Fashion Nova Accused of Knocking Off Black Fashion Designers AGAIN! #culturevulture

So last night I was minding ya’lls business scrolling through Instagram and I was tagged in a post by Army veteran turned fashion designer, Mercedes Dericho, who is the founder of the fashion brand RisqueDukes. And she informed me that Fashion Nova had stolen one of her swimsuit designs and was selling it on their website as if it were their design!

She posted a picture of Alexis Sky wearing the swimsuit on her Instagram promoting it for Fashion Nova, since Alexis is one of the influencers that FN uses. And she said in her caption:

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I never do this but I’m so upset right now! As a designer I work really hard to ensure that my designs are unique, creative and selfie-worthy. It upsets me when larger companies think that it’s ok to steal designs from smaller companies and pass them along as their own!!! @fashionnova STOLE MY DESIGN and is passing it off as their own and it’s not ok. I’ve read about @fashionnova doing this to other designers but I never thought that it would happen to me. They are a larger enough company to afford to be able to hire in-house designers. Why steal from other designers..?! I will be pursing legal action. This type of imitation is not acceptable and I am not flattered. That’s copyright infringement. Moreover, my designs are Dec 2017. Periodt. Shoutout to all of my loyal @risquedukesswimapparel bikini lovers for bringing this to my attention! Platforms like @theshaderoom should blast them for this! I’m so tired of larger fashion companies stealing from smaller Black designers!!!

A post shared by ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 【Ｒｉｓｑｕé　Ｄｕｋｅｓ】 (@risquedukes) on Jul 14, 2019 at 11:32am PDT

As Mercedes mentioned, this is not the first time that Fashion Nova has been accused of stealing the designers of independent designers, then selling them on their website as if they are their own designs. Websites like Fashion Nova, Missguided and Forever 21 have been called out time and time again for copying the designs of smaller, independent designers – most of whom are women of color.

Fashion Nova in particular has been accused of copying the designs of women of color, then using other women of color – including influencers like Alexis Sky & Cardi B – to promote the designs that they’ve copied to women of color for them to buy. And that’s why a lot of people now consider Fashion Nova to be culture vultures and have called them out on it. It’s like they’re stealing from the culture and then using the culture to sell it back to the culture!

According to Revelist, fashion designer Jai Nice called out Fashion Nova last year for having the audacity to order one of her hoodies from her website, and use it to copy her design, then send it back requesting a refund! She even had proof that one of the Fashion Nova employees had ordered it and sent it back from the Fashion Nova shipping department.

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Stop stealing from the African American community @fashionnova. Richard idgaf how much y’all paying ppl to promo y’all cheap ass shit. Did you forget y’all just had one of the managers buy from @klosetenvy under another name just to get the sample. To remake it. Y’all to cheap to add the hood on it smfh. Then y’all got sloppy and returned it back from the shipping department smfh. The f**** nerve to buy and return. I’m not refunding shit I’m sending it right back to y’all. Since y’all wanna play I’m gonna Post y’all emolyee whole name and address y’all bought it under. Since y’all think it’s cool y’all wanna keep playing with ppl. This ain’t the first or the last time that he think it’s cools to keep f**** with the community. They ain’t for Cassie Collection I have proof you bought 2 of the same exact items just to see how it was made. Payola @fashionnova culture vulture. I let you have my model wtf else do you want get off my d*** I’m sick of y’all.

A post shared by Jai Nice (@jai_nice) on Jul 23, 2018 at 9:39am PDT

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Don’t come talking no shit ok this was designed last year October before anyone had it. No one started making this hoodie until I released it let’s get that straight. This took 4 samples to get it right the perfect fit and to make sure the sleeve stay puffy. Like I said @fashionnova it would of been cool if you ain’t send ya employees to buy it then personal send it back from y’all shipping department but I guess y’all got sloppy 🧐🤔 @fashionnova you make enough money you culture vulture you need to stop before I start dropping the real tea how you telling manufacturers to not work with certain companies because you don’t like them and how you wanna put other companies outta business. Stop f**** with the black community you ain’t gonna keep getting away with this shit. I’m not gonna even knock the ppl that’s promoting them cuz that’s where most of they’re money coming from is fashion nova Post. Without them posts a lot of ppl 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🧐 let me hush.

