ColumnForever 21. Is there any brand more synonymous with fast fashion these days? The stores sit in virtually every shopping mall in America—just like McDonald’s at rest stops. But lately, the company has been making some sustainability and ethical claims. Do they have any merit? We go behind the label to find out.

The Los Angeles-based fashion giant got its start just over 30 years ago in April, 1984 in a small 900 square foot location. Forever 21 now boasts more than 600 stores in the U.S. and 20 countries around the world with sales of $3.7 billion in 2013. According to Forbes, it’s the 122^nd largest privately held company in the country.

The Good

This is a short list, but perhaps it’s a sign of more good things to come. The reality is, Forever 21 is not known for it’s social or environmental commitments; it’s better known for its serious lack in these categories. A Google search of “Forever 21 sustainability” landed me more results about how the brand is a disgrace to the planet than anything else. Of course, for 13-year-old girls, it’s a haven of colors and styles that are budget-friendly and fun. (If only our children aspired to be Forever 40.)

Most recently, Forever 21 began installing a 5.1-megawatt solar power system at its headquarters in Los Angeles. TriplePundit reports that the solar panel manufacturer, PermaCity Solar, calls it “the best solar technology available on the market today.” Forever 21’s solar system will create enough power to keep 1,450 homes in the area running. It’s the equivalent of taking 1,200 cars off of the road.

Forever 21 also claims to lead its own “Vendor Audit Program” in order to verify the fair treatment of its workers, most of whom are overseas. This includes ensuring adequate pay and working conditions. According to Triple Pundit, the audit program “allegedly maintains a highly trained Vendor Compliance Team, which promotes and enforces lawful and ethical operations at factory sites. Further detailed information on the success and compliance of the program is currently unavailable.”

The brand was named VMSD’s retailer of the year in 2010 for it’s “fast-fashion approach to getting trendy goods from the runways of Milan and Paris” to its stores, which the magazine called “a blueprint for how to succeed in a challenging environment.” It has also been recognized by PETA as a nominee in the “Best Animal-Friendly Clothing Company” category, for which the animal rights group recognized the brand’s budget-friendly faux-leather jackets and wool-free sweaters.

The Bad

When it comes to the horrors of fast fashion, Forever 21 is often the poster brand. While retailer H&M competes with Forever 21 on price and style, it continues to excel in sustainability efforts where Forever 21 falls short.

Along with Abercrombie and Fitch, Quiksilver and Walmart, Forever 21 was called out in 2012 for fueling modern-day slavery in a report from the California nonprofit, Not for Sale. According to the report, Forever 21 was one of 300 brands linked to human rights abuses including child labor and forced labor conditions. It moved its operations to Asia in 2001 after American workers likened the fast fashion work environment to sweatshop conditions. The latest fashion offerings from Forever 21 show no sign of slowing down the fast fashion ethos: they include shirts for less than $2 and jeans under $8.

The brand was also called out by the International Labor Rights Forum for not agreeing to join a boycott of cotton from Uzbekistan factories, where alleged forced child labor takes place, reports Business Insider.

Not only does the brand not like to pay for quality, ethical materials or laborers, it reportedly takes the same approach to its designs. Forever 21 has been sued more than 50 times for reportedly stealing other designers work, but to date, the retailer has yet to lose any of the lawsuits.

It has also been sued over labor issues right here in the U.S. where many of its employees are high school or college students who were forced to work off the clock and denied meal breaks.

The Questionable

While installing solar panels is a boon to the environment, Forever 21’s move may be inspired more so by Los Angeles’ Feed-in Tariff program. According to the city’s Department of Water and Power’s website, the program will “allow the LADWP to partner with program participants to purchase, under a standard power purchase contract, energy generated from a participant’s renewable energy generating system.” In other words, Forever 21 is now also in the business of selling energy, which may be more of its motivation than the reduction in carbon emissions.

And if there’s one big questionable side to fast fashion, it is whether or not it’s helping women feel good about their clothes. At least in the short term, it seems to help some women afford trendy clothing for a small cash investment. While we shouldn’t rely on our clothing, makeup or shoes to dictate our confidence, the reality is that we still live in a world where things like certain types of clothes matter to lots of people. Most notably to prospective employers.

I recently viewed the documentary “Inequality for All” (and highly recommend it). What the movie highlights is the widening gap between the country’s top 400 income earners and the 300 million rest of us. The middle class culture that was thriving as recent as 40 years ago has begun to erode. If you’re not bringing home at least six figures per household, you’re essentially broke, likely living paycheck to paycheck. People are making less money today than they were in the 1970s (adjusted for inflation). And that means that investing in higher priced clothing with sustainability and ethical commitments isn’t always an option, even if it’s a goal.

