He would like to report two crimes against fashion!
Global couture chain Zara plagiarized designs from a Williamsburg artist, the creative type claims — and it didn’t even do a good job!
“Their copy of my art is obvious, but the actual quality is so bad that it’s laughable,” said Adam J Kurtz, an author and artist who sells pins, T-shirts, and tote bags online.
A Twitter tipster in June first let Kurtz know that Bershka — a sister store to European fast fashion juggernaut Zara, which is opening its first Brooklyn outpost in Marine Park this year — had some pins that were suspiciously similar to his, including one of a plastic bag with “thank you” written on it and a yellow button that says “I’d much rather be with you” and looks just like one of his reading “I’d much rather be sleeping.”
He e-mailed the company several times, and it eventually took the listing off its online store, he says — and that might have been the end of it, had another graphic design pal of his not found an entire knock-off-bling ring.
Artist Tuesday Bassen discovered a whole swathe of brooches on Zara’s website she said were direct copies of hers and tweeted it out to the world, and other artists then started rooting around its catalogs, Kurtz said. Now there are 20 designers all claiming the company and its subsidiary stores have pilfered their pins and patches this year, he says.
Designs and concepts do sometimes colonize the artistic hive mind, he acknowledges, but when that many artists can point to such close approximations of their work, it is no mistake.
“It’s very clear that this isn’t human error,” Kurtz said. “This was an intentional strategy to steal art from independent artists abroad who might never see it or know how to fight it.”
But they are fighting back now.
Bassen hired attorneys to reach out to the retail empire, but Zara’s parent company Inditex waved her accusations off, saying her designs lacked any “distinctiveness,” and that a handful of complaints about copycat designs paled in comparison to the millions of people who shop on Zara and Bershka’s sites every month.
Kurtz says he hasn’t yet decided if he will pursue legal action, but he has set up a website called Shop Art Theft that highlights all of the artists’ original designs and the alleged rip-offs, and points readers to where they can buy the real deal.
It’s also just a really great place to pick up some neat accessories, he says.
“It’s honestly like a who’s-who of the independent artist pins scene, so you might find some new favorites,” he said.
Inditex did not respond to a request for comment by press time, but sent a statement to other news outlets claiming it is investigating Bessen’s allegations and has stopped selling the questionable products in the meantime.
This is not the first time borough artisans have accused hip retail chains of peddling knockoff jewelry — two Brooklyn Flea vendors accused Urban Outfitters of swiping their designs in 2010.