A post shared by Jai Nice (@jai_nice) on Jul 23, 2018 at 9:57am PDT

Jai Nice did not receive a response from Fashion Nova after she called them out. And as a matter of fact, they blocked her on Instagram! And months later they appeared to copy another one of her designs!

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Alexa play Mariah Carey why you so obsessed with me 🤦🏽‍♀️ y’all just going to keep it going huh. I really be trying to ignore this and looks past it. But honestly it’s getting ridiculous. Why do y’all continue to steal / rip off designers ? Is this the new thing or something ? Just because y’all paying the culture to promote y’all doesn’t make this shit right smh. If y’all think I’m not gonna speak up for everything I believe in and stand for y’all are crazy. This is my life and my passion. It’s ridiculous and to all the upcoming designers and young entrepreneurs don’t let things like this discourage you at all. Let’s this be the fuel and motivation to go harder.

A post shared by Jai Nice (@jai_nice) on Feb 27, 2019 at 8:40am PST

But another fashion designer, Luci Wilden, the fashion designer behind UK brand Knots and Vibes did receive a response from FN after she called them out for stealing one of her crochet dress designs, knot for knot!

She posted:

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Didn’t even want to post this on my feed cause it looks ugly but I’m so mad 😡 @fashionnova have ripped off my ‘Skin Out’ dress DETAIL FOR DETAIL 🖕I designed the green version of this in 2016 & this colour in 2017. They’ve mass produced this with a retail price of 40USD!! That makes their production price around $13, meaning whoever crocheted this was paid less than $1 per hour. (Real crochet can not be replicated by any kind of knitting machine, this was made by hand and anyone that crochets can recognise that) Not only are they stealing my design but they’re using it to exploit people and profit from it which is the opposite of what @knots.and.vibes stands for! I know it’s pretty common in fast fashion for big brands to copy other designers but I thought they would at least make some changes instead of replicating the design down to the number of rows in the stripes. The level of detail being identical is proof that this was no coincidence. They know us small time designers can’t afford to take legal action…😢 #fashionnova #ripoff #supportsmallbusiness #supportindependentartists #supportindependentbusiness #handmade #fastfashion #ethicalfashion #supportindependentdesigners #buyhandmade #buyindependent #slowfashion #crochet #buyethical #boycottfashionnova #nofastfashion #boycottfastfashion

A post shared by Knots & Vibes (@knots.and.vibes) on Jan 10, 2019 at 12:29pm PST

Luci did try contacting Fashion Nova by email about them copying her design. And this is the response she received:

Fashion Nova blamed the wholesale vendors that they buy from and said that they are the ones that must have copied her design and then sold the copycat dresses to Fashion Nova. So they didn’t admit that they copied her dress at all!

But when Kim Kardashian called them out for copying her custom dresses, they came out and admitted that they are “inspired” by her style and have copied her dresses and sold them at reduced prices.

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A post shared by FashionNova.com (@fashionnova) on Feb 19, 2019 at 10:27am PST

So it seems like brands like Fashion Nova only acknowledge that they are “inspired” by other designers when people, like Kim Kardashian, who have the money to challenge them in court call them out. But when designers from independent brands like RisqueDukes, Closet Envy and Knots & Vibes call them out, they either have nothing to say, block them, or don’t own up to copying their designs.

https://youtu.be/8YY_sqOfgmw

So this is something to think about the next time you see an influencer promoting FN on your timeline or an ad for FN online. Fashion Nova may be promoting a design that was stolen from a woman of color, and be using another woman of color to sell it to you – a woman of color. And they’re the ones profiting off of the entire transaction – not the woman of color who actually designed the item.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think about the accusations that Fashion Nova steals designs from women of color and then uses women of color influencers to promote the designs to other women of color for them to buy, cutting out the profit from the actual woman who designed it.