Not buying Forever 21 (or other fast fashion options)–or at the very least, buying them secondhand–is better for the environment and our human family. But it is also important to recognize and honor that we have ongoing image issues in this country as much as we have a cash flow problem. Women don’t yet earn as much as men, and are still measured by their appearances. That doesn’t mean we should opt out entirely and wear burlap sacks. Feeling beautiful, sexy and confident are important tools in changing some of these bigger picture issues. And fast fashion is no long-term answer. It’s a Band-aid at best. But at this point, any way we can stop the bleeding of our women and girls’ insecurities is worthy of our attention. Fast fashion may be lined with poor quality, excessive waste, ethical issues and controversy, but somewhere in there we have to hope there’s also a bit of silver.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Image: jenciso

The post Can Forever 21 Ever Move Beyond Fast Fashion? Behind the Label appeared first on EcoSalon.

Forever 21, Charlotte Russe and Wet Seal caught in the act of selling accessories contaminated with heavy metals. 

Recently released findings from investigations carried out by the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, CA found that astonishingly high amounts of lead were in the purses, belts and shoes sold by Forever 21, Charlotte Russe and Wet Seal. The tests were carried out by an independent lab, with findings indicating that more than half of the accessories sold by Wet Seal over the past year contained more lead than legally allowed, while about 25 percent of accessories from the other two brands also flunked the tests. The question really is why is there lead in these accessories in the first place?

All three brands signed a legal agreement more than three years ago that required them to not sell items containing levels of lead higher than a certain amount, but they have apparently failed come even close to the agreed levels with several of their accessories. Investigations into the matter started after a Chinese whistleblower  tipped the Center for Environmental Health’s attorneys off about a lead-containing boot that’s been sold at Charlotte Russe for the past two years. The attorneys took the matter under investigation, finding that the boot in fact contained lead more than 20 times above the safety standard of 7,000 parts per million.

Even scarier is the fact that more than half of the Wet Seal accessories the CEH tested contained far more lead than is considered safe, with a yellow belt reaching first place at 33,200 parts per million of the metal. Lead poisoning is a major environmental health problem in the U.S. that has led to cases of kidney damage, learning disabilities in children, behavior problems, poor muscle coordination and has been linked to higher infertility rates in women and increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

In fact, scientists are now concluding that there is really no “safe” level of lead for humans to be exposed to, especially in the case of children and pregnant women. Since many of these brands target preteen and teenage girls, as well as young women, there is definitely cause for concern. As executive director of the CEH, Michael Green says, “Families should not support giant retailers that flout the law and ignore their responsibility to provide safer products.” You’d think that’s common sense, but these brands have been getting away with hankering toxic products for years. How many cases of outrageous health violations will it take for the greater public to stop buying cheap and tainted fast fashion products?

Image: dandeluca

Related on EcoSalon

Fashion Hauling and Today’s Teen Shopper

The Antidote to Fast Fashion

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What are “fashion haul” videos saying about today’s teenager’s attitude toward consumerism, and what’s on the other side of the spectrum.

In case you haven’t heard the term, “fashion hauling” refers to an internet phenomenon that has young (mostly) girls showing off their latest shopping finds to thousands of viewers in “haul videos” on YouTube. To be able to afford a constant stream of new stuff, haulers usually shop at fast fashion chains like Forever 21, H&M, Charlotte Russe and Target, or discount retailers like Marshalls, JC Penney or TJ Maxx.

Though this may seem like an innocent way for young girls to express themselves and share shopping finds with online peers, it’s becoming a serious issue because it promotes rampant, mindless consumerism. Haulers love fast fashion retailers because everything is cheap and they can afford a lot. They buy buy buy without putting any thought in how their clothing was made and where it comes from. If you consider the entire supply chain – from the raw materials and the labor required to the shipping and marketing – it is simply not possible to make a T-shirt that costs $7.

This video, a fashion haul by bodyrock.tv has over 3,6 million views on Youtube.

Fast fashion retailers, of course, do not want you to think about this stuff, they just want you to buy it. So naturally most of them have embraced the fashion hauling phenomenon with open arms, some of them even sponsoring popular haulers by offering gift cards, video contests and other incentives. Haulers seemingly live in a world where happiness can be bought, for a single-digit price tag at Forever 21, and everything is just “OMG, so cute!” To those of us far removed from it, these girls seem to be motivated by a desperate search for meaning.

