Zara put its chocolate in my peanut butter
This little story is interesting because I used to love to shop at Zara. They had neat sweaters, cheap shoes and black pants that made my booty look kind of okay. (And when you live in New York you’re not allowed to wear anything besides black pants, so that worked out great.)
It seems Zara’s Israeli stores were selling some similarly black, similarly booty-enhancing clothing to the frum community in Israel without disclosing a few shatnez violations…doh.
The Spanish clothing empire took out a series of adverts in Israeli newspapers to apologise for the error, which it said happened after a mistake in one of its factories. The suit contained a combination of cotton and linen which some rabbinical authorities class as an “unnatural” blend, known as shatnez to ultra-Orthodox Jews.
In a statement, the company said: “Zara regrets this mistake and would like to reassure its clients in Israel and particularly Orthodox Jews that it will do everything possible to prevent it happening again.” Zara has also promised to refund the cost of scientific checks for shatnez, which Orthodox Jews routinely carry out when they buy clothes. They return those which test positive.
I am going to ask my Orthodox friends if they have any extra shatnez testing kits lyng around, because I have no time for ironing linen clothes anyway and if they sneak that crap into my cotton I want nothing to do with them either.
Fashion chain Zara apologises for selling ‘non-kosher’ clothing (The Independent via Jezebel)
Obviously there’s something wrong with the reporting, since shaatnez is *wool* and linen, not cotton and linen. And its not “unnatural” its just “forbidden”.
Yeeees…I was wondering about that cotton/linen thing. Cotton isn’t shatnetz with anything.
Is this a new Chumra I’ve somehow missed?
that story was wrong, it is wool and linen that is an issue, not cotton and linen.
I think Zara should go one up and simply make all their clothes shatnez-free certified. I know of only one brand that does it – Bagir. Frankly, it doesn’t seem like a big expenditure at all, just some sampling of each lot and you can sell cool fashion to make Haredi booty look good.