Laura Wilson, a mother-of-two, says she will never shop at Zara again. Photos / Instagram, TikTok @chaos.to.sanity
Laura Wilson, a mother-of-two, says she will never shop at Zara again. Photos / Instagram, TikTok @chaos.to.sanity
Zara is being accused of selling a product that is ‘suggestive, vile, grim and not appropriate for a child’.
A children’s T-shirt has been withdrawn from sale in Britain after a mother complained it bore a slogan which was “sexually suggestive”.
Clothing retailer Zara pulled the item from its website and stores after Laura Wilson, a mother-of-two, filmed her reaction to finding the £10.99 ($23.50) top at Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent on August 10.
The words “the perfect snack” and “the strawberry: a small burst of sweet joy” are displayed on the front of the plain white T-shirt.
The back of the top reveals two halves of a strawberry with the enticement: “Take a bite. A burst of sweet delight, making it the perfect summer snack. The strawberry: a small burst of joy.”
Wilson, a content creator from Bromley, south-east London, said in the video: “I am not one to be overly sensitive about clothing but I was in Zara the other day and this was in the girls section.
"Is it just me or is this just not okay. I would never have my girls in this top," said the mother-of-two. Photo / TikTok @chaos.to.sanity
“Just wait until you see the back. If you have bought this for your child you need serious words with yourself – in my opinion. I’m so shocked.
“‘Take a bite’, is it just me or is this just not okay. I would never have my girls in this top. I mean is it just me or is this plain wrong, in plain sight,” she added.
The 32-year-old said: “I put the TikTok up to get other people’s opinion on it and it’s very clear that other people have thought the same as me in these circumstances. It’s very suggestive. This T-shirt was for a 6- to 7-year-old and I don’t think this is okay.
“Where it says, ‘the perfect snack’, this is very suggestive. You say, ‘that’s a snack’ and that is quite suggestive of an attraction. That’s how I took it anyway.
“There are some people just saying that it is just strawberries and just talking about strawberries but the language on the top, I would never have my daughter walking around with ‘take a bite’ on the back of her T-shirt.”
‘Suggestive, vile, grim’
She added: “the majority are in full agreement that the T-shirt is very suggestive, vile and grim and not appropriate for a child”.
The video has been viewed on TikTok more than 34,700 times with multiple parents taking to the comments to voice their views.
If you think this is wrong - please let me know so i don’t feel crazy… is this wrong? Or not? Personally, I’m disgusted - who is buying this t-shirt for their child?!! #zara#disgusted#foryou#fyp#fypviralシ#makethisviral
One user wrote: “Zara is so bad now. The kids’ clothes are just wrong for young kids.”
But while many agreed with Wilson, opinion remained divided.
‘What’s the problem?’
One person said: “I don’t understand what is wrong?” Wilson replied: “Are you a parent of little girls? I’ve never let my children walk around with ‘the perfect snack’ and ‘take a bite’ on their T-shirt.”
Another commented: “it’s literally just a strawberry”.
Zara claimed it had “no intention” of implying anything sexual or otherwise on the strawberry T-shirt design.
“There was no intention for the use of the word ‘snack’ on this T-shirt to imply anything other than the traditional meaning of the word, as evidenced by the image of a strawberry on the garment,” the retailer wrote in a statement, shared by Mail Online.
“However, we now understand that some individuals have interpreted the term differently. Therefore, we have removed the T-shirt from stores and our website and we apologise for any misunderstanding or offence caused.”
But Wilson said she will not be returning to the retailer following the incident.
“‘I didn’t reach out to Zara as I thought for a second I might be overthinking it and being an overprotective person and maybe I’m too overprotective, but I’ve seen things online on T-shirts before and not seen the problem,” she said.
“I’m not usually sensitive to things like this but this one made me feel really uncomfortable.
“If other parents were buying this for their children, I’d be quite concerned. It just makes me feel really, really uncomfortable.”