The girls in this video, which has over 2 million views, just went on a serious shopping spree at Forever 21.

While it’s troubling to watch this trend develop and grow, there is also another side to the story. At the other end of the spectrum, many of today’s youth are distancing themselves entirely from the idea of ownership, looking for simplicity and alternative solutions to things they see not working in society. Instead of buying cars, they get Zipcar memberships, instead of buying CDs and DVDs they use Spotify, Hulu and other cloud-based streaming services, and instead of seeing the purchase of a home as the ultimate achievement they appreciate the freedom of renting. The less stuff you have, the more you stick it to the man.

This one has over 900,000 views and close to 12,000 comments.

Perhaps both of these extremes are reactions to coming of age in a time of economic uncertainty and political upheaval, but what does this polarization say about our society? And, more importantly, what effect will it have on the future of consumption? Does slow, considered fashion stand a chance against this escalating fashion hauling trend? Only time will tell, but perhaps it’s time to popularize “vintage hauling” or “stuff-I-already-have-in-my-closet hauling”?

Lead image, still from this video

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Fast fashion: high profits, big advertisements, little value.

Two weeks ago, I bought a leather handbag. When I spotted it sitting in a forlorn corner of an East London flea market, I told myself I would pay no more than £5 for it. When the uninterested hipster who was selling it said it cost just £2, I didn’t even try to barter down the price.

Sure, the bag’s inner lining was ripped and dirty enough that I cut it out as soon as I got home. And yes, the leather had some suspect markings as well as multiple spots where the stitching had become un-stitched. But, the rich and pleasant smell of its buttery leather and the slew of compliments I’ve accumulated while toting it around means that my new acquisition has essentially paid for itself, not that it had far to go.

While I’ve always been a fan of second-hand goods and the thrill of finding a one-off bargain, purchases like this one have become even more of a treasure since I made the decision to swear off “fast fashion” earlier this year.

With nearly instantaneous runway-to-retail turnover, ridiculously cheap prices, and a dizzying volume of colors, varieties and sizes, it’s no surprise that clothing from Forever 21 and H&M are the mainstays of many women’s wardrobes. I have, on more than one occasion, walked through the gleaming doors of H&M’s behemoth Oxford Street store in need of a simple shift dress or pair of black jeans, and have never struggled to find exactly what I needed, as well as a few items to add on.

However, despite big chains’  efforts to improve their environmental and social impact, I was finding it increasingly hard to justify buying even the occasional item from a place that pushes 30 to 50 trend-driven fashion seasons a year, rather than sticking with Mother Nature’s customary four. It was when I learned that clothes from most fast fashion outlets are designed to withstand no more than five wears, that I decided it was time to kick the habit for good.

It appears however, that few shoppers are joining me. With 2,575 stores in 44 countries, H&M announced last week that its 2nd quarter profits had reached $745 million, an impressive 20 percent rise over the previous year right in the midst of a recession. For most, the killer combination of up-to-the-minute trends and bottom-line prices is too tempting an offer to resist.

What is the alternative though? We can’t dress ourselves solely from the floors of flea markets and corners of thrift stores unless we want to smell like my leather handbag from head to toe. Furthermore, as someone who still declares it a minor victory each time I manage to pay my rent, affordability is as necessary as style and sustainability when it comes to buying clothes, if not more so. For most of us, eco-couture is not a viable option.

The answer, I’ve come to find, is what I like to call conscious fashion: valuing individual items in your wardrobe for the story they tell, who they belonged to first, or the unique place you bought them, thereby reducing the impulse to accumulate more. As someone who predominately lives out of a suitcase, I’ve become adept at paring my possessions down to the essentials, but that doesn’t mean I’ve lost my sense of style or creativity in the process.

Recently, I’ve been playing a mental game with myself: as I leave the house each morning, I mentally tally the items I’m wearing and where they came from. Points are scored when most of my outfit used to belong to someone else, known or unknown. A typical day might include my sisters riding boots (they were too small for her); my best friend’s vintage Coach satchel purse which she gave me for my last birthday (we call it “the lunch box”); a blazer I bought in a basement thrift store on a trip to Atlanta for $10; a sarong my mom bought in Ibiza that I wear as a scarf; and a pair of Goodwill jeans that remain the only pair of second-hand pants I’ve ever managed to find long enough for my lanky legs.

