KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — Fashion brand Zara has apologised to a Filipino trans woman who was barred from trying on clothes in the women’s fitting room at its Bonifacio Global City (BGC) branch in Manila.

The incident came to light after Louis Marasigan shared on her TikTok the pile of clothes she was paying for at the counter. She had been unable to try them on because a Zara BGC employee prohibited her from the women’s dressing room, Coconuts Manila reported.

Marasigan also recounted the Zara BGC employee had asked her to go to the men's fitting room instead.

Needless to say, the clip went viral and was viewed 1.8 million times with 121,300 reactions.

In a separate clip showing Marasigan crying, she shared how she had to deal with the female staff who addressed her as "sir”.

The staff also told her that they might receive complaints if she was allowed to use the fitting rooms although no one was using them at the time.

Marasigan, who is a municipal councilor in San Juan, Batangas, later shared that the brand had reached out to her two days after the original video was posted, with screenshots of calls coming from a number in Shanghai, China.

According to Marasigan, she had a long conversation with a brand representative, who invited her to visit the store again and witness the staff’s gender sensitivity training first-hand and to offer points for further improvement