Zara Rips Off Independent Artist Tuesday Bassen’s Designs

Design News

Spanish fast-fashion brand Zara, not for the first time, has been accused of ripping off another artist for the sake of its designs: this time, independent artist Tuesday Bassen. Bassen is known for her very Instagrammable, cheeky designs that she sells on her website in the form of apparel, pins and patches.

Bassen was alerted to Zara’s copycatting by her substantial social media following and has since contacted the affordable-fashion empire through an attorney. The brand has refused to own up to the theft and has stated that, since Bassen’s brand is rather obscure, she can’t claim ownership to her own designs, as they aren’t widely recognized enough to be attributed exclusively to her. Bassen has taken to Instagram to express her frustration towards Zara and explain the process behind trying to sue one of the world’s largest brands.

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I’ve been pretty quiet about this, until now. Over the past year, @zara has been copying my artwork (thanks to all that have tipped me off—it’s been a lot of you). I had my lawyer contact Zara and they literally said I have no base because I’m an indie artist and they’re a major corporation and that not enough people even know about me for it to matter. I plan to further press charges, but even to have a lawyer get this LETTER has cost me $2k so far. ? It sucks and it’s super disheartening to have to spend basically all of my money, just to defend what is legally mine. ?? EDIT: Some of you are asking how you can help. Repost and tag them, on Twitter, on Insta, on Facebook. I don’t want to have to burden any of you with the financial strain that comes with lawsuits.

A photo posted by Tuesday Bassen (@tuesdaybassen) on

Bassen has already reportedly spent thousands of dollars trying to take legal action against the company, who responded:

We reject your claims here for reasons similar to those already stated above: 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.

Bassen has since tweeted that, despite obstacles, she’s gotten further legally as an independent artist than many other freelancers and designers who have faced similar problems with huge corporations, and is determined to see the lawsuit through to the end. Sadly, Bassen isn’t the only one who’s been ripped off by Zara—other popular indie-artists like Adam J. Kurtz, Georgia Perry, Big Bud Press and more have also faced problems with the brand. Kurtz tweeted about it on Wednesday:

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