While an increasing majority of my wardrobe does come from other people (recently when someone asked me where my favorite place to shop was, my honest answer was my mom and sister’s closets), there are of course times when I need or want to buy something new.

These days, I try and do that with as much intention as possible. Buying new things less often means you can afford to spend a bit more and will be more likely to hold on to these purchases once you’ve made them. Impulsively wandering into Forever 21 before a night out is the opposite of shopping with intention; it’s the surest way to end up with a trendy, badly tailored item you won’t wear in a few months.

As someone who lives far from my family and friends, wearing things that used to belong to the people that I love makes my belongings feel less disposable and encourages me to take care of them more. Furthermore, buying unique clothing from vintage stores and street markets that are off the beaten track attaches a sentimental value to my belongings, a quality that Forever 21 and H&M will have a hard time reproducing no matter how hard they try.

It’s not simply that wearing something that’s not from a multi-national chain makes it sustainable. Conscious fashion is about more than that. In essence, my things have become more than just things to me, which I suppose is why I’m content with having less of them.

The post The Antidote to Fast Fashion appeared first on EcoSalon.

“The more ephemeral fashion is, the more perfect it is. You can’t protect what is already dead.” – Morand

In a recent blog post, Consumerist fashion: Innovation Repressor, author and fashion pioneer Kate Fletcher wrote that “consumerist fashion not only damages the resource base, workers, consumers, etc., but also – and perhaps more insidiously – represses innovation; stifling anything other than that which benefits those invested in the status quo.”

One of the most obvious manifestations of this is in the immense speed of the fashion cycle, a system so rapidly changing that opportunities for “real innovation” are extremely limiting. The speed of change in fashionable dress is an old grievance of cultural observers. “Ah! Quelle Antiquité!” exclaim the couple in Carle Vernet’s etching dressed in the height of 1793 French fashion – “Oh! Quelle Folie que la Nouveauté!!!” replies the couple dressed in fashionable 1778 dress. The exchange roughly translates to  “Ah! What Antiquity!” and “Oh! What Madness of Innovation!” illustrating the rapid changes occurring in fashion in post-revolutionary France – and as a result the remainder of the fashionable world.

Carle Vernet

This “Madness of Innovation” is what still compels the fashion industry onward today. Author Barbara Vinken describes fashion as “the empire of the ephemeral,” in her book Fashion Zeitgeist and French writer and early Modernist Paul Morand claimed, “The more ephemeral fashion is, the more perfect it is. You can’t protect what is already dead”. Such musings are all well and good, but when the ephemeral nature of fashion leads to seemingly mountainous deposits of undesirable fashion items relegated to landfill – perhaps another attitude needs to be encouraged.

Fletcher describes consumerist fashion as a system that continually needs to “self-justify” itself, creating new styles in ever-faster cycles to replace old ones, which inevitably wear out quickly and were never intended to be mended. The phenomenal speed of this cycle relies on the ability of fashion houses large and small, from the high street to fashion week to copy and be influenced by the existing design work of other designers, either contemporary or historical. I say it “relies on it” because for fashion houses at all levels the development time for collections is growing ever shorter, leaving minimal time for true innovation and the pressure to meet deadlines and profit margins necessitates a degree of copying.

A homage or just plain knocking off? From left to right: East West Musical Instruments Co., Balenciaga, and Urban Outfitters

A good friend who was working for a fast fashion producer in London replied to an email I had sent her about my own work addressing sustainable fashion design, production and consumption systems. Describing the design process in the company she worked for she wrote “I don’t actually design them. But, in the loosest sense of design, I ‘adjust.’ Are you laughing??? I do most days. I correct appalling fit, I decided on length/print/colourways. I rip out a Lacroix skirt (out of Vogue) that I love with loads of lace and send it out to the factory with a line drawing and basic spec, cross my fingers and hope that something nice comes back.”

Current international law regarding the protection of fashion designs in theory allows designers to protect their designs, usually through the application of design patents or “trade dress,” and in the case of copyright automatically protects the patterns, textile design and sketches relating to any design and long as it is original. But what is original? The fashion zeitgeist can be described as a continuous line, a progression of ideas for which most are traceable through a cyclical lineage which marries other contemporary designers work with historical dress and often street fashion. As a result the difficulty in proving originality of idea in its entirety is immense.

