Slogan t-shirts never were the height of wit or sartorial style, but they have undoubtedly hit a new low with this ‘apology’ t-shirt from TopMan.
It does defy belief that this t-shirt – a comprehensive list of common domestic violence apologies – made it to production. Could anyone – let alone a whole chain of design and production people – have failed to see how inappropriate this is? Is their system so totally devoid of sense or semblance of a moral compass? As I write, are TopShop desperately shredding their series of pink ‘I walked in to a door’ t-shirts?
In a statement released earlier TopMan said: “We have received some negative feedback regarding two of our printed T-shirts. While we would like to stress that these T-shirts were meant to be lighthearted and carried no serious meaning, we have made the decision to remove these (sic) from store and on-line as soon as possible.”
I’m sure many others will write about this statement and the social-cultural etc issues far more elegantly than I have time for now. Suffice to say, ‘meant to be lighthearted’ is the go-to defence of every skin-crawlingly oafish and numb-skulled misogynist I have ever met. A leading British retailer should know better.
At least there is one positive to all this. TopMan have created a highly effective and sophisticated Early Bastard Detection device. Run for the hills, people. Run for your lives.
Busts 4 Justice 