Forever 21 Accused of Ripping Off Another Designer — Again
In the past few months Forever 21 has been hit with countless plagiarism accusations: Back in August, Emily Oberg, an editorial producer at Complex, accused the retailer of ripping off her company’s design; a month before that, the company was accused of plagiarizing Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo-inspired merchandise.
Now, in the latest allegation, the retailer has been slammed by Marta Freedman, the owner of popular Instagram account Hot Girls Eating Pizza, for allegedly ripping off her Kanye West–inspired design.
The shirt in question is Forever 21’s ‘I Feel Like Pizza’ Graphic Tee, which is available in green and retails for $8.90. It bears a striking resemblance to the T-shirt design Hot Girls Eating Pizza uploaded a month ago. The shirt reads, “I Feel Like Pizza,” which is a parody of Kanye West’s “I Feel Like Pablo” slogan, which is emblazoned on many pieces from his official tour merchandise.
A photo posted by HOT GIRLS EATING PIZZA (@h0tgirlseatingpizza) on Aug 31, 2016 at 9:23am PDT
Freedman noticed the similarity between her design with that of Forever 21’s and uploaded a screenshot of the retailer’s shirt, adding, “Does it count if it’s a parody of a parody?????????????”
Freedman felt that her replication was a tribute to West, and that Forever 21 was simply out to make a profit with its replication. “I’m not the first to parody Kanye’s Pablo shirts, but I did move forward after learning Kanye was in approval of 17-year-old Austin Butts making DIY reproductions earlier this year,” Freedman told Nylon.
Although Freedman doesn’t plan to reach out to Forever 21 personally, she hopes that, by calling the retailer out on social media, she can help raise awareness for the designers that have been knocked off by large, fast-fashion retailers. “I really feel for those designers, artists, and collectives — whose artwork is their livelihood — that lose rent money over a Zara reproduction or a Forever 21 knockoff,” she said. “I think it’s cool that everyone is banding together to ‘fight back,’ and at the very least, trying to make the consumer aware that this is not okay.”
Forever 21 did not immediately respond to Yahoo Beauty’s request for comment, but we will update if we hear back.
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