An added complexity is the evolution of the fashion industry from being a relatively simple “trickle-down” procession of ideas to the non-linear system we have today where fashion ideas appear to come from anywhere. When writing about and discussing Zero Waste Fashion Design with others, I often need to point out that what I do also isn’t new. Zero-waste pattern cutting has been around for thousands of years in the form of Kimono and other historical costume, and more recently many designers worldwide such as Issey Miyake, Timo Rissanen, Mark Liu, Yeohlee Teng and Zandra Rhodes have been engaging with it.

Writer and designer Holly McQuillan at the traveling Yield Zero Waste Exhibit she curates

Miucci Prada famously said, “We let others copy us. And when they do, we drop it”. This altruistic attitude only works when the copied designer is already desirable to fashion consumers and the designer has generated income from being the first to produce the design. However since the advent of the Internet and improvements in manufacturing, the translation from high fashion to high street now only takes weeks, explaining why copying is so much more of a problem now.

Previously high fashion and couture houses were relatively unconcerned by copies as they would only be on the market after the original designs had had their moment and they had made a return on their investment. Indeed the copies indirectly drive later sales due to the obsolescence they induce. The Internet, whilst making fashion more accessible to consumers worldwide, has also made it very easy for fast fashion houses to translate consumer interest into new variations.

Anna Sui spring 2007 RTW on left and Forever 21′s Maven Top on right

Once styles are gleaned from the internet and processed by the design room, manufacturing advances mean that fast fashion firms such as Zara can take as little as 14 days from design room to retail floor – consequently taking income away from the designers that invested in developing the idea in the first place. Contemporary fashion moments pass by so quickly as to negate much of the need to protect individual designs – by the time designers patent their work, the fashion value of that piece is likely to have diminished if not dissolved completely. The result is that the majority of the fashion world treats their outputs as Creative Commons – “shared resources that can be freely reused, recreated and recombined” with a mostly self-governing “shame-police.”

Instead of legislating the rights of designers, fashion savvy consumers and observers can spot, and through blogs, out an overt copy, or as it is more euphemistically labeled “homage.” The loss of reputation can be damaging so most high-end designers try to avoid intentionally referencing other designers work too heavily. The situation becomes much more complex when well known designers copy little known players in the industry. It has been argued that this “referencing” aids the original designer, by giving them publicity which they may have otherwise never received, a convenient viewpoint for those with power in the fashion industry.

Feral Childe Teepee Print

Forever 21 Knockoff Print

Despite the potential benefit to society there appears to be little motivation from either designers or consumers to slow down the rate of change and so-called “innovation” in the fashion industry. The financial benefit from the current system is great. The specter of the derivative-driven fashion cycle is however something that should concern sustainable fashion designers. Indeed if the fashion industry as a whole aims to eventually be sustaining and follow best practice then the rampant excesses of consumption need to be addressed, something that companies such as Marks & Spencer who, whilst making great leaps forward in providing organic product ranges and other sustainable initiatives, fail to address. There are few design companies who actively encourage their consumers to buy less.

There are other ways to measure success. The fashion industry could protect and nurture up and coming designers, it could develop better pay and working conditions for the millions of its workers, it could move toward being an industry which values truly innovative design and prevents the proliferation of so-called “new or innovative” products purely for the sake of a quick return.

The more often that products are released to the public, the more often the consumers feel the need for change, and the faster that consumers get bored with current offerings. This could be attributed to the idea (as French provocateur Jean Baudrillard stated) that we consume as we lack any other real purpose in our lives. So we need alternatives.

Kate Fletcher writes: “To this, the response of those of us who love nature and the creative and cultural power of fashion and design can only be to invigorate innovation of these alternatives and develop a different plan of action.”

Image: Fashion Bomb Daily

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Tonight’s the night to come down and meet EcoSalon editors, designers and friends in the sustainable fashion industry.

We hope to see you tonight at our (Sustainable) Fashion’s Night Out, a unique collective at the Textile Arts Center in Manhattan co-sponsored by Of Rags and the New York City Fair Trade Coalition and featuring fair trade and sustainable designers and shops carefully curated to tempt the tastes of all. The collaborative event, co-sponsored by EcoSalon takes place tonight from 6-10 p.m. at TAC’s new Manhattan location at 26 West 8th Street and will gather sustainable and mainstream style purveyors under one roof.

That’s you!

Check out our designers and shops for tonight and information on our goodie bags and exclusive Feral Childe for EcoSalon t-shirt.

We look forward to seeing you!

The post EcoSalon Party Tonight at the Textile Arts Center! appeared first on EcoSalon.

