Oh, Zara. You tried to make a cool thing. You made a skirt with a hate symbol painted on it instead. What are you like?

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Zara has had to take down a skirt from their website, after people (rightly) pointed out that the pattern they’d painted on looked a lot like Pepe the frog, a meme that turned into a hate symbol used by white supremacists.

The denim skirt, complete with two Pepe-esque frogs, was listed online as part of a whole load of painted denim.

Most designs were inoffensive: jackets emblazoned with ‘nope’ and paintings of tigers.


But then there was Pepe. Frogs on a denim skirt. Frogs that looked a lot like the particular frog first created by Matt Furie in 2005 (as a harmless cartoon) but later used by hate groups and classified as a hate symbol in September by the Anti-Defamation League thanks to its racist and anti-Semitic usage.



If Pepe the frog were a new, less publicised meme, we could understand how Zara might have unintentionally painted a frog that looked like Pepe and been unaware of its meanings.

(Picture: Matt Furie)

But Pepe’s meaning has been shared pretty far and wide.

We simply don’t see how this skirt made it past all the stages from initial design to being sold online without at least one person thinking: ‘wait, isn’t that the frog white supremacists keep posting on Twitter.’

People on the internet spotted the skirt and started roundly bashing Zara for selling it.

hmm Pepe on a Zara skirt. wtf? — Chris Carella (@ccarella) April 18, 2017

Zara hasn’t yet responded to the criticism, but they do appear to have stopped selling the skirt online. It’s no longer visible on their website.

Which is all a bit embarrassing, really.

But in case you’ve forgotten, this isn’t the first time Zara’s landed themselves in controversy thanks to sticking something offensive on an item of clothing.

The brand previously got bashed for selling a striped t-shirt with what looked like a Star of David badge, as well as a bag with a swastika embroidered on the side. (Alt-)Right, then.

Anyone who's surprised about Zara's Pepe the frog skirt probably doesn't remember this. I do. pic.twitter.com/GDaWmXSJng — OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) April 18, 2017

We’ve reached out to Zara for comment, and will update this story if we hear back.

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