Are the folk over at the Gap catalog clueless about the events of 1939-1945?
Pitt Griffin was among many Twitter cowboys who spotted the new gray and white short-sleeved shirt on the store’s website that so resembled the death camp inmate uniforms.
Clueless?
The GAP has offered for sale a striped shirt that many have pointed out has distinct similarities to the shirt issued to concentration camp prisoners.
And just to frost the stupidity they called it a ‘camp shirt’ pic.twitter.com/3vWkMh0Dsl
— Pitt Griffin (@pittgriffin)
Griffin announced: “The GAP has offered for sale a striped shirt that many have pointed out has distinct similarities to the shirt issued to concentration camp prisoners. And just to frost the stupidity they called it a ‘camp shirt.'”
Yes, they really did. The product’s name, I kid you not, is Camp Shirt in Poplin. In Hebrew, the name for Poland is Polin, so those of us who scanned the title quickly really did do a double take.
We looked it up, and Poplin is a fine but thick wool, cotton or silk fabric with a horizontal warp and a vertical weft made with twice the yarns.
So we can be certain the historic camp shirts probably weren’t poplin.
OK, so far the above is just a glitch that could happen to any corporate giant that hires copywriters who aren’t so strong in knowledge of 20th century atrocities. Indeed, the NY Post reminded us that in 2014, the clothing chain Zara apologized for its striped shirt that had a yellow Star of David emblazoned on the chest; and in 2007, Zara apologized for selling a handbag adorned by embroidered swastikas. If you say you’re sorry, you can probably get away with it.
Here’s how The Gap handled this embarrassment. When you click on the item on the left below (we did)
it takes you to a page that declares:
Gosh, Gap, when can we expect a new shipment?