High street retailer Zara has been widely mocked for marketing a £70 checked skirt which bears a striking resemblance to a cheap sarong worn by Asian grandfathers.
The fashion brand’s description of the new mink-coloured garment as a “check mini skirt” with “draped detail in the front” sparked laughter across Asia, where social media users pointed out the similarities with the traditional “lungi” worn by their fathers, uncles and grandfathers.
The lungi is a piece of cloth wrapped around the waist and tied at the front, that has been popular among men in the warmer climes of South and Southeast Asia for generations. It can be picked up in the markets of Thailand, Burma or Bangladesh for a few pounds.
“Hate to break it to you Zara, but that’s a lungi,” wrote India’s Hindustan Times newspaper, adding that the LungiWala online retailer offered very similar garments for just £4.
“In other places, it would be available for much cheaper than that. We should know, we’ve seen our fair share of them: we even have a dance for it. (‘Lungi dance’, anyone?)”.
Meanwhile, Asia-based Coconuts media described the skirt as looking like a “Thai Grandpa’s uniform” commonly used for modesty when washing outside.
Many social media users made a joke of it.
“Zara selling lungis is..exactly how my indian mum will be luring my dad to go shopping next weekend,” wrote Australian Twitter user Sarath Chandra.
Others, however, were upset that the fashion brand had used the design without referencing its origins. Elizabeth Segran, a writer who said she grew up in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, accused the company of failing to acknowledge that the skirt was inspired by the Asian lungi.
“I am not the only one who is a little peeved by this casual cultural appropriation. Asian Twitter just went up in arms,” she wrote for US magazine Fast Company.