The garment is usually sold for a few dollars, but Zara is charging nearly $100.
Spanish fashion retailer Zara is trying to get customers to fork over big bucks for a skirt many people say looks strikingly familiar.
Lungis are a traditional garment worn by men in Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh and Nepal. It’s more or less a cotton skirt and is a popular choice for men in these sweltering climates that would make wearing pants unbearable.
Zara isn’t admitting the clothing is a run-of-the-mill lungi that customers can find anywhere else and only pay pocket change. The company is completely westernizing the garment and marketing it as a “check mini skirt.” The product costs £70, which is nearly $100 USD and 6000 Indian rupees. The garment is described as a “flowing skirt with draped detail in the front; front slit detail at the hem.”
Where the traditional lungi comes in a wide range of colors and patterns, the Zara carbon copy is only available in the checkered brown.
Those familiar with the lungis say they can’t believe what Zara is trying to pull — especially considering the outlandish price.
Twitter user @smitaprakash tweeted, “fashion is mad. Rs 6000 for a lungi.”
A £69.99 skirt from @ZARA that looks like a south Asian male skirt (lungi) that costs less than £1 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/47aA2SSSg5
— Aria (@ms_aria101) January 28, 2018
Who wore it better? And yes Zara, that's a lungi! pic.twitter.com/65KwCBxIDC
— Aaqib Raza Khan (@aaqibrk) January 30, 2018
Many Twitter users pointed out the issue of cultural appropriation. @meghamohan threw some shade, tweeting, “The idea of buying a £70 lungi is qwhite funny.”
@poornabell posted, “If you need an argument as to why it’s important to have BAME people [black, Asian and minority ethnic] people at every level in business and marketing, I give you the lungi-dads-skirt disaster by ZARA where literally ANY person could’ve pointed out in two minutes what the problem is with this.”
Maybe next time Zara takes a piece of clothing from a minority group and racks up the price for ~fashion~ it could take Twitter’s advice and… not do that.
