'Made in Bangladesh': American Apparel Releases Controversial New Ad

American Apparel has sparked controversy once again with a new ad starring a topless former-Muslim model from Bangladesh.

The bold image, which appears in Vice magazine's U.S. and Canada editions, stars 22-year-old Maks, a merchandiser for American Apparel, who was born in Dhaka but has lived in California since the age of four.

The words 'Made in Bangladesh' are printed across her chest - referring to the woman, of course, not her jeans, a means of raising awareness about American Apparel's fair labor practices - all its clothing is made in downtown LA.

The powerful image is accompanied by a description of Maks, revealing how she was raised a strict Muslim but 'distanced herself' from her Islamic faith as she grew up, in search of her 'own identity.'

The words explain that the bare-chested beauty 'doesn't feel the need to identify herself as an American or a Bengali and is not content to fit her life into anyone else's conventional narrative.

Note

American Apparel has a long history of sparking outrage. In February, it gave the mannequins in the window of a Downtown New York store fake pubic hair as part of a Valentine's day stunt

Last year, an American Apparel campaign became the latest in a series of its ads to be banned in the UK for using 'overly sexualised' images