Last Updated on December 6, 2021
Burlington, the department store, is set to remove underwear that look like skimpy thongs seemingly marketed towards children, after a concerned mother posted pictures on Facebook.
At the end of last month, Shaye Thomas, of Houston, Texas, was shopping at the local Burlington department store, when she was disturbed to find in the “little girls section” a number of skimpy “thongs” seemingly marketed towards children. In a post on Facebook that quickly went viral, Thomas described the underwear, which had a thong design of narrow crotch areas, but decorated with cute images such as ice lollies and butterflies, as a “disgrace” and “heartbreaking.”
Speaking to the feminist news outlet 4W, Thomas said that the thongs were definitely marketed towards children, as they were so small her 9-year-old daughter would have fit into them. She confirmed that she took all of the underwear on sale off the rack, over 10 pairs in total, and took them to store staff as she was leaving to ask for an explanation.
“I asked [an employee] when did they start selling thongs for little children, and she told me they had for a while,” Thomas said. The underwear notably had small scrunchies tagged on that were sold together as a package, and staff confirmed that “anything with a scrunchie attached is for children.” Thomas later expressed in the comments section of her viral Facebook post that she wished she had just bought them all and thrown them away.
After 4W posted the story on Sunday, Burlington responded on Twitter. “We appreciate you bringing this to our attention,” the store tweeted. “We are working with our teams to remove this product from our stores.” It is unclear in how many Burlington stores the underwear is sold.
We appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We are working with our teams to remove this product from our stores.
— Burlington (@Burlington) December 5, 2021
Through a closer inspection of the photos posted by Thomas, the underwear appears to have product tags from the lingerie company René Rofé attached to them. National File has reached out to René Rofé for comment on this story, and has asked them to confirm if the thongs are part of their range or not. National File could not find the same designs sold online.
