Of all places to rip off a design from, Versace chose American Apparel. According to The Cut, this black and white design of a face was the work of Kesh, a L.A.-based designer that created a capsule collection for American Apparel back in 2013. And it's still available. I mean, it's not like Versace's even trying to be slick by pulling a very obscure design from a collection decades back or something.
Today, Kesh posted up an Instagram of her work (left) next to the brand new Versace tee (right). I mean, just look at this shit. I'm not sure I've ever seen a more blatant rip that wasn't straight word for word plagiarism. Granted, I've never designed clothing and I understand that things can appear similar through totally natural and organic means, but come the fuck on. Meanwhile, the Versace shirt is listed at $650 and sold out in nearly half the sizes.
There's a long line of big brands pulling work from smaller designers without any financial repercussion due to the often insurmountable court costs for the little guys. Urban Outfitters has basically made a career out of it. I don't support theft in any form (except for dank memes to post on the timeline), but if you're going to steal, you gotta at least give it a little more attention than copying and pasting into Photoshop. Hopefully this becomes high-profile enough that Kesh will walk away with a nice little settlement. She has released the following statement, though Versace is yet to reply:
I have always had a deep admiration for Versace. It's an iconic brand that has stood the test of time. I am deeply disappointed in this. This is not only artwork from a show that took me two years to develop and create. It is not only artwork from a collection that I created for American Apparel to provide something affordable and accessible to supporters of my work. But this is also my face! I can't understand how something like this could happen
