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On Wednesday, Furie said via email that Zara had not sought his permission to use Pepe the Frogs likeness.

Zara offended consumers with its accidental Pepe the Frog denim skirt.

In a statement emailed to Mashable, a spokesperson for Zara contested any link to the meme and said the skirt was part of a limited collection created through a collaboration with artist Mario de Santiago, known online as Yimeisgreat. After being appropriated by groups linked to white supremacy, the Pepe the Frog meme was labeled a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League a year ago.

We simply dont see how this skirt made it past all the stages from initial design to being sold online without at least one person thinking: wait, isnt that the frog white supremacists keep posting on Twitter.

While the character itself was originally created by illustrator Matt Furie as a benign cartoon, it was widely adopted by alt-right and anti-Semitic groups for communicating on social-media forums, reaching its peak during the American presidential election a year ago as it continued to pop up in racial contexts.

Zara has not commented on the skirt snafu, but the skirt is no longer available online.

Created in 2005 by Matt Furie, Pepe the frog was later claimed by hate-based groups. They dont look much like the alt-right icon in the first place, aside from general frogginess, and the artist has explicitly stated that there is absolutely no link to the suggested theme.

And although Zara has come under fire for offensive and controversial clothing such as the shirt alluding to the Holocaust we may have to give the retailer the benefit of the doubt on this one.

In September 2007, Zara removed a handbag with embroidered swastikas that was manufactured in India and inspired by commonly used Hindu symbols, which include the swastika.

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Zara's Pepe the Frog Skirt Pulled After Internet Backlash PPP Focus - pppFocus

This week is all about dealing with anxiety, creating your own online community and what it's like to transition in the public eye.

Whats better than one guest? TWO GUESTS. Well, three if you count each person separately. Yeah, thats right its a double whammy on this weeks episode of the PopBuzz Podcast and boy, its a gooden.

If youre struggling with your mental health, you might wanna tune into this one. First up, we were joined by Ashley Dun and Jesse Cale, the co-creators of an incredible project called Secret Midnight Press. Theyve set up an online community that encourages people to use and channel their creativity to address their worries, anxiety and depression. You can read more about Secret Midnight Press right here. Or, ya know, you can hit that play button and let them explain it to ya.

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Did you hear about high-street fashion chain Zara who got in a spot of bother this week for adding what looks like Pepe the Frog onto one of their denim skirts? They must have missed the memo about Pepe now being an official hate symbol. Yeah that was a nightmare.

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Radio X did a poll recently that sought to find Britains greatest song and we run down the top five and give our own suggestions for the bands and tracks that were sadly (and unjustly) overlooked. The following gif may or may not hint at what we declared the best British song of all time

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The PopBuzz Podcast Ep 29: Ashley Dun & Jesse Cale, Carmen Carrera, Paramore And Pepe - PopBuzz

A fast-fashion retailer is in hot water over a hate symbol.

Zara, a Spanish clothing chain, pulled a skirt from its website after people pointed out that an applique cartoon character on it bore a striking resemblance to "Pepe the Frog," a fictional frog that has been adopted by "alt-right" groups.

Meagan Fredette, a freelance writer from Chicago, was the first person to point it out. She said she was browsing Zara's site Monday evening when she noticed the skirt. She tweeted about it and then went to sleep, assuming nothing would come of it.

By Wednesday, the skirt was no longer available on Zara's website. The retailer confirmed to several news outlets that the item had been pulled from real and virtual shelves. (Zara did not respond to emailed requests for comment from The Times.)

Pepe rose to prominence last year, his visage appearing in memes about Adolf Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan. People who identified as members of white nationalist and other far-right groups added the green frog emoji to their Twitter handle or display name.

Last summer, Donald Trump Jr. posted a photo on Instagram labeled "The Deplorables" referencing the movie The Expendables and a comment that Hillary Clinton made about supporters of his father, Donald Trump which showed Pepe alongside Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Rudy Giuliani and other people involved with Trumps presidential campaign.

In September, the Anti-Defamation League said it was formally declaring Pepe the Frog a hate symbol.

Matt Furie, an artist based in L.A.'s Koreatown neighborhood, created Pepe the Frog back in 2005. He said in an interview last October that having his creation associated with anti-Semitism and white nationalism was his "worst nightmare."

On Wednesday, Furie said via email that Zara had not sought his permission to use Pepe the Frogs likeness.

The skirt in question was designed by a Spanish artist, Mario de Santiago, as part of Zara's "Oil-On-Denim" collection, which launched this month in stores and online. In a statement, the company said de Santiago created the design based on a painting he made with friends several years ago and that it had no link to the suggested theme.

De Santiago replied to Fredette's tweets, saying his design was "never intended to promulgate hate" and that he was sorry. "I feel shame for this," he wrote. (He later deleted those tweets, but Fredette provided the Times with screenshots of them.)

This is not the first time that Zara has had to pull a questionable product. In 2014, the brand publicly apologized for selling a shirt that looked like something concentration camp prisoners wore. In 2007, it stopped selling a purse that had swastika symbols embroidered on it.

Fredette, who has written about fashion for outlets like Paper Magazine and Refinery29, said she wasnt surprised that this happened to Zara again. In order for fast-fashion retailers like Zara to keep prices low, she said, they have to cut corners on quality control. She said the blame lies with Zara, not the designer, for not recognizing the implications of the frog.

"Someone should have seen this before it was produced and put up for sale," she said.

Follow me on Twitter @jessica_roy.

jessica.roy@latimes.com

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Zara pulls denim skirt after 'Pepe the Frog' accusations - Los Angeles Times

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.

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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."

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: Whos 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 brandsit'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 thatwith its stripes and yellow star detaillooked 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.

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WTH Is Zara Selling a Skirt Featuring a Pepe the Frog Look-alike? - Allure Magazine

Oh, Zara.Here we go again.

The retailer, a repeat offender when it comes to offensive productsand advertising, is under fire yet again for carrying a skirt embroidered with a character resembling Pepe the Frog.

The cartoon amphibian has become a symbol of hate after being coopted by anti-Semites and white supremacists.

Pepe was originallyan innocent stoner charactercreated by artist Matt Furie in 2005, but was turned into amascot for the alt-righton websites like 4chan and Reddit and is listed as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.

Matt Furie

Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images

Though the ADL notes that because so many Pepe the Frog memes are not bigoted in nature, it is important to examine use of the meme only in context, its shocking Zara didnt see the skirt as problematic. The item marks yet another blunder for the hugely successful yet troubled clothing chain, reminding us of the time in 2014 it sold pajamas that looked exactly like concentration camp uniforms.

Zara pulled the skirt from its website,but not before Twitter got a look.

Some people, though, are still grappling with the fact that a cartoon frog ever became so controversial in the first place.

The skirt appeared to be styled with the Zaras Nope denim jacket, which is a pretty perfect way to sum up our feelings about the whole thing.

Zara

In an email to The Huffington Post, a Zara spokeswoman stated that the image was not intended to look like Pepe.

The skirt is part of the limited Oil-On-Denim collection which was created through collaborations with artists and is only available in selected markets, she said. The designer of the skirt is Mario de Santiago, known online as Yimeisgreat. Mario explores social interactions through his work and in his own words, The idea came from a wall painting I drew with friends some years ago. There is absolutely no link to the suggested theme.

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Zara's 'Pepe The Frog' Skirt Is Just Wrong, Wrong, Wrong ...