A weekly roundup of EcoSalon’s top stories.

It’s like some dirty soap opera: An indie designer label gets knocked off by an omnipresent, fast fashion chain. The result? Copied designs are then worn by the unknowingly complicit thousands all over the world, amounting to stolen artwork never meant to be anywhere but on eco-fashion lovers’ backs. In Fast Fashion Giant Forever 21 Steals Sustainable Label Feral Childe’s Design, we scoop the unfortunate back story, speaking with the designers about the theft and pending lawsuit.

Foodie Underground columnist Anna Brones is on vacation in Sweden right now, almost off the grid – in this week’s Foodie Underground: Appreciating Simple Food, we get to sit alongside Anna as she’s forced to take the time to eat in quiet and steps away from everyday life. (She even inspired this editor to eat outside and not at the computer for lunch.)

EcoSalon columnist Abigail Wick advises that eating in is a league apart during the getting-to-know-you phase of dating. Eating in ushers a new level of intimacy to a budding relationship. “Maybe he’s dropped by your house for an aperitif before going out to dinner, which is all well and good, but preparing him a meal is a sensual and spiritual act that lends a new level of meaning to dating,” says Wick. This week’s Sex by Numbers: At Home Dinner Date offers you guidelines, tips, and even menu suggestions for your first date dining in together.

The art of a window is that it is both useful for living and metaphorical for life. In Windows to the Soul, Shelter Editor K. Emily Bond writes: “But what, if anything, is wrong with a healthy dose of window-gazing? We look to windows not just to spy on our surroundings and passersby. We look to and out of them for inspiration, color, insight – an appetizer of the world when the main course is solitude. In the spirit of our staircases worth pondering, here are ten windows into the souls of beloved thinkers, writers, artists, musicians and more.” Be prepared to be inspired.

In Is Haute Couture The New Diversity In Fashion?, Abigail Doan writes that after attending the most recent summer fashion shows in Europe, she found herself asking whether an artier side of couture might be creating “a watershed moment in the future of a more aesthetically and culturally diverse fashion?” Doan further expounds: “If we can work to preserve fading architectural monuments, tracts of pristine park land, and indigenous folk traditions globally, then we can also labor to sustain the diversity of garments and the role of haute thinking as an agent of change. It’s the business of fashion that we should be weary of, not the persistence of the imagination or the seemingly foreign nature of biodiverse materials. “

The post The Friday 5, Vol. 21 appeared first on EcoSalon.

EXCLUSIVEAnother designer knock off in the halls of fast fashion leads to a lawsuit for beloved indie brand Feral Childe.

It’s like some dirty soap opera: An indie designer label gets knocked off by an omnipresent, fast fashion chain. The result? Copied designs are then worn by the unknowingly complicit thousands all over the world, amounting to stolen artwork never meant to be anywhere but on eco-fashion lovers’ backs.

Feral Childe, one of EcoSalon’s favorite fashion brands both for its sustainability and style, has released this statement expressing their disappointment at Forever 21 stealing their original textile design: “Without any consideration or respect for the origin of the artwork, Forever 21’s mass reproduction of our textile design without our permission is extremely unethical, and in direct violation of the law.  It’s frustrating that this enormous company, with over a billion dollars a year in revenues, would dare to poach the artistic creations of a small company such as ours.”

Feral Childe designers Alice Wu and Moriah Carlson’s “Teepees” design is protected by law, and registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Because of compelling evidence that they have in fact been victims of design piracy, the duo are taking appropriate legal action to address the copyright infringement by Forever 21.

The fast fashion retailer has had countless problems in the past including controversial knock-offs of larger designers like Trovata and Anna Sui.

As featured in NY Magazine in May 2009. The Forever 21 shirts are on the top row, Trovata’s are on the bottom.

Anna Sui spring 2007 RTW on left and Forever 21’s Maven Top on right.

In the case of Feral Childe, the familiar scenario is the same with the Teepee print at Forever 21 at exactly the same scale and type of mark making as their original. As of publishing time, Forever 21 had responded to the cease and desist letter, but has denied liability and stated that perhaps Feral Childe copied the design from another source. Once the designers received that response, they filed a lawsuit which is currently pending in Federal Court in Los Angeles.

Feral Childe Teepee Print

Forever 21 print

Fast fashion is still a fairly fresh word in mainstream America, but even through our own articles here on EcoSalon chronicling some of Forever 21’s oops moments, the mega brand continues to push a whole new wasteful trend to the masses, mostly teens. The message: $14.99 is plenty to pay for a pretty dress or tunic top. The repercussions of these fast fashion choices are felt throughout the world whether in the form of slave labor, severe environmental degradations or yes, the copying of a design that two young women worked for months on to perfect for a sustainable collection.

