Gucci withdrew a designer black polo neck from its shops and websites on Thursday after it was compared to offensive “golliwog” images, in the latest racism row to engulf an Italian fashion house.

The black jumper, which sells for £690, can be pulled up over the lower half of the face, leaving a person’s mouth framed with giant red lips.

The row came as several politicians in the United States, including the attorney-general of Virginia, have been embroiled in “blackface” controversies after blacking up in the past as a prank or joke.

Mark Herring, the state’s attorney-general, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that he wore brown makeup and a wig to look like a black rapper during a party that he attended as an undergraduate in 1980.