Louis Vuitton REMOVES $1,730 Jamaica- inspired jumper from its website after social media users spot knitwear features the colours of the Ethiopian flag
- Louis Vuitton has removed a $1,730 Jamaican Stripe Pullover from their website
- Jumper was described as being inspired by the Caribbean island’s national flag
- Twitter users say the French fashion house mistakenly used Rastafarian colours
Louis Vuitton has sparked outrage across social media after using the wrong colours for a jumper supposedly inspired by the Jamaican national flag.
The luxury fashion brand founded in France, debuted a Jamaican Stripe Pullover for $1,730 on its website, just in time for Black History Month celebrations in the US.
Photographs show a model styling the green, yellow and red stripped menswear jumper with black trousers and a classic monogram bag.
However, Louis Vuitton was soon forced to remove the garment when angry social media users spotted the brand had in fact used the red, yellow and green of the Ethiopian flag instead.
Louis Vuitton has been blasted by social media users for using the wrong colours on their ‘Jamaican Stripe Pullover’ (pictured)
The $1,730 knitwear featured the colours from the Rastafarian and Ethiopian flag, instead of Jamaica’s black, green and gold (pictured)
Images of the controversial jumper have continued to circulate and it still appears to be on sale on Japanese website BuyMa.
A screenshot from the Louis Vuitton website reveals the jumper was part of a collection of Jamaica-inspired items, however searches for the island on the luxury website now shows no results.
The caption for the jumper had read: ‘This smart pullover channels the collection’s Jamaican Parade theme, with a striped design inspired by the Caribbean island’s national flag.
‘Styled in a regular fit, it is knitted from super lightweight Japanese cotton yarn. An LV logo in intarsia adds an elegant signature on the chest.’
Social media users have blasted the brand for not fact checking to see that the colours of the Jamaican flag are black, gold and green, with some accusing the brand of trying to profit from the island’s culture.
A Twitter user with the handle @pam_boy brought the mistake to the attention of his followers, saying: ‘Louis Vuitton’s Jamaican stripe pullover & Jamaica’s actual flag. I cannot stress enough how important it is to implement diversity as a value and not a symbol with fashion companies’
Japanese online retailer Buy Ma still has the controversial Louis Vuitton jumper (pictured) for sale, despite the luxury brand removing it from their website
Louis Vuitton claimed the striped jumped had been inspired by the national flag of Jamaica
A viral tweet argued the mistake had happened because fashion companies aren’t implementing diversity
The tweet went viral racking up over 3,000 likes and thousands of comments.
One person wrote: ‘This is what we value as Jamaicans: our flag’s colours are black, gold and green. They stand for the majority black population & difficulties faced by the nation (black), it’s natural wealth and the beauty of its sunlight (gold) and agriculture and hope (green).’
‘Big expensive company like Louis Vuitton couldn’t do the proper research,’ another added.
Others explained Louis Vuitton had likely used the colours from the Rastafarian or Ethiopian flag as they are also commonly used throughout the island.
Unimpressed, one blasted the brand’s menswear artistic director Virgil Abloh saying: ‘There was an article quite recently on his recent collection which also used Ghanaian Kente with LV logo stamped on it.
‘Calls into question the whole inspired vs appropriate esp one is like Virgil claiming this also as part of his ‘heritage’. Audacious.’
A stream of comments argue it wouldn’t have taken long for Louis Vuitton to research the correct colours of Jamaica’s national flag