According to WWD, the House Judiciary subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet is expected to reveal that a hearing on the bill has been slated for today, July 15. The house subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) is “slated to consider a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), known as the ‘Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevent Act,’ industry sources said. It would expand copyright laws for the first time to include fashion designs that are often the target of knockoff artists who profit from another’s design creation.”

We caught up with designers Alice Wu and Moriah Carlson for an exclusive interview on their copyright infringement and what they’ve learned from this experience.

How do you know for sure the design was yours?

The first sighting was on a passerby in Brooklyn in June: Moriah did a double take when she saw a woman wearing a tank top with what looked very much like our print, but it was from afar and we couldn’t be sure. Then someone we know showed up a few days later wearing a dress in our print – but it wasn’t our dress design! She said she had purchased the dress at Forever 21. Sure enough, it was easy to find the garments at the Forever 21 stores and online. We purchased a few, and compared them with our fabric and garments. The design on the Forever 21 garments had clearly been copied – if you put the Forever 21 garments and Feral Childe garments side by side, the textile design is unmistakably the same Teepees.

The Feral Childe Teepees print idea was developed over several months, starting from sketchbook drawings and then refined and edited in countless email exchanges between us until we perfected the image. This type of markmaking reflects the very particular philosophy of drawing taught at the New York Studio School, where both of us studied. I studied there briefly, and Moriah completed her graduate work in drawing and painting there. So both of us are intimately familiar with this visual language. With that art training as a basis, we have made the image very personal and particular to Feral Childe. There are hidden pictures of teepees and crowns and pennants in the drawing that aren’t necessarily apparent at first glance. How could anyone else come up with that combination?

How could a company like Forever 21 copy you so blatantly and think they can get away with it? Can they?

Whoever at Forever 21 discovered our print and decided to co-opt it wasn’t looking closely and probably just assumed this was just an abstract “scratch print” and didn’t notice our hidden pictures. Our Teepees print screams Feral Childe, if not by name, then by our eccentricities. Feral Childe’s prints are the soul of our collections. Meanwhile, Forever 21’s “designer” was too lazy to come up with an original print idea. Forever 21 is not going to get away with this, because our design Teepees is registered with the Copyright Office and we’re not going anywhere until justice has been served.

Have other designers reached out to you to tell their own knock-off stories?

During the first week we discovered the copying, we researched what other companies have had their designs copied by Forever 21. We reached out to Virginia Johnson, who discovered her prints on some of Forever 21‘s skirts; they settled. We contacted Virginia Johnson about her experience with this matter and told her our story and she was very sympathetic and helpful.  Another designer friend of ours has had her coats knocked off by a San Francisco boutique that ordered a couple of pieces from her, then had them copied cheaply and labeled with the boutique’s name.  There is a lot of lookalike jewelry out there. Copycat cases seem to pop up in the news every few months or so. We just never thought this could happen to us.

If companies like Forever 21 get away with this, what does it mean for other small designers?

Forever 21 isn’t going to get away with this one. We have faith in the law.

Right now there is very limited copyright protection for fashion designers, and it’s never easy for small companies. It costs money to file your designs and to pursue the copycats so we felt totally helpless at first, but our community has been really supportive so far and we are confident in our lawyers. It’s because of copycats that there are some new fashion copyright bills in the works which we hope will benefit designers whether they are just starting out or working for large companies.

What learning experience from you and for others do you hope comes from this?

Document your creative process, and be prepared to defend your authorship.

Image: Wall Street Journal

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Whether it’s the Maid Cafes in the nerds’ electronic hive of Akihabara, the Hysteric Glamour fashions around Harajuku, the leather jacketed Shibuya Gals, or the more couture looks coming from the likes of Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto,  Japanese fashion is pretty intense and diverse.

By adopting a mixture of current and traditional trends, Japanese trendsetters are unabashedly ready to explore their personal fashion identities no matter what you might think of them.

While more couture looks boldly highlight a higher end identity, street style renegades mixing homemade with anime punk are at the front and center of a fast fashion trend moving as fast as any other part of the world.

Kate Black, founder of  eco-blog Magnifeco says the climate for disposable fashion there doesn’t differ from other developed nations in that “fast fashion” is just part of the fashion psyche. Black says long before H&M and Forever 21, the Japanese frugal-fashionistas had Uniqlo, ABC Shoe Mart and 109 which are filled to the brim with low-priced items.

