Adam started an online campaign called shoparttheft to display a few examples of the many designs Zara have robbed from independent illustrators and designers like himself. Now an army of angry illustrators are taking to their social medias to promote shoparttheft and to stop Zara reproduceding their work as t-shirt prints, patches, and badges. (See @tuesdaybassen @yosickzine @sarahmlyons @_gabriel_samchez)
Badge designs are often simple, but these Zara knock-offs are near-identical in shape, font, colour, concept and finish! The victims are also a tight group of independent illustrators and designers that Zara must have consciously targeted without anticipating a backlash.
Copyright does not apply to fashion, which has allowed Zara to rip off many runway looks in the past, but it does apply to art and illustration; all the designs copied by Zara were original works of art before they were then turned into products by the illustrator, and subsequently Zara.
None of the illustrators in disagreement with Zara have signed any art art licensing agreements with the high street brand. Unsure of how Zara first came across their artwork, or why they were using it, some illustrators sought answers. Tuesday Bassen sent a legal letter to Inditex, Zara’s parent company, but only received a dismissive reply that refused to admit copyright infringement and used her small following to excuse their actions!
"The lack of distinctiveness of your client's purported designs makes it very hard to see how a significant part of the population anywhere in the world would associate the signs with Tuesday Bassen," it reads.
Many other cases are now becoming apparent, but the extent of Zara’s product design pilfering is not yet known. With stores all over the world, Zara could have been stealing illustrations from many more unsuspecting artists!
For a global company to be infringing copyright legalities and exploiting independent creatives is inexcusable. Inditex have recently released the statement:
"Inditex's legal team is also in contact with Tuesday Bassen's lawyers to clarify and resolve the situation as swiftly as possible… We are also currently investigating other allegations of illustrations used on badges provided by external suppliers on a case by case basis."
Blaming ‘external suppliers’ is the age-old scape goat used by so many corporate companies when they are under scrutiny, but it seems unlikely that their suppliers could have made the same mistake over a dozen times this season.
“When you’re trying to make this full-time creative thing work – which is a huge scary risk – it’s extremely disheartening,” Adam explained to the Guardian. “It tells us that our work is worth nothing.”
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Images @shoparttheft
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