Zara Accused of Stealing the Work of 26 Independent Designers

Zara clothes manufacturer was accused of plagiarism for illegally using the elements created by independent designers on their products, Dazed writes.

The first to notice that her work was stolen was Los Angeles-based artist Tuesday Bassen, who posted a story about it on Instagram last week. She says that Zara used her works multiple times last year.

“I had my lawyer contact Zara, and they literally said I have no (case) because I’m an indie artist and they’re a major corporation. Not enough people even know about me for it to matter, — Bassen said.

After the story was featured in the media, another independent artist — Adam J. Kurtz — who has something similar happen to him, created a website called ShopArtTheft where he collected the examples of works of other designers stolen by the company.

“We were all surprised to find that our creative work was suddenly all over Zara product, — Kurtz says. — Though some of the themes maybe be simple shapes or icons, Zara’s replications are near-identical, and it implies a conscious choice by Zara, Bershka, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius and the parent company Inditex to not bother making significant modifications.”