A Japanese fashion designer has decided to take a line of men’s striped pajamas off the market after outraged Jewish officials said the clothing resembled Nazi concentration camp uniforms.
Leaders of the European Jewish Congress said Rei Kawakubo, the designer and president of Comme des Garcons, has trivialized the Holocaust by including the striped pajamas in a show held here on the same day that the world was marking the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
Following the protest, Comme des Garcons (Just like Boys) issued a release last week, saying: “Reo Kawakubo has decided, as a measure of respect of those people who have been shocked, to withdraw from the collection the stripped pajamas in question as well as all other clothes made with the same fabric.”
The Jan. 27 show featured several striped types of pajamas, including one pair modeled by an emaciated model with closely cropped hair and protruding ears. Some jackets had boot marks and numbers painted on them.
The EJC called the show “deeply disturbing” and said the appearance of an emaciated model in a striped outfit was “particularly shocking.”
Kawakubo had said in an earlier statement that the theme of the collection was relaxation and sleep and that she never meant to make reference to the concentration camps.
“The fact that it was so completely misunderstood has caught me by surprise and made me very sad,” she said at the time. “Personally, I have always deeply respected the Jewish people and felt close to them in my heart.”
Adrian Joffe, Kawakubo’s husband and managing director of Comme des Garcons, said he had not made the connection with Auschwitz as they were preparing the collection. Joffe, who is Jewish said, “It is so far from anything she wanted to say.”
He also said Kawakubo would in the future “take more care in anticipating possible misunderstandings of her creations.”
Comme Des Garcons, founded in Japan 20 years ago, has been exporting internationally for the last 12 years.
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