ROME (Kyodo) Italian shirt maker G. Inglese has released the Premier collection of multicolored patchwork shirts to remove the stain inflicted on its brand name when former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama wore such a shirt in April and drew media flak, its president said.
Angelo Inglese, president of the designer shirt maker based in the southern Italian city of Ginoso, said Wednesday he decided to release the eight types of high-quality checked shirts to counter the negative publicity his firm received when Hatoyama, reportedly a G. Inglese shirt buff, wore a checked patchwork shirt at a barbecue on April 4 at his official residence.
Hatoyama came under fire from CNN and other news organizations for wearing the red, yellow, green, purple and blue-checked plaid shirt at the event called "Real Hato Cafe." At the time, CNN quoted a designer as calling the shirt a "fashion disaster."
The patchwork shirt worn by Hatoyama was then reported to be the product of G. Inglese.
But the company's president told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in mid-May that Hatoyama's shirt was not his company's product, while describing the shirt as being of "shoddy" quality.
He said he sent a package of his company's shirts to the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo two days before Hatoyama's sudden announcement of his decision to resign.
He said he believes his shirts were handed on to new Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
Each shirt retails for 250 euro (about ¥28,000). Inglese said his company has already received a number of business inquiries from fashion buyers from Japan and the United States.