A shirt design has caused more than a fashion faux pas, Channel 10 revealed Saturday, after similarities were drawn between the pattern printed and the symbol for the Nazi SS.
Mango, a popular European women's brand, has debuted a shirt covered in tiny lightning bolts reminiscent of the SS logo.
Ironically, outrage over the shirt broke due to a Facebook post from none other than a German MEP.
"Why does Mango only have this shirt for women? Are there no male Nazis?" Martin Sonneborn, who is also a journalist and satirist, posted last week.
Sonneborn's post has quickly gone viral, with some social networking sites linking the shirt with the satirical "Eva Braun collection," referring to the wife of dictator Adolf Hitler.
A spokeswoman for Mango, based in Barcelona, sought to dispel the controversy in comments to the German daily Bild.
"In this collection, there are two other models with motifs of stars and hearts," the spokesperson stated, adding that "Mango regrets the distress caused by the design."
This is not the first time Holocaust-related imagery has been used in fashion recently.
In August, fashion giant ZARA debuted a "sheriff" shirt for children clearly resembling the uniform worn by concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust - replete with blue stripes and a yellow star. Zara Israel apologized for the shirt and promised it would be taken off the shelves.