Saturday, January 21, 2006

AMERICAN APPAREL'S DOV CHARNEY


This might be old news, but we've been seeing a few too many of those still-creepy American Apparel ads lately and we're not sure... is the founder of American Apparel a douchebag? And why do some of their t-shirts have side seams and others don't? Here, here and here.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

URBAN OUTFITTERS DROPS A BOMB ON JOHNNY CUPCAKES

This one's particularly nasty on the part of Urban Outfitters. A while after sending in samples of his t-shirts so that the mega chain might consider buying some off of him to sell in their stores, Johnny Cupcakes was notified by a friend that they were carrying them... without his knowledge. Turns out Urban took a concept off of one of his samples and made their own version.

Here's what the original looked like:



And Urban's "interpretation" of the design:



Legal? Maybe. Shady? Very.

URBAN OUTFITTERS CUTS CROWNFARMER TO PIECES

A couple of years back Crownfarmer sold some controversial t-shirts to Urban Outfitters. Protests outside of UO stores ensued and the t-shirts were pulled off the shelves. A year later Urban made some major modifications to them, re-branding the garments as blazers... without Crownfarmer's knowledge. Would they do this to an Adidas or 55DSL tee that they couldn't sell for one reason or another? We doubt it. There's more info here and here. And here's what Crownfarmer had to say about it.

Here's one of the original Crownfarmer designs:



And Urban's "interpretation" of it:

URBAN OUTFITTERS PULLS PRINCESS TINA'S TOOTH

One of Australian Beci Orpin's designs is a lil' toothy guy. Created by Beci in 2001, it's featured on many of her Princess Tina products and has become the company's logo. Last year Urban Outfitters took Toothy and put him onto a shower curtain to be sold all across America... without her knowledge.

Here are a couple of samples of Princess Tina's Toothy:





And Urban's "interpretation" of it:



Inspiration or downright thievery?