Guess folks haven't learned from the H&M "Coolest Monkey in the Jungle" fail, huh?

Italian fashion brand Big Uncle is now in hot water thanks to its "colonialism" collection. The band describes its new "Colonial Deal" range as a "short and intense journey in the West [sic] former colonies in order to understand the Colonialism style."

Photo: GIPHY

According to The Independent, 23-year-old writer Mireille Harper launched a change.org petition to get the line pulled from Big Uncle's site. Harper claims she contacted Big Uncle and was "disgusted" with the response she received, in which she says the Milan-based brand essentially invited customers to "think about it."

“Both fashion designers (Sabino Lebba and Riccardo Moroni) seem blatantly unaware of the continuing legacy of racism, oppression and poverty which ‘colonialism’ has created," read the petition's statement. "Whether their views are misguided or downright racist, I cannot argue, however they appear to have a complete lack of understanding for people of colour who continue to live with the intergenerational trauma that lingers today in all pockets of society, particularly in their own country of origin, Italy, where racism, prejudice and discriminatory behaviour continues.”

Harper, who describes herself as mixed-race, lives and has family ties in Italy; because of this she "felt obligated to address" the issue.

"We are really sorry if the name of our collection 'Colonial Deal' has caused such a stir and indignation," a Big Uncle spokesman said. "We didn’t mean to use a fashion collection to glorify a historical bloody period full of atrocities. We did not want to offend anyone and we deeply apologize if we did. Big Uncle designers are not racists, fascists, Nazis or colonialists, they believe in freedom of thought and in the superiority of thought over any form of violence, abuse, imposition and oppression."

The Italian fashion label's spokesman continued on, arguing, "Writing 'COLONIALISM' on a T-shirt doesn’t mean to celebrate that historical period, but instead it wants people to reflect on it."

Mireille Harper

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