How fast fashion brands are taking advantage of smaller brands

By Kim Dhliwayo

Fast fashion brands have been called out time after time for poaching ideas from small independent brands. This has been much more frequent with the rise of social media usage.

Social media is a very powerful and useful tool in terms of advertising for any brand, especially small independent brands. But it also comes with a disadvantage, because this means their work is easily accessed by fast fashion brands to produce at a larger scale.

Recently FashionNova got mentioned in the press for allegedly nicking designs from independent crochet designer N00rvana. They are an American-based fast fashion brand with a very large social media presence, which was co-signed by many celebrities such as Cardi B, Kylie Jenner and many Instagram influencers.

Crochet designer Noor expressed her hurt on twitter, and responded to a couple negative comments. One tweet said: “There’s going to be others who copy you, get over it.” to which she then responded “@_moniqueval @FashionNova if someone stole something valuable to you, wouldn’t you do something about it before you give up and/or “get over it?’” After this she went on to create a thread of other independent designers people have been supportive of, to bring more attention to them as well.

She has also mentioned that she doesn’t buy clothes from fast fashion brands; instead she finds independent small ethical brands on Instagram and buys from them because she knows what it’s like to be small and doing all the work on your own.

Unfortunately this isn’t the first time FashionNova has been exposed for such behaviour. Just a couple weeks before this incident, another crochet designer, Knots & Vibes, called them out after an exact replica of her design was seen on their website.  FashionNova didn’t respond however they seemed to have taken down the designs from both crochet designers.

View this post on Instagram

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

Saleswoman Liv, who didn’t want to giver her surname, works at vintage shop Vivien of Holloway on Holloway Road. She said: “As vintage is getting older it’s becoming more expensive and fast fashion is getting more cheaper, so I can understand why people support fast fashion. But for me, someone who loves vintage, I am willing to spend a little bit more cause I know it’s going to last longer.”

She also said that “social media sucks” in terms of smaller independent brands being able to protect their work, as fashion doesn’t have the same copyright protection as other avenues, which make it difficult for the smaller brands to get the justice they deserve. She also stressed the importance of having a loyal customer/fan base who recognise where the work comes from and supports you.

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FashionNova is not the first fast fashion brand to have been accused of stealing designs from independent brands – others have been accused of appropriating the work of lesser-known designers too.

As the fast fashion brands have more money and already have a wider audience, instead of nicking work from other designers they could collaborate with them. This would be much more effective for the industry because not only does it guarantee success for the design but it also brings attention to the independent brands.