Zara pulls kids’ Halloween costume after comparisons to Nazi camp uniforms
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Zara had been selling the item, listed as the Kids’ Halloween Groom Costume, online for €39.99 (S$57).
PHOTO: ZARA
- Zara removed a children's Halloween costume after it was criticised for resembling Nazi concentration camp uniforms, sparking public outrage and comparisons to Holocaust imagery.
- The costume featured vertical stripes and barbed wire-like prints, which many found offensive and painful, prompting Zara to apologise and withdraw the item.
- This is not Zara's first controversy related to Holocaust symbolism; previous incidents include a striped shirt with a yellow star and a handbag with swastika-like embroidery.
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A striped children’s Halloween costume was removed from Zara’s shelves and website on Oct 3 after sparking controversy that it resembled the uniforms worn by prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.
The Spanish fashion chain had been selling the item, listed as the Kids’ Halloween Groom Costume, online for €39.99 (S$57).
Zara described the two-piece set as a children’s costume with a vertical stripe design, decorative top stitching, a lapel flower and a distressed effect.
Critics said that the stripes, faded finish and cut recalled the clothing forced on concentration camp and death camp inmates during the Holocaust.
Some critics also pointed to sections of the print that appeared to resemble barbed wire, saying that they echoed the fencing that surrounded the camps, where millions of people died between 1933 and 1945.
“Zara Home regrets any misunderstanding that this Halloween groom children’s costume may have caused. It is no longer available either in our shops or online,” a company spokesperson said.
The company did not say why its internal checks had failed to catch the resemblance.
Israeli journalist Dov Gil-Har wrote on X that the chain was “horrifying its customers in Europe” with a costume “in the style of Nazi concentration camps”.
Naomi Mestrum, director of the Center for Information and Documentation Israel, said the connection to the Holocaust remains painful.
“I have a lot of understanding for the people reacting with indignation,” she said.
“Let this be a lesson for Zara.”
Not all reactions were critical. Some people argued that the outfit was closer to the black-and-white striped suit that was worn by the titular character in the Beetlejuice comedy horror films (1988 and 2024).
It is not the first time Zara has faced accusations of this kind.
In 2014, the retailer withdrew a blue-and-white striped children’s shirt bearing a yellow six-pointed star on the chest, after critics complained that it resembled the badges the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear.
In 2007, the company pulled a handbag after critics said its embroidery, set among floral patterns, contained swastikas. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK