CHESTER, England, Nov. 6 (UPI) — Two 19-year-old British coeds are in hot water after wearing dresses depicting the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York City’s Twin Towers.
University of Chester students Amber Langford and Annie Collinge have apologized for their outfits, which won them a Halloween competition at a Chester nightclub, and said they didn’t intend to offend anyone.
“We never meant to be offensive, but we apologize if any offense was caused,” they said in a statement.
“The idea was to depict a serious, modern-day horror that happened in our lifetime and was not intended as a joke.”
But their dresses, emblazoned with flames and explosions, have drawn condemnation from university officials and some of their schoolmates, the BBC reported Wednesday.
The college’s students union leaders said they “utterly condemn the appalling photos, which have been shared on social media.”
A spokeswoman for the school said “an urgent investigation” was being conducted into the matter, but didn’t say whether any action would be taken against the two young women, the network said.
Langford and Collinge won 150 pounds (about $241) in shopping vouchers for their controversial sartorial efforts.
A spokeswoman for the Stonegate Pub Co., which runs the nightclub that held the fancy dress competition, said the company was “extremely concerned that an award of shopping vouchers was made to two young women who were dressed in a distasteful and offensive manner” and called the decision by the disc jockey who had been hired for the event to award the pair the prize “a serious error of judgment.”
The company also apologized for the episode.
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