Fashion is super cool, it’s rich people who decide when you should stop wearing the clothes you bought with the little money you have to buy new ones while yours were still in good condition. But despite this, fashion also suffers from bad sides, such as the theft of designs or artistic works to put on clothes and make money without reimbursing or mentioning the original artist.
1. Gucci who plagiarized Dapper Dan
In wanting to pay “homage” to hip hop culture, one of the designers of the Gucci house had completely stolen ideas from the designer of Harlem Dapper Dan. The one who was accused in the 80s of himself doing counterfeiting and who had been forced to close up shop had managed to obtain his revenge when he was honored with a prestigious award for his entire career a few years later, but from there to stealing his designs to pay homage to him is not enough.
2. The Guess brand that stole Banksy’s works to make clothes
It’s hard to ask an anonymous author his opinion, but is that a reason to behave like a real bastard and steal the works to make money? No, obviously. And that’s why the famous street-artist did not appreciate the movement at all and made it known by encouraging people to simply shoplift the clothes in a London store.
3. Zara who was accused of stealing the drawings of an illustrator
In fact, we could make a long list of all the times Zara stole ideas from right to left and American artist Tuesday Bassen paid the price when she discovered designs on clothes that totally resembled hers. But since she was an independent artist and it was a big company, she didn’t have the clout to lobby at all, which often happens in the United States. Too nice of Zara not to recognize his wrongs in any case.
4. Ralph Lauren and traditional Mexican clothing
Stealing designs does not necessarily mean stealing the work of artists or different brands but can squarely refer to stealing the culture of an entire people, we even call it cultural appropriation. The Ralph Lauren brand had done the trick by stealing traditional Mexican clothing designs and had to apologize to the whole country when the affair had taken on rather enormous proportions. At least they admitted their mistake and went back to making polo shirts.
5. Shein who was accused of stealing Zara’s models (and therefore stealing a thief)
If you start stealing models from Zara who are themselves accused of stealing models, don’t be surprised to see the same clothes everywhere. As a result, the Shein brand has been in the crosshairs of the rest of the world for a long time, especially since this brand is really often singled out for actions of the kind and the working conditions of its employees. It’s not for nothing that we gave you the reasons why Shein is the worst brand in the world.
6. Yves Saint Laurent who stole a handbag design from a young Senegalese designer
Even when you are a haute couture brand that obviously has an important history, you can obviously afford to steal the work of others. At least that’s what fashion designer Sarah Diouf tried to prove when she discovered in a YSL collection in 2017 an oddly sized handbag she had created. When we have more inspiration we look for another job, we will not steal that of others. In any case, it’s not the first time that YSL got into trouble, like with their fashion shows that caused a scandal.
7. Louis Vuitton and the scarf of the Maasai warriors
The cultural appropriation of the history and motifs of the Maasai community in Kenya has been stolen many times before by companies like Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and many others. For years, members of the community have been trying to raise their voices and stop the big corporations from making a buck out of their traditional patterns and outfits. Piss off these people for shamelessly stealing other people’s jobs.
8. The Frida Kahlo Foundation which partners with the fast-fashion brand of hell Shein
We told you about that in the top of the rights holders who did shit with their heritage, when some of Frida Kahlo’s rights holders agreed to receive money to collaborate with the Shein brand to make clothes inspired by the artist’s works, it kind of screwed up the mess. The painter’s descendants have been fighting for years against the famous money-hungry foundation, which had already done the trick with the Puma brand for a series of clothes or even had a Barbie made with the effigy of the painter with the Mattel brand.