UK fashion brand Rixo is the latest entity to be called out by a local artist for alleged plagiarism.
In a now-viral Instagram post, Feanne, a Filipino illustrator and fabric designer, says that her drawings were used without her permission by Rixo in their clothing collections.
In her post, Feanne shows side-by-side comparisons of her artwork and the clothing sold by Rixo. She captions, “Rixo did not contact me for a collaboration or commission.”
Additionally, she posts select images highlighting the similarities between the illustrations. According to Feanne, "even the asymmetry and irregularities are identical" if you look closely at the hand-drawn images.
Feanne’s drawings, entitled “Star, Moon, Cloud, Sky Drawings,” were uploaded on Creative Market on October 30, 2014. Feanne still has the original paper drawings and original scanned file dated October 2014.
Rixo first announced the sale of the items in question through social media posts starting in 2016. They were sold on various platforms, including online retailer Net-A-Porter, and were featured in fashion publications like WhoWhatWear. In one of the captions still up on Instagram, Rixo identifies “Moonlight Sky Katie” dresses as “hand sketched.”
The legal letter fired back by Rixo echoes this assertion. In response to Feanne’s allegations, the lawyers of the UK brand state that Rixo does not have the license to use Feanne’s work because the prints were designed and hand-sketched by the brand’s owners, Henrietta Rix and Orlagh McCloskey.
In her statement, Feanne says, “I demand that Rixo give me a public apology, attribution, and financial compensation for their unauthorized commercial use of my work as well as for the legal fees I am incurring in pursuing this matter.”
Comments in Feanne’s original post have been largely supportive, with many people tagging online accounts that focus on plagiarism issues like @dietprada and @fashion.fakes.
Meanwhile, as of press time, Rixo has currently turned off their Instagram's comment section in reaction to the slew of netizens calling them out. Other users also claimed to have been blocked by the fashion brand.
We have reached out to Rixo for their comment and will update this article as soon as we hear from them.
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