Armani Exchange Regrets Over T-Shirt Products

VIVAnews - International Italian fashion house Armani Exchange regretted over the use of printed image of an eagle which resembles the Indonesia's coat of arms Garuda Pancasila on its t-shirt products.

"We apologize for any offense this may have caused," said a spokesperson from Armani Exchange, Ric Santos, through an email sent to VIVAnews on Wednesday, Jan 27.

Earlier this week, the controversy aroused on the Armani t-shirt has been widely discussed on busy online forums and mailing-lists in Indonesia. Armani Exchange previously claimed that the said Garuda Pancasila was a modified military eagle.

Armani Exchange removed the said t-shirts displayed on its webpage on Tuesday, Jan 26.

"The issue was brought to our attention and the item has been removed
from our website immediately," said Santos.

The Armani military-eagle does not only remind people of Garuda by its form, but also by the details found elsewhere on the image. There are 17 feathers on each wing of the images, eight on the tails, and 45 on the neck. The feathers of the Garuda the Indonesian coat-of-arms are arranged so that they invoke the date of 17 August 1945, the officially recognized Indonesian Day of Independece.

In addition to the feathers, the Armani eagle also attaches the shield as such found on the Garuda. However, the Armani eagle does not hold two out of five emblems - the tree and the bull - bound to the shield and appends the letters X and A to the shield instead.

The products are available in three colors of white, black and dark blue.

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Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono