Forever 21 Apologizes for Using White Model to Sell ‘Black Panther’ Sweaters

The claws came out against Forever 21 Tuesday after the retailer used a blond-haired, blue-eyed white model to sell a “Black Panther” sweater.

The purple, yellow and orange Fair Isle sweater reads “Wakanda Forever” across the front, and is going for $34.90 a pop.

But fans were less than pleased to see it being modeled by a fair-skinned white man, as the Marvel superhero is famously the very first mainstream hero of African descent.

“Black Panther,” directed by Ryan Coogler and featuring a predominantly black cast, has earned more than $700 million at the domestic box office, and more than $1.3 billion worldwide since its release in February.

The questionably marketed sweater has since been deleted from Forever 21’s online store, but the retailer drew attention to it earlier Tuesday in a since-deleted tweet.

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Still, the damage was done, with “Black Panther” fans expressing anger on social media at Forever 21’s obvious-in-hindsight overlook.

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