Two lawsuits later.. Forever 21 is under hot fire again
Forever 21 has once again been accused of copying other designers. A few weeks ago, designer Charles Smith II spotted his own design, a sports bra proclaiming ‘Do Not Touch,’ on a model who was actually sporting Forever 21. The ‘Do Not Touch’ logo has been featured on multiple items and is a Smith II original idea.
Forever 21 Smith II
Charles Smith, a Dallas based designer, created the "Do Not Touch" line with 100% of the profits going to the Dallas Independent School District. He put a lot of thought into the ‘Do Not Touch’ logo, citing the inspiration to a combination of support for Black lives, women’s rights, and the concept of treating human bodies to the same standard as art - after all, what art piece in a museum does not come with the ‘do not touch’ sign?
Smith has discussed his process, stating:
“As creatives we have to go through a very intuitive feeling process of understanding what we wanna say...our ideas are how we eat and how we pay our bills and our brands and messages are how we feed humanity.”
After discovering the replica design from Forever 21, Smith expressed frustration not only at the blatant theft of his design, but that the profits from Forever 21’s version would not go to helping the charity that Smith’s own design would.
This is not the first time Forever 21 has been accused of copying looks from popular designers. Forever 21 also recently went under fire for producing sandals that looked almost identical to the Puma Fenty silk bow pool slides. Rumors of a lawsuit have surfaced against the fast-fashion brand by Puma claiming that Forever 21 has ripped off at least three Puma x Fenty designs.
The Puma x Fenty collaboration has allowed fans to get a taste of Rihanna’s style, at a reasonable price point. However, the Forever 21 versions inevitably undercut the cost of the real deal, making them even more desirable to buyers on a budget. Puma is hoping to reclaim its designs by taking legal action, and hopefully Forever 21 will heed the warning.