AMERICAN APPAREL HAS apologised for posting a stylised image of the 1986 Challenger Disaster, confusing it with clouds.
The fashion giant sparked outrage after it reblogged the image on its Tumblr page with the hashtags “smoke” and “clouds”.
Seven people died when the space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight after a seal on a booster rocket failed.
The disaster grounded the entire space shuttle fleet for several years.
In a tweeted statement, American Apparel blamed the mishap on an employee who “was born after the tragedy and was unaware of the event”.
“The image was re-blogged in error by one of our international social media employees.”
The struggling label recently fired its founder and chief executive as part of an “investigation into alleged misconduct”.
Canadian Dov Charney has been suspended and will be let go in the next 30 days, the company said in a statement.
Charney, who was known for sometimes walking around his factories in his underpants, has been accused of sexual harassment by several of his own employees.
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