Nordstrom yanks prescription pill-themed luxury fashion line

Caving to pressure, Nordstrom has pulled the plug on a luxury fashion line inspired by prescription pills.

Critics charge that the collection was irresponsible and in poor taste for glamorizing drug culture amid a raging opioid crisis.

The collection, which was designed by the Italian brand Moschino, will no longer be sold either online or in the several retail locations where it had been available, Nordstrom spokeswoman Emily Sterken confirmed on Thursday afternoon. Nordstrom told STAT on Tuesday and continued to say afterward that it had no plans to discontinue the line.

But in the last few days, an online petition to boycott Nordstrom and Moschino has gathered steam, reaching nearly 1,500 signatures by Thursday afternoon. Other people complained with calls or messages to Nordstrom.

Randy Anderson, the Minneapolis drug and alcohol counselor who started the petition, told STAT that Nordstrom’s decision to yank the line is “a huge win.” It’s a sign, he said, “that people are becoming more educated, that they’re more well-informed about how products like this can be part of the problem.”

Anderson said he’s not finished yet. He’s now going to focus his efforts on pushing Saks Fifth Avenue, which also carries the line, to stop selling it.

The fashion line includes a $995 dress fashioned after a prescription pill label and a $950 purse shaped like a pill bottle. Those items can still be viewed on Nordstrom’s website, now with a note that they are not available.