The Israeli designer whose fashions were yanked from luxury sites Mytheresa and Net-A-Porter has apologized for a controversial video she posted on Instagram about the Hamas attacks – and has been reinstated by both retailers, The Post has learned.
Dodo Bar Or was “suspended” by online retailer Net-A-Porter, which said in a statement that “Discrimination, hate, and violence have no place on our platforms.” Meanwhile, online retailer Mytheresa did not initially address the situation but quietly removed the upscale label from its site.
Both retailers reversed course on Thursday, with Mytheresa issuing its first statement about the controversy.
“Over the weekend we became aware of a video posted by a designer that we felt crossed the line into inflammatory content,” Mytheresa said in a statement.
“We moved quickly to remove the related brand from Mytheresa.com. The original post has been removed and context was given in the meantime by the designer. We have taken the decision to bring the brand back online.”
A spokesman for the Israeli designer, Dorit Bar Or– a former actress– said that the designer had been “in contact” with the retailers.
The luxury sites were responding to a video Bar Or posted that depicts a scene from the movie “Independence Day” in which a spaceship is encircled by Palestine and ISIS flags destroying a tower bearing flags of Western nations including the US and Great Britain.
The Muslim call to prayer known as Adhan is heard in the background as the tower erupts in a fireball and the words “The West is Next” appear across the screen as does “#hamas=isis #freegazafromhamas.”
“I had not realized this warning video was led by the voice of Adhan in the background, I did not mean to offend anyone by that,” the designer wrote in a statement on Instagram.
At the same time, Bar Or reiterated her condemnation of the Oct. 7 attacks.
“I have stood by my country in helping to search for the missing people from a music festival” and by “raising money for families whose houses were burnt to ashes by terrorists or for kids whose parents were viciously murdered in the most barbaric unimaginable ways possible,” Bar Or wrote. “But Mostly, by raising awareness around the world for these crimes.”
Pro-Palestine influencers and consumers reacted swiftly to her post over the weekend, alerting the retailers about Bar Or’s social media posts, which ultimately led to the short-lived bans.
Bar Or’s supporters, meanwhile, mobilized over the past couple of days threatening boycotts of Munich-based Mytheresa and Swiss-based Net-A-Porter, which is owned by the Swiss luxury conglomerate Richemont.
Net-A-Porter did not immediately respond to a query for comment, but its website lists some 33 Dodo Bar Or items, including shearling coats for $3,320 and a crocheted sleeveless dress for $847.
The retailers’ response to the social media outcry is in contrast to a situation involving Sephora, in which pro-Israel supporters are calling on the chain to stop selling products by a pro-Palestine beauty entrepreneur — Huda Kattan — who said she “doesn’t want blood money” from Israeli customers.
A change.org petition that has some 21,000 signatures is calling on Sephora to drop Huda Beauty from its stores.
Sephora has not responded to the petition or to The Post’s requests for comments.
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