NEW YORK, New York City -- Prada is no longer selling a line of accessories and displays following complaints that they featured blackface-style imagery.
The controversy began last week when a New Yorker complained in a viral Facebook posting after walking past a Prada boutique in Manhattan's SoHo district and noticing what she described as a "racist and denigrating" caricature in the storefront.
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The Italian fashion house had recently launched a series of luxury keychains and trinkets, including one showing a character with brown skin and exaggerated red lips.
Prada Group released a statement saying that it "abhors all forms of racism" and that the imaginary creatures were not intended to "have any reference to the real world and certainly not blackface."
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The statement said it was withdrawing the characters in question from display and circulation.