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Last week, as reported by our national site and many other major news outlets, beloved local artist Tuesday Bassen took to her popular Instagram feed to out fast fashion brand Zara for allegedly ripping off several designs of her original pins and patches — just a few days after hosting a celebration for her latest collaboration with Mowgli Surf at her very first soon-to-open brick-and-mortar in Chinatown.
Though she was first tipped off to the alleged theft earlier this year, Bassen only recently went public with the claims after the retailer's legal team responded to the allegations by stating that since there was a "lack of distinctiveness of [...] purported designs," the artwork in question couldn't be aligned with Tuesday specifically. Additionally, in an effort to exemplify their dominance in brand recognition, the lawyers clearly include the estimated number of monthly visits to Zara's site.
Artist Adam J. Kurtz, one of those who helped Bassen identify the strikingly similar items on Zara's site, has been slowly uncovering more and more pieces allegedly that allegedly plagiarize other independent designers. Kurtz has started this Instagram feed to catalogue all his findings (so far it's up to more than 60 designs), and Bassen tells us Zara has blocked any mention of the feed.
We spoke to Tuesday today — freshly back in town from Comic-Con where she tells us the response from visitors to her booth was "both amazing and overwhelming" — and she gave us the following statement: "In the face of Zara's blatant IP theft and bulling tactics, I plan to press forward with my lawyer and the 30+ artists whose work has been willfully infringed upon by Zara's parent company." With a new, more aggressive lawyer in place, this girl's not stopping her fight for justice — not just to protect her own original artwork — but all the emerging, hustling independent designers who can't afford to fight back for themselves.