Pharrell Williams has issued an apology for wearing a Native American headdress on the cover of a British magazine.

The singer appears on the front of this month’s Elle magazine, trading his famous brown hat for the feathered headdress. However, the fashion decision led to a host of negative comments from people who say that it is offensive to wear Native American headdress if you are not a Native American chief. Pharrell has previously claimed Native American and Egyptian heritages.

“I respect and honor every kind of race, background and culture. I am genuinely sorry,” he said via a publicist.

As a press release from Elle UK reveals, the choice of headwear may have come from Elle UK’s editorial staff. “[W]e persuaded ELLE Style Award winner Pharrell to trade his Vivienne Westwood mountie hat for a native American feather headdress in his best ever shoot,” it said.

As the Washington Post reports, Elle UK’s Facebook page has been flooded with negative comments, and the hashtag #nothappy also appeared on Twitter yesterday, referring to the singer’s Number One hit single ‘Happy’.