Urban Outfitters in hot water over Depression T-shirt



Fashion people often use words and images in silly ways -- which they no doubt see as "creative" -- and this shirt would appear to be an example of that.  It is however just as idiotic to remove the shirts from sale.  Are we going to remove all mentions of the word "depression" wherever it might appear?  -- JR

A T-shirt repeatedly printed with the word 'depression' spurred a 5,000-strong petition to remove the garment from retailer Urban Outfitters' website

Urban Outfitters seems to enjoy toeing the line between selling tasteless and tasteful clothing. Less than one month ago the retailer managed to offend the Hindu community with a pair of "awesome crew-length socks" with Lord Ganesh on the trim.

Just as the clothing vendor had to pull the $8 socks from the site, a T-shirt that repeatedly reads 'depression' is no longer available to buy from the e-commerce pages. The tee, which shoppers viewed as an offensive hint at mental illness, spurred 5,000 individuals to sign a petition on Change.org aiming to halt all production of the unsavoury apparel.

But rather than holding their hand up and admitting their misjudged decision to stock the t-shirts, Urban Outfitters are pointing the finger at the designers, a fledgling brand from Singapore called Depression.

Depression co-founder, Kenny Lim tells ABC News that "I was shocked that after one T-shirt people jumped to this conclusion. We make happy clothes. I got very depressed at work. The clothing line is a reminder that we can be happy every day when we go to work."

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