Every couple of months, like clockwork, a mass retailer does something so blatantly clumsy that you almost have to wonder whether it was actually intentional. The latest gaffe comes courtesy of Zara in the form a denim skirt that's being criticized for featuring an embroidery that closely resembles Pepe the Frog, a meme that's been appropriated by hate groups.
The skirt in question features two frogs: one in the same green shade as Pepe, and one a mirror image in a darker green hue. Both share Pepe's characteristic thin red lips and bulging eyes, which are obscured by sunglasses.
Pepe, a character that began as an innocuous creation by illustrator Matt Furie, was co-opted by a number of hate groups and ultimately declared a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League last year. Chicago fashion and music writer Meagan Fredette was the first to draw considerable attention to the inclusion of Pepe, or his very close relative, on the offending skirt, tweeting, "Zara is really out there trying to sell a P*pe the frog skirt, apparently unaware (?) of its current implications."
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It would be surprising if no one at Zara was cognizant of the implications of the image, since Pepe gained significant notoriety during the 2016 presidential election, as his image was heavily used by alt-right groups, anti-Semitic factions, white supremacists, and other hate organizations who created Pepe-as-Trump memes. The usage culminated in an explainer by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the ADL hate symbol designation.
The fact that the skirt even exists raises the same question we've been asking for years: Who’s approving this stuff? True, Zara is a Spanish company, so the argument could be made that nuance might get lost in translation, but Zara's also one of the world's most visible, profitable global brands—it's valued at $10.7 billion, according to Forbes—so one might assume they'd take measures to employ the world's sharpest minds, as far as due diligence is concerned.
The company got a ton of rightful flak in 2014 for a kids’ shirt that—with its stripes and yellow star detail—looked remarkably similar to a concentration camp uniform, and has been accused of allegedly ripping off designers and featuring deceptive "body positive" advertising.
In the wake of the backlash, Zara seems to have removed the Pepe skirt from its website. Glamour has reached out to the retailer for comment and has not yet received a response.
