Fashion house Trovata, a preppy sportswear label out of California, is filing a lawsuit against Forever 21 - just the latest in a string of charges condemning the chic-for-cheap store for creating knockoffs.
Designer John Whitledge claims Forever 21 sought to "deceive its consumers by copying Trovata designs, patterns, prints and labels over several seasons," according to the New York Times.
These designs and patterns include distinctive buttons, decorative stitching, patterns and other details, according to Women's Wear Daily. "The design features on the Trovata designs are rather generic and are not protected by copyrights," Forever 21 lawyer Bruce Brunda said.
Federal copyright law protects original prints and graphics but not basic designs, which some consider Trovata's stripes to be, according to Women's Wear Daily.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America is working to convince Congress to pass the Design Piracy Prohibition Act. It would extend copyright laws to the "appearance as a whole of an article" of clothing, Women's Wear Daily reported.
Other major designers have accused Forever 21 of the same infringement Trovata claims. Fifty such cases have been filed against Forever 21 since 2005.
Gwen Stefani sued on the basis that the company had imitated her Harajuku Lovers line. One of these knockoffs, a handbag with Stefani's signature phrase "Love, Angel, Music, Baby," had been altered only slightly, according to the New York Post.
Another pattern that included alternating Japanese symbols and hearts was also nearly an exact imitation of a Stefani piece.
Designer Anna Sui filed a lawsuit against Forever 21 for 26 potential violations - the most notable was the bold stripe and roses print. In response to the alleged infractions, Sui designed a T-shirt that features Do Won and Jin Sook Chang, the founders of Forever 21, in a Western-themed wanted ad.
The shirts, which were included in the 2008 runway show gift bags, have one of the Ten Commandments printed on them: "Thou shalt not steal," according to an article in the Village Voice.
This reaction is surprisingly hostile considering Sui "has based an entire career on resuscitating, revamping and rethinking the vintage fashions of the 1960s and '70s," the Village Voice reported.
The Village Voice also pointed out that retailer Anthropologie, who filed a lawsuit against Forever 21, carries designs that are strikingly similar to designs from Marni, Dries Van Noten and Marc Jacobs. Marc Jacobs has even been accused of being too heavily influenced by designers such as Commes des Garcons and John Galliano - further proof that no design is truly original.
"I have my interpretation of ideas I find very strong," Jacobs said in an issue of Women's Wear Daily. "Anybody who's aware of what life is in a contemporary world is influenced by those designers."
Lesser-known designer Seema Anand would agree. "We don't copy anything. We tweak it. We get inspired before we create it," she told the New York Times.
According to Axel Madsen, Coco Chanel's biographer, "Chanel proclaimed that knockoffs were nothing more than 'spontaneous publicity' ... it was hopeless to try and fight it, that piracy was the flattering result of success."
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