Store: Product for young girls not a bra

The items for 6-8-year-old girls, including a Santoni heart-patterned design and a lace-trimmed design, were previously marketed by Marks & Spencer as "a great way of getting girls used to the idea of wearing bras" but backed off the description after objections from child protection groups, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

"We've campaigned to combat a trend toward the sexualization of children and one aspect of this is the production and selling of clothes that are absolutely inappropriate," Claude Knights, director of child protection charity Kidscape, told The Daily Telegraph.

Officials with the department store said the tops aren't bras and apologized for the way they had been labeled.

"We're sorry that the labeling of our Santoni top has caused confusion," the officials said in a statement. "The garment is designed to be worn under clothing and doesn't feature any support or padding, which makes it totally appropriate for its intended age range. All future packaging of the product will be correctly labeled and we have already altered its online description.
We are totally committed to ensuring our clothing offer is age appropriate."

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