Well this is simply shocking: Urban Outfitters is allegedly taking original designs, mass producing them, and reselling them for a low, low price at their store. Crazy, right? What next, novelty t-shirts and coffee table books?!
At least two Brooklyn Flea vendors are claiming the company's new Waylaid jewelry line looks an awful lot like their own creations, according to the Brooklyn Paper. 27-year-old designer Lillian Crowe debuted her line of jewelry featuring rib cages and bull skulls in March 2009, which the paper believes was at least 7 months earlier than it debuted at the store (though they're just going by online comments).
Crowe also noticed other pieces she says rip off fellow designers, like a shark jaw necklace; she told the paper she thinks "maybe someone [at Urban Outfitters] took an inspirational day at the Flea.” The store has been known to use indie designers as their "muse," but one source told the paper they've been trying to dispel that as of late. Anyway, not to be all down on the starving artists, but... are jaws and skulls really that original in the first place? Maybe it's time to dig a little deeper into the creative well... think: owls.
