Artists have been producing alternative hoodie designs in protest at H&M’s picture of a young black model in a hoodie saying “Coolest monkey in the jungle”.
The controversial picture appeared on the Swedish chain’s website, and led Canadian singer The Weeknd to announce he would no longer work with the brand.
woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore… pic.twitter.com/P3023iYzAb
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) January 8, 2018
But now a number of black artists have created alternative designs in response to the picture, featuring the likeness of the little boy who appeared wearing the offending garment.
Visual artist Kyle Yearwood created an animated piece featuring the young model.
The short clip shows the young boy standing in front of pyramids, wearing a spinning crown, with his green hoodie reading “royalty” instead of the original slogan.
Artist Theoplis Smith III drew a little boy, who bares a striking resemblance to the original model, wearing a hoodie saying “king of the jungle”.
One illustrator redesigned the hoodie with the slogan “young black king”.
Artist Thaddeus Coates also posted the image on his Twitter account. One person responded saying they hoped the model in the picture saw his redesign of the image.
Another artist added a little girl to his digital illustration.
In the picture two young models are wearing crowns and tiaras, with shirts saying they were the coolest kings and queens of the world.
Another piece of art widely shared on social media was by painter Kervin Andre.
With a crown levitating just above his head, the little boy in his image is wearing a hoodie saying “coolest king in the world”.
The original picture has now been removed from H&M’s website, and in a statement on Twitter the company said it would be removing the garment from its “product offering”.
— H&M (@hm) January 9, 2018
An image of a white child modelling a similar hoodie saying “Mangrove jungle official survival expert” remains on the site.