Example:

Fashion Faux Pas – level 1

Sometimes, fashion brands make mistakes. They make clothes which offend some people.

Zara is a fashion brand. In 2014, Zara makes a T-shirt. It has stripes and a star. It looks like the Star of David. The T-shirt looks like clothing from a Nazi concentration camp.

People see the design. They criticise it on the Internet. The brand says that it is sorry.

H&M is another fashion brand. Last year, H&M shows a photo of a sweatshirt. A model wears it. The model is a black child. The text on the sweatshirt says, ‘Coolest monkey in the jungle’.

Now, fashion brands Gucci and Adidas are criticised. Gucci makes a jumper. Some people think that it is racist.

Adidas makes white shoes. These shoes are to celebrate Black History Month.

Difficult words: brand (the name of the maker of something: H&M, Zara, Gucci, Adidas), offend (make somebody feel upset, angry or sad), the Star of David (the Star of David is the symbol for the Jewish religion), monkey (a very rude word for a black person in some countries).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.

Fashion Faux Pas – level 2

People criticised Gucci and Adidas for the designs of new products.

For Gucci, a black balaclava jumper was the centre of the storm. The bright red lips on it looked like blackface which was a form of make-up used to stereotype black people. It dates back over 200 years. People criticised Adidas on Twitter for a white pair of shoes made to celebrate Black History Month.

This is not the first time that the Internet criticised a brand for its poor choice of design. Last year, H&M had to take down a picture of a black child. He was wearing a sweatshirt that said, ‘Coolest monkey in the jungle’.

Back in 2014, Zara made a striped T-shirt with what looked like the Star of David on it. It looked like clothing worn by Jews in Nazi concentration camps.

Difficult words: balaclava (a thing that you wear which covers your face or only some part of it), brand (the name of the maker of something: H&M, Zara, Gucci, Adidas), striped (with stripes – zebras have black and white stripes).

Fashion Faux Pas – level 3

Gucci and Adidas have come under fire for what people think were racist designs.

For Gucci, a black balaclava jumper was the centre of the storm because the bright red lips looked like blackface which was a form of make-up used to stereotype black people dating back over 200 years.

In Adidas’s case, Twitter was ablaze with criticism over a white pair of shoes made to celebrate Black History Month.

This is not the first time that the Internet criticised a brand for its poor choice of design. Last year, H&M removed a picture of a black child wearing a hoodie that said: ‘Coolest monkey in the jungle’.

Back in 2014, Zara made a striped T-shirt with what looked like the Star of David on it. It looked like clothing worn by Jews in Nazi concentration camps. Zara apologised for not knowing history and said that it wanted to recreate a sheriff’s star.

Difficult words: balaclava (a thing that you wear which covers your face or only some part of it), ablaze (filled with anger or another strong emotion).

You can watch the video news lower on this page.