The Weeknd is cutting ties with H&M less than a year after their partnership was announced. Today, the singer shared a tweet in which he vowed not to work with the Swedish retailer in light of a racially offensive photo.
H&M was the target of controversy this weekend after social media users began sharing a picture from the store’s web site. The photo shows a young black child modeling a green hoodie that reads “coolest monkey in the jungle.” Twitter was quick to dub H&M “racist” for its styling choice, prompting H&M to respond by apologizing for the photo and pulling the hoodie from its product offering.
The Weeknd caught light of the controversy and addressed it in a tweet this afternoon. “Woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo,” the singer wrote. “I’m deeply offended and will not be working with [H&M] anymore.”
The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, did not elaborate on his tweet when asked. He released his first collection in partnership with H&M in March of last year; his second was released in September.
When asked for a comment on The Weeknd’s tweet, H&M offered the following: “We understand that many people are upset about the image. We, who work at H&M, can only agree. We are deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print. Therefore, we have not only removed the image from our channels, but also the garment from our product offering globally. It is obvious that our routines have not been followed properly. This is without any doubt. We will thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.”
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