“There is an annual fashion show called the Tokyo Girls Collection – which dictates fast fashion trends to women in their early 20s. It’s a huge sold-out event where 20,000+ girls attend a full stadium event, with runway shows from some of the top “fad” designers and brands and then what appears as a mainstream trend on the street stems from that,” says Black.

Cosplay Girls at Harajuku

Shantel Girtley, Sales Account Executive of L.A based Style Assembly, a showroom housing many sustainable designers gets to see forward dressing Japanese buyers at Market a couple times a year. She says there are usually two types of savvy Japanese buyers that emerge at markets to buy for their customers.

“Those that are American press driven and those that want ‘under the radar’ lines. They’re usually swarming the designers who are unusual in some way. You will also find them shopping for lines that are domestically made here in the U.S. at  Market locations in Vegas and New York,” says Girtley, who is particularly enamored with the looks coming out of Tokyo.

“I may be biased when it comes to Japanese fashion, specifically originating from Tokyo. I personally love the way they use clothing and accessories to transform on a day to day basis. I believe they are pushing the envelope in every way to carve out a path for most to follow. The fashion coming out of Tokyo is fearless, yet incredibly graceful. This ironically would be my personal definition of ‘fashion’. Whether its straight off the runway or straight out of the streets, Tokyo fashion infuses both to create a buzz that we just can’t stop talking about,” says Girtley.

From Tokyofashion.com

Tracey Forrest, founder of the True Collaborative Showroom out of Portland, Oregon – another sustainable designer’s showroom – says Japanese buyers are very professional buyers who know their budgets, know what their demanding customers will want, and make quick and calculated decisions.

“They plan a smart mix of heritage brands with strong brand equity and also place a few new innovative brands to keep the mix interesting and innovative for their customers,” says Forrest.

Not sure what you think about Japanese fashion or its interesting history? Currently two Japanese fashion exhibits are running that you can take in: One is “Japan Fashion Now” at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT) in New York City, and the second is “Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion” at the Barbican Art Gallery in London.

According to Sarah Scaturro, of the print journal Fashion Projects, “both focus on Japanese fashion designers and celebrate their contributions to the Western fashion system,” and both shows offer looks dating back to 30 years ago and pay attention to contemporary Japanese sub-cultures.

Image: The Sydney Morning Herald

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Don’t be fooled by the appropriately aged thirty-year-old model strutting her pregnant belly in the new Forever 21 ad campaign to launch their ‘Love 21‘ maternity line. Although the company’s reps claim, “Forever 21 did not create, design or distribute Love 21 Maternity to target or appeal specifically to pregnant teens. Any relationship between teen pregnancy rates and the locations of our stores is unintentional,” it can’t be pure coincidence that the collection will only be launched in five states, with the highest pregnancy rates: Texas, Utah, Alaska, Arizona and California. Whom do they think they’re kidding?

Clearly, the ‘Forever 21’ name implies that their apparel is targeted for twenty-somethings, but the chain’s demographic is largely comprised of teenage shoppers looking to buy the latest trends at a dirt-cheap price. The company says they are trying to expand their demographic and appeal to a wider variety of ages by introducing a maternity line. But, all of the items in the Love 21 collection have a price point of $20 or less, and they make maternity clothing available to teens in a familiar setting in which they’ll be comfortable making purchases to befit their burgeoning bellies.

Of course, we can’t blame the easy access to maternity clothing for teen pregnancy, but is it responsible marketing to showcase trendy, affordable maternity apparel and accessories, romanticizing it by making it look super chic on a hot model, in a setting known for catering to young girls and teens? Or, is it opportunistic, especially given that the line is debuting in states known for their high rates of teen pregnancy?

We can’t truly believe that this fact is “pure coincidence” as senior marketing manager of Forever 21 stores, Linda Chang suggests – especially in this economy, where marketers are trying everything they can to target buyers and succeed at making big bucks.

Further, do we really need a practically disposable line of maternity clothing to crop up in any venue? Why must Forever 21 add to their already superfluous one-time-wear line of poor quality apparel? The ‘Love 21’ line is being touted as cheap and for temporary (nine month) use only. There are so many greener ways to dress stylishly during the nine months of pregnancy. Even if appropriately aged pregnant women are the ones who end up purchasing this line, no one will benefit, especially not the planet.

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