Last year was turbulent for Pakistani fashion. Some of the biggest names in the industry were called out for plagiarism, not just by local style watchdogs but also by international artists that they were plagiarising. It was embarrassing on a global level. Luckily, our designers have wisened up and claims of plagiarism are far and few this year.
Bassen's Instagram post included an excerpt from the original email response sent across by Zara's lawyers.
Plagiarism claims haunt retail giant Zara.
Last year was turbulent for Pakistani fashion. Some of the biggest names in the industry were called out for plagiarism, not just by local style watchdogs but also by international artists that they were plagiarising. It was embarrassing on a global level. Luckily, our designers have wisened up and claims of plagiarism are far and few this year.
However, in a shocking turn of events, Spanish retail giant Zara, global leaders in high-street fashion, have been struggling to deal with plagiarism claims this year. The international brand, with presence in over eighty countries, has been accused of lifting designs from indie artists and not giving the original designers credit for their work.
Artist Tuesday Bassen, a Los Angles based illustrator took to Instagram recently with a detailed post where she compared her art-work with Zara’s designs and wrote at length about her legal battles with the global retailer.
The fashion retailer is present in 88 countries and is beloved by monied fashionistas as well as regular consumers alike.
The artist claims that she was first alerted to similarities between her work and what Zara was bringing into retail when fans started emailing her. Those loyal to Bassen could instantly spot the similarities; in fact Zara practically lifted entire designs and copy pasted them onto their outfits. Bassen claims that when she hired a lawyer, an exorbitant process itself for a small artist, Zara dismissed all her claims by stating that they were retail giants and she a mere visual artist with no following or proper representation, implying that her claims didn’t hold any weight.
Bassen then took to social media, where she has over 100k followers and revealed the tiff to them. The LA based artist vowed to continue her fight, despite the fact that Zara has already belittled her claim and bullied her.
This isn’t the first time that the retail giant has been hit by claims of plagiarism. Artist Adam J. Kurtz has also called the brand out for copying his and other artists’ designs. Here’s our take on it: apparently everyone copies. It seems to be the fashion industry’s best kept non-secret. But if you’re going to lift something from another artist, be smart about it. Don’t get caught!
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Bassen's Instagram post included an excerpt from the original email response sent across by Zara's lawyers.
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The fashion retailer is present in 88 countries and is beloved by monied
fashionistas as well as regular consumers alike.
