Fast-fashion retailer Zara is in trouble again. While the brand is testing its first click-and-click concept store in London’s Westfield shopping center, it's also facing criticism for selling a check mini skirt which some shoppers believe rips off a lungi, typically worn by men in countries like Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somaliland, Nepal, Cambodia, Djibouti, Myanmar, and Thailand; regions where it gets a bit too hot to wear pants for long hours at a time.
The brand is accused of appropriating the South Asian fashion without accrediting its inspiration. London-based English daily The Telegraph notes a lungi is a “grandpa’s uniform,” and typically wouldn’t ever cost the financial equivalent of $89.90. For the record, Zara has also been in hot water for selling a children’s shirt that resembled concentration camp uniforms in 2014, and most recently, a denim skirt with Pepe the Frog on it, now a symbol of the alt-right movement.