T-shirt news: storms on shirts and about them

May 30th, 2008

International retailer Urban Outfitters have a history of problems with provocative T-shirts.  Their latest storm involves T-shirt portraying a Palestinian boy with a keffiya around his neck, clutching an AK-47, plus the Palestinian territories and flag. The hem has victimized written across it. There were quite a few (thousand) complaints. So many, in fact, that the company began to send out an autoresponse email to anybody contacting them.  It said, ‘Please understand that we do not buy items to provoke controversy or to intentionally offend. We have pulled this item in all of our locations and will no longer be selling it online either.’

Previously Urban Outfitters had to withdraw a T-shirt with the slogan, ‘Everyone loves a Jewish Girl’ under which was a montage of dollar signs and shopping bags. The Anti-Defamation League complained that this was an unfair stereotype of a ‘Jewish American Princess’ with money being the most important aspect of a Jewish girl’s life.

Closer to home, David Penfound is suing a fashion designer after one of his most popular designs, licensed to The Mountain, who produce $20 T-shirts, was plagiarised on T-shirts retailing at $1,400!

Penfound, who hails from Hampshire, claims that ‘Summoning The Storm’ in a slightly altered form, was appearing on what are called ‘cotton creations’  from designer Martin Margiela.  Margiela’s representatives say the design is not David’s painting but a collage of nostalgic images compiled in-house. Penfound insists that all they have done is photoshop the Indian out of the image and replaced it with a block of rock.  ‘This is […] blatant - they haven’t really changed the image that much,’ he said. 

Summoning the Storm courtesy of David Penfound

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Entry Filed under: T-shirt news, Celebrity, Fashion, T-Shirt Printing, Printing