- Lifestyle & Sports
- 30 Jun 17
Kendall and Kylie Jenner have been made to pull their newly-released line of t-shirts in response to major backlash.
The tasteless 'vintage' band t-shirts feature the reality stars' own faces superimposed over band logos, including that of Pink Floyd, The Doors, and Metallica, as well as the faces of musical icons such as Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.
The shirts, which were on sale for $125 each, sparked controversy as fans of the musical acts criticized the stars for exploiting the deaths of the legendary artists for money. While many were offended by the clothing line, many asserted that the shirts were not only disrespectful, but unlawful, as the Jenners never received permission from the artists' estates to use the images.
Violetta Wallace, the mother of the late The Notorious B.I.G., was among many who lashed out over social media, posting to Instagram:
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Sharon Osbourne, wife of Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath, had this to say:
Girls, you haven’t earned the right to put your face with musical icons. Stick to what you know…lip gloss. pic.twitter.com/BhmuUVrDBn
— Sharon Osbourne (@MrsSOsbourne) June 29, 2017
Meanwhile, on Thursday a lawyer for Biggie Smalls, another of the artists featured on the shirts, demanded that the stars pull the shirts by 5pm on Friday. Violetta Wallace's Lawyer also sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Jenners, as did The Doors manager Jeff Jampol.
Jim Morrison did not die for this shit pic.twitter.com/FefcbtuFwj
— b (@riverofdelrey) June 28, 2017
After a bombardment of criticism, the stars decided to withdraw the shirts, and posted an apology over Twitter:
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"These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologize to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists," They wrote late Thursday evening. "We are huge fans of their music and it was not our intention to disrespect these cultural icons in any way. The tee shirts have been pulled from retail and all images have been removed. We will use this as an opportunity to learn from these mistakes and again, we are very sorry."
The shirts are the latest in a series of recent missteps taken by the Kardashian-Jenner family, most notably the Pepsi ad, which was accused of glamorizing protests and trivializing the Black Lives Matter movement.