Indian social user media were shocked today after a Chinese fashion brand’s absurd typographic clothing line surfaced. The clothes, meant for children, bore racist and violent messages for Indians. A heavy inflow of angry complaints later, the company withdrew the collection and apologized.
The apparel also had phrases like “let me touch you”, which were called highly unacceptable, considering this was a children’s line.
The prints sparked outrage amongst users on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo as they said that the sentences give the wrong message to the young.
In one of the prints designed by JNBY, “The whole place is full of Indians. I will take this gun and blow them to pieces,” was written in English. Another shirt bore a cartoon of a boy who was getting shot with several arrows.
Users were angry at the way a famous brand decided to go ahead with their children’s line, especially the racist comments sent out through them. Reacting to these, one social media user wrote, “What is JNBY trying to express with such prints? I used to like their adult’s clothing, but didn’t expect their children’s line to be so sinister!”
The flooding of negative comments against the line quickly caught the attention of the fashion company as JNBY apologized on Thursday. It said the organization had got complaints with regards to products with “inappropriate patterns” on its children’s clothing line.
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In a statement released on Weibo, the company said, “We have immediately pulled all the related product series from our shelves, revoked relevant publicity material, and set up a specialised group to investigate internally.”
Refunds and apologies have also been issued to the buyers, the top designer brand established in 1994 added in its statement.
The expression of apology was, however, not bought by several users as they slammed the brand for trying to dismiss a major issue with a simple statement. “This is not a problem that can be solved with an apology,” one user said.
The clothes were purchased by many elder age group people for children who did not speak English or understand the script. One parent complained that they went through a similar ordeal as their older family members did not understand the meanings of the sentences and hence, bought it unknowingly.
“As such a big company, JNBY, who checks your material?” One of the many shocked parents questioned.
