Urban Outfitters Causes Controversy Once Again for Selling Fabric With Holocaust Imagery

Anti-Defamation League wrote to the retailer demanding that the tapestry be removed

By Jenna Mullins Feb 10, 2015 11:27 PMTags
Urban Outfitters holocaust fabricUrban Outfitters

After so many repeat offenses, you have to wonder what exactly is going on at Urban Outfitters. How does this keep happening?! It can't be that hard to not make clothing that reminds people of horrible tragedies, can it? Other clothing companies do it every single day!

But, alas, here we are again, Urban Outfitters.

The store is under fire for selling tapestry (pictured above) that looks very similar to the uniforms that gay prisoners were forced to wear in concentration camps, and on Monday the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) urged Urban Outfitters to remove the item from its website.

"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," Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor said in a 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." 

Oli Scarff/Getty Images

During the Holocaust, LGBT prisoners were forced to identify themselves as such on their clothing. Pictured above is an example of what gay men had to wear while in the camps, and the ADL calls Urban Outfitter's version "eerily reminiscent" of the degrading uniform.

The ADL said that they sent a letter to Urban Outfitters President and CEO Richard A. Hayne to express its concern over the "insensitive design." As of Monday evening, the tapestry could not be found on the website while the "Triangle-Stripe Curtain" is listed as "sold out" with no accompanying photo.

Urban Outfitters has not yet responded to our request for comment.

As we stated earlier, this is not the first time Urban Outfitters has caused an uproar with clothing that is reminiscent of Nazi paraphernalia. In 2012, the ADL protested the sale of a shirt that had a symbol very similar to the Star of David sewn on the chest.

Last year, it also sold what appeared to be a blood-stained vintage sweatshirt from Kent State, a school that experience a horrific shooting tragedy in 1970. The company later apologized and insisted that the stains on the shirt were not intentionally meant to look like blood.