Left: Anna Sui dress on runway; Right: Forever 21 dress
Retail giant Forever 21 has defended itself against more than 40 copyright infringement lawsuits by high-end designers, including Anna Sui, Diane von Furstenberg, and Philip Lim 3.1. Forever 21 President Do Won “Don” Chang has managed to quietly settle all of the cases out of court, but with so many people feeling that their designs were ripped off, it was only a matter of time before the copyright disputes became public.
Operating as a family business, with Chang’s daughters Esther and Linda serving as the firm’s creative director and head of marketing, Forever 21 has been both private and aggressive about its business since 1987. The company’s ability to spot hot trends and instantly reproduce catwalk fashions, bringing them to market in six weeks or less, has been a big part of its success.
But with the garments in the store rotating every three weeks and hundreds of designs from outside vendors and in-house designers needing to be reviewed daily by Chang’s team, there is always a risk that a copied garment (whether intentionally copied or otherwise) goes into production.
In Chang’s eyes the vendors that supply Forever 21 are to blame for the chain of lawsuits. In a recent article by Eva Wiseman of The Observer, Eva states that the company trusts its vendors not to copy other labels’ designs, quoting Chang as saying, “I have in the past overly trusted people and was, in turn, let down by some. Since then I have learned the difference between putting faith into people and blindly trusting them.” By throwing his vendors under the bus, Chang escapes direct involvement in the copied designs and continues to pump out fast fashion at affordable prices.
Top: Shirts by Forever 21; Bottom: Shirts by Trovata
And yet, Chang’s company may be operating within grey areas of fashion copyright. “Forever 21 continues to copy because copying a dress design — even copying a dress design clearly made first by someone else, even copying a dress with stitch-by-stitch exactness — isn’t in and of itself illegal in the U.S.” states Jenna Saurs of Jezebel.com.
Essentially, a garment’s construction is subject to replication as it does not fall under the copyright law for clothing design. Replicating a copyrighted textile, however, would result in a lawsuit because it is considered graphic art. It costs around $40 at the Copyright Office in order for a textile to be protected, and a lawyer is not required. Because of this loophole, Forever 21 continues to get away with their near exact replicas of high-priced, high-end designer garments. And fashion designers continue to fight to protect their hard work and maintain their integrity.
In spite of the many knockoff allegations, there seems to be no slowing the growth of Forever 21. The retailer provides affordable, fast fashion for the ever hungry fashionistas of the world; no item of clothing in the company’s over 400 stores worldwide costs more than $65. Forever 21 continues to supply what consumers want, and so may forever be a major player in the fashion industry, regardless of legal hang-ups.
Images taken from Jezebel.com.
Aren’t these the same people who were caught ripping off Etsy designers? I sense a pattern here.