Madhu Patel
CHICAGO: Within 24-hours of protest from a large group of Indians, The Shard (London) headquartered “global luxury-shopping destination” MatchesFashion apologized and removed Swim Shorts carrying images of deities; which were dubbed revolting
Paul Watson, Menswear Head of Communications of MatchesFashion, in an email to d Rajan Zed, who spearheaded the protest, wrote: “…We have removed the item from the site and furthermore we have circulated your email directly to our buying team to make them aware of such sensitivities moving forward. We trust this meets with your approval and apologize for any offense caused. This was not intentional.”
Zed is the President of the Universal Society of Hinduism and he thanked MatchesFashion for understanding the concerns of the Hindu community, which thought images of Hindu deities on such a product were insensitive.
He added that such trivialization of Hindu deities was disturbing to the Hindus world over. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers, Zed added.
Objectionable Swim Shorts were priced at $273.
MatchesFashion, whose history reportedly goes back to 1987, claims to be the “modern luxury shopping destination for the confident global fashion customer”, and offers over 450 luxury brands like Prada, Gucci, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Halpern, Wales Bonner, etc. Besides its London stores in Marylebone, Notting Hill, Wimbledon, 5 Carlos Place; it sells online delivering to over 176 countries; and also offers “Private Shopping”. Its tagline is “Fashion with imagination”.
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