Now THAT'S a fashion faux pas: French label forced to discontinue €285 sweatshirt after backlash over 'Unemployed' logo



A Paris-based fashion company has been forced to stop selling a €285 [$379] sweatshirt bearing the French word for 'unemployed' across the front.

Le Léon made the de cisi on to pull the ' Chômeur' tops after ' violent messages and reactions' from customers on Twitter - perhaps not surprising considering that this summer France's unemployment rate hit 10.4per cent, the highest level since 1998.



'C'est une Incitation au poing dans la gueule envoyé par un vrai #chômeur,' tweeted one. In other words, The Huffington Post reports, 'It's incitement to get a punch in the mouth from an actual unemployed person'.

Quel dommage: Fashion brand Le Leon has stopped selling a sweatshirt with a slogan that means 'unemployed' in French after a customer backlash

Fashion spoof: In Zoolander, Ben Stiller played a male model who walked the runway for the Derelicte homeless chic campaign



Homeless chic: John Galliano sent models styled like bag ladies down the runway



Another person wrote: 'This is either really stupid and in bad taste or brilliant satire.'



The brand launched last week with a series of hipster slang sweatshirts that featured ironic phrases like Anormal (Abnormal), Grand Guele (Blabbermouth), and Frog Killer.

But company founder Leon Taieb told France TV Info that shoppers should not take the sweater so seriously.

Translated into English, he said 'I just wanted something cute.'

'Chômeur, I find it a super cute word. Essentially, we're all a little bit unemployed.

This is not the first time that a fashion company has faced public criticism after 'ironic' presentations of the homeless plight.



In 2000, John Galliano controversially sent models for his 'Haute Homeless' collection down the runway accessorized with J&B bottles, plastic clothes pegs and safety pins.



The show was parodied a year later in the fashion spoof Zoolander, where Ben Stiller's character Derek Zoolander modeled for the Derelicte fashion line.

