Luxury brand Balenciaga has found itself in the middle of more backlash. This time, a creator is accusing the brand of stealing his design.
Creator and entrepreneur Lamont “Tory” Stapleton is calling out the fashion house for creative theft, accusing the brand of borrowing his design without his permission, and then adding an upcharge–25x more– to the price.
The design stolen? A crew neck with the words “FREE” on it. He says he wore the sweatshirt, part of his “Struggle is Common” line, at a private party in Los Angeles in 2019.
He appeared in photos wearing the shirt with the likes of Paris Hilton, Ye, Kim Kardashian, and others.
“At the start of 2019, after losing a friend to a long battle with addiction, I released a line called Struggle is Common. My goal was to remind people that they’re not alone and to encourage them to face their problems head-on if they truly wish to be FREE,” the designer wrote in his caption.
Years later, people began tagging him in a video of Diddy for Vanity Fair, wearing what looks like his design. He later realized it wasn’t his design.
“It became apparent that somebody had borrowed my work, but I had no idea who,” Stapleton said.
He then discovered that the design was showcased at the Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2021 fashion show.
He ended the video, “If anyone knows anybody who works at Balenciaga, can you please have them reach out to me? We just need to have a conversation.”
This isn’t the first time Balenciaga has been accused of stealing ideas from creatives.
