The folks over at Australian clothing label Evil Twin may know a thing or two about fashion, but they certainly didn’t pay attention in history class. Last week the brand came under intense criticism for naming one of the Parkas from their new fall line after the 1978 Sex Pistol’s song “Belsen was a Gas”. The problem here is that song in particular stirred plenty of its own controversy when first released in ’78 because the darkly humorous lyrics are a reference to the Bergan-Belsen concentration camp where 37,000 Jewish and Gypsy prisoners died of malnutrition and typhus during the second world war.
Evil Twin issued a public apology earlier in the week, which read in part:
“The management and staff of Evil Twin wishes to offer their most heartfelt apologies for any offense taken with the naming of our ‘Belsen Was a Gas Military Parka’. This is a most serious oversight on our part. We did not intend to refer to the tragic events which occurred during the Holocaust. We apologize for this oversight and any distress the garment name has caused. When the association was brought to our attention, we immediately withdrew the jacket from sale.”
A serious oversight indeed! Thus far Evil Twin has been true to their word as calls to their international retailers and visits to their websites reveal no such jacket available for sale, in fact they won’t even mention that it used to be there or why it was taken down for fear of having to repeat the name, (perhaps it should be referred to as the parka that should not be named). Regardless it appears that the label chose the name because the controversial and counterculture appeal of the Sex Pistols seems t0 fit with its own brand image. However it is very disappointing that they did not bother to research further as to why this particular Sex Pistols song stirred so much ire.
One thing is for sure, you can bet that Evil Twin’s marketing department will be doing plenty of fact checking from now on.
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