KESH tee on the left Versace on the right
The fashion industry is a interesting place. Do something that’s popular and there’s a million mutha lova’s ready to knock you off. It’s happened repeatedly through out history with some designs more of a rip off than others. Usually, an expensive brand creates a dope design and some low budget brand creates a design that’s very close (aka designer imposter). Then you have brands like Supreme that are routinely higher quality but have no reserve to flip the script on an original design or just take an L all together and rip them off (see Supreme’s knock off Louis Vuitton Monogram Print Skateboard for an example). Still, even with Supreme, its usually the smaller brand ripping off a larger brand. Not this time. No, this time it appears that artist KESH and American Apparel have seen there design from 2013 find its way onto a $650.00 Versace shirt.
KESH was recently quoted as saying “I have always had a deep admiration for Versace. It’s an iconic brand that has stood the test of time. I am deeply disappointed in this. This is not only artwork from a show that took me two years to develop and create. It is not only artwork from a collection that I created for American Apparel to provide something affordable and accessible to supporters of my work. But this is also my face! I can’t understand how something like this could happen.”
According to her PR, KESH plans on pursuing legal action and to date there has been no response from Versace.
Check out the comparison photo’s below and drop a comment of how you feel about this situation.
