A children's Halloween costume sold by fashion giant Zara has been pulled from its online stores in Germany and the Netherlands after sparking outrage over its resemblance to the uniforms worn by prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.
The costume, priced at €39.99, was marketed as a children's “Halloween groom costume" in gray and blue. Channel 12 News reported that Zara's product description referred to a design featuring vertical stripes, decorative stitching, a flower on the collar and a distressed finish, consisting of a vest and shorts.
The striped design, worn appearance and barbed-wire pattern on the garment prompted widespread criticism on social media.
“I called Zara's headquarters and told them that if they want to complete the costume my grandfather wore as a young man in Auschwitz, all they need to do is add a number," one commenter wrote in a post that was among those drawing attention to the product.
The product page has since been removed and is no longer accessible on Zara's websites in Germany and the Netherlands.
This is not the first time Zara has faced criticism over clothing items bearing an apparent resemblance to Holocaust-era symbols.
In a previous incident, the company sold a striped shirt for toddlers and young children, ranging in size from three months to three years, for 79 shekels. The shirt featured a yellow star bearing the word “Sheriff." Although the company said the design was intended to evoke an innocent cowboy theme, the combination of the striped fabric and yellow star drew comparisons to concentration camp uniforms and the yellow badges Jews were forced to wear under Nazi rule. The shirt, which was manufactured in Turkey, was removed following the backlash.
In another incident in 2007, Zara stores in Britain sold a fabric bag decorated with embroidered floral patterns incorporating a swastika. After a customer brought the design to management's attention, the company removed the bags from its stores, apologized and offered customers a full refund.
At the time, Zara said the product had come from an outside supplier and was based on traditional symbols from Indian culture. The company said its review teams had failed to identify the design before the bags went on sale.