Shein vs Indie Designers: Is this the final showdown?
A few examples of the fast fashion retailer's blatant creative copycat-ism as we figure out this new RICO thing...
Raise your hand if your 2023 bingo card included fast fashion juggernaut Shein catching a RICO charge?
No?
Me neither, but it happened. On Tuesday, the budget retailer was hit with a RICO lawsuit alleging their shady algorithm-copying ways. And if you’ve been paying attention…DUH. The company has been accused of ripping off indie designers many times in the past, but this is the first time any of the designers and their attorneys, have tried to bring some transparency to how they keep getting away with it.
A clandestine, confusing, de-centralized structure means no accountability
In the lawsuit, attorneys for three indie designers named Krista Perry, Larissa Martinez, and Jay Baron allege that Shein is able to continue to copy their designers while circumventing any serious consequences because they shelter themselves via a complex, multi-national organizational structure. In short, it’s damn near impossible for indie designers with limited resources to figure out who to go after or who is actually producing and distributing the copycat item.
So where does RICO come in? Good question. If you’ve ever heard of RICO (The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) before, it’s probably through the lens of celebrities or other well-known public individuals associated with criminal activity or organized crime. At the moment, seven U.S. rappers, most notably Young Thug, are facing RICO charges. But they are certainly not the only celebrities who get caught up, because one of the main components of a RICO case is conspiracy to intentionally defraud someone. To that end, Donald Trump, Major League Baseball, and even the Greenpeace organization have all been sued or charged with RICO-related crimes. The defining characteristic of a RICO charge, whether criminal or civil, is in the name: racketeering. Racketeering is defined as:
“a type of organized crime in which the persons set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.” (Source)
The plaintiffs allege that Shein’s decentralized corporate structure is done to purposefully and consistently evade accountability and is, in fact, a racket. I am not a legal expert (hell, I’m not even a legal hobbyist), so I don’t know if what Shein’s doing qualifies as a racket, but I do know that they’ve ripped off so many indie designers, which can have devastating consequences on the usually much smaller, woman and BIPOC-owned brands that put their entire life savings into producing pieces that they love and want to share with the world. And that’s just not right.
Don’t believe me? Here are just a few of the most egregious examples.
Shein stole these designs. Sorry, there’s no other way around it.
The Popflex Pirouette Tiered Skort with Pockets, which retails for $60, created by well-known pilates YouTuber Cassey Ho, better known as Blogilates.
Mariamo Dialo, owner and designer of the luxury independent brand Sincerely RIA, noticed a dress on Shein’s website was an exact copy of one of her designs. The designer blasted both Shein and influencer Danielle Bernstein’s WeWoreWhat brand in a viral Tiktok in 2021. Dialo’s ire wasn’t just about the retailers’ stealing her designs, but the pace at which large-scale retailers (with large factories and often under-paid workers) can produce cheaper alternatives of her work.
Italian fashion brand GCDS accused the retailer of ripping off one of their signature Morso heel shoes, first unveiled in their A/W 2022 “Dracula” collection. The distinct shoe, characterized by the fanged tooth heel, retails for ~$900 from the brand, Shein’s version? $25.
The brand’s creative director, Giuliano Calza, took to Instagram to air his grievances, calling for a boycott of the fast fashion juggernaut.
So far, calls for boycotts have pretty much fallen on deaf ears. So what can Indie designers do? For one, they can sue Shein, the RICO suit is not the first time they’ve been sued; quite the opposite, over the past few years, as the company has grown, they’ve faced dozens of lawsuits. In 2022 Florida-based digital artist Magdalena Mollman sued Shein for $100 million in damages for selling unauthorized reproduction of her work. For many indie designers, the cost of a lawsuit is simply not within reach and can take months, if not years, to see any restitution.
If this RICO lawsuit sticks, it might make it easier and more transparent for designers to lodge complaints against the company effectively.
But what about Shein’s Indie Collaborations?
The most egregious part of Shein's stealing from emerging designers (to me, anyway) are the programs the company bankrolls for small designers under the guise of “supporting” designers, such as Shein X, an incubator program that awarded seven emerging designers their own collaboration with Shein. Thus far, the program includes a growing stable of designers. On one hand, breaking into the fashion industry as a designer is difficult, and the more than $45 million Shein says they have invested in the incubator program is more than any other retailer has done. On the other hand, if that investment comes at the hands of illegally copying indie designers, unfair labour practices and a gross disregard for sustainability, then is the juice really worth the squeeze? That’s really not for me to decide…and to be fair, nor was it the point of today’s story -_-
Will this RICO lawsuit stick?
Will it force Shein to adopt transparency in its operations?
Can fast fashion and indie designers co-exist in any meaningful way?
IDK, but we’re about to find out. See you next time!
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Wow. This is crazy!