on a white background “White is the new black.” This piece put Zara under a racist fire on social media, causing the yanking of the product from all store shelves.

Another infamous offender to this issue is multi-million dollar fashion powerhouse, URBN, INC. The popular Urban Outfitters branch of the Billion-dollar corporation, which, according to NASDAQ, collected revenue of about $279 million in 2013, a routine offender, for selling inappropriate and displeasing clothing. In 2010, the company sold a slouchy, V-neck tee shirt with the words “Eat Less” plastered in cursive smack in the center. The piece was quickly pulled from all stores, as people backlashed, saying it promoted anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder in which 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from at some time in their life. The company was under more disapproval, perhaps, for the woman who modeled the shirt, which may have infuriated customers even more. She was pale, thin, and teenage-looking with a grey tone to her face, defined cheekbones, and an ill-famed thigh gap. Social media felt that she promoted the terrible message to an even higher level. Even though this shirt caused boycotts around the world, the company still did not change their ways then.

Newly, Urban Outfitters placed an item into their stores mid-September that was a turning point in their appeal to many customers. The “one of a kind” vintage Kent State sweatshirt, adorned with blood splatters, reminisces to May 4, 1970; the Kent State Massacre, which was the killing of four and wounding of nine unarmed college students during a peace protest by the Ohio National Guard. These events today symbolize the deep social and political division during the Vietnam War protests, which was part of shopper’s disgust towards the product. The backlash to this item was nail-biting; even Kent State released a statement to guilt the company, going the length to invite the “leaders of this company as well as anyone who invested in this item to tour our May 4 Visitors Center… to gain perspective on what happened 44 years ago and apply its meaning to the future.” Worldwide, offense was taken so greatly to this item, however there was no recall on the item, because the single piece had been sold already, and could have been seen on eBay for a ready-to-ship price of $2,500. 

Being an avid shopper, runway follower, and overall in the know of the fashion world, this “mistake” routine needs to be left behind. An element of avant-garde is nothing bad, however, the repugnant and obtuse themes of segregation, tragedy, and mental illness create a negative connotation with retail and the clothing industry as a whole. Fashion, whether it is on international runways or in magazine, fuses cultures, humans, and ideas. Mistakes have been made, malicious or not, people have been offended by the actions of popular companies such as Zara and Urban Outfitters.

But just like leg warmers, there’s no going back. However, in order to not repeat these million-dollar mistakes, and offend thousands of innocent consumers, clothing buyers and designers should, instead of issuing Twitter-apologies, think twice about the horrid clothing they buy and design. A valuable piece of advice for these ignorant humans: human tragedies are rarely a good fashion inspiration.