Tuesday Bassen. (Photo: tuesdaybassen.com)
Brilio.net/en - On Wednesday, a Los Angeles-based indie illustrator called Tuesday Bassen spoke out about her legal case against the Spanish fashion empire Zara.
Bassen, who has won awards for her quirky pop-art designs, claims Zara has been copying her work without giving any credit or compensation. She went public on social media after her claim of rights to Zara was denied by the company due to a lack of distinctiveness.
Bassens long list of clients includes Lucky Peach, Playboy, The New Yorker, United Nations, Nike and Adidas. She has won awards and was featured in GOOD Magazine as one of the Top 25 Female Illustrators and Designers. Bassen has an online store where her works are sold as soft patches, T-Shirts and home accessories, but she cant control what happens to images that get published online, which has opened the door for Zara to allegedly copy her work.
The struggling artist going up against a company the size of Zara is a real David-and-Goliath scenario, but its starting to look like the internet might make the difference.
Below is Bassens Instagram post, which gained more than 24,000 hits in a day:
Along with the post, Bassen wrote:
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.
Over 4,000 comments were written on this post, with support coming from all corners of the world. Many said they would boycott Zara after hearing the allegations about their creative process. We highlighted some of the comments below:
kuryakn yes i got my girls & baseball bat pin from Tuesday, i love her!! the only thing i've ever gotten from Zara was those boots with the studs on them a few years ago but i read that they have some pretty terrible labor laws so i avoid shopping with them anyway... this is disgusting and so devastating for her, thank you for letting me know!!!!
jongsucc I am a frequent customer of Zara and I can't believe such a reputable company has ripped off your work, which was honestly really f***** up. I've been considering not even shopping there anymore since They are sweatshop users smh but this has seriously confirmed my decision. I'm glad you were able to get an article on this issue.
frankbear06 These big corporations need to respect the artist/inventor or lose business. Stealing is a crime and we are not going to let this happen to anyone. Keep on fighting and yes if you put up a fundme page i will be the first in line to help you out. Thanks for letting us know what is going on!
cindyscaife Will not shop at @Zara any longer. Ripping off artists is not cool. I will also tell every one I know about their corrupt practices towards artists and their intellectual property.
savaifatema I love your work...stay strong, you will find a whole community behind you... Just by educating us about this you have already won half the battle.
glues I was just about to buy stuff from Zara too.... I changed my mind. I'm gonna check out your store, and forget that copying company.
cyanidecalligraphix We independent artists all give you our fullest support!!!
On Bassens next post she wrote a gratitude toward all of her supporters, reading:
THANK YOU! Thank you all SO MUCH, the outpouring of support has been incredible and I am extremely heartened to hear from so many of you and see that your efforts are WORKING. The story of @Zara stealing my work and condescending to me about their theft has now been covered by Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Cosmo, The Daily Dot, Daily Mail, Junkee, Jezebel, CBS, Refinery 29, Racked, The Fashion Law, and more. Thank you thank you thank you, this means the world to me.
Apparently another indie artist who sold her artworks on Etsy.com also claimed the similar case against Bershka. The Mexican artist Ivonna Buenrostro took the same way Bassen did, which was making a comparison of her works and the ones that Bershka copied, and blasted it on her social media. Only that Bershka didnt copy 100% percent of Buenrostros work as Zara did to Bassen, her case seems to be not in the position to win in any lawsuit.
Anyway, if you want to do more to help both Buenrostro and Bassen, you can buy their artworks for Bassen at www.tuesdaybassen.com and for Buenrostro at www.etsy.com/shop/ivonnabuenrostro.
(brl/red)
