Cara Delevingne Accused Of Ripping Off “Small, Queer, Feminist-Owned” Business
The supermodel may have landed herself in a boiling pot of copyright infringement.
It’s difficult to imagine Cara Delevingne’s millions of fans turning on her, but ripping off an independent feminist shop seems to have drawn a line in the sand. The model is being accused of stealing a sweatshirt design from Rachel Berks' brand, Otherwild. The crewneck sweaters in question don the slogan "The Future Is Female" across the front. After Delevingne posted an Instagram picture announcing she planned to sell the sweatshirts, the model's comment section lit up with accusations of design theft. The sweaters originated at NYC's "first feminist bookshop," Labyris Books, and were popularized by photographer, Lisa Cowan. Designer Rachel Berks claims that Delevingne had actually purchased the (copyright-protected) sweatshirt from Otherwild and is in turn selling an identical sweater but donating all profits to Girl's Up! charity.
Berks, in an email statement to The FADER, wrote, "It's confounding that she would do this to a small queer feminist-owned business after purchasing the product from us just a few weeks ago". Delevingne has responded via Instagram comment that Otherwild does not own the design. Stay tuned to see where the story goes.