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Jeremy Scott and Moschino Sued for Copying

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Katy Perry and Jeremy Scott at the 2015 Met Gala.

Jeremy Scott, the designer for Moschino who is known for his eccentric fashions, isn’t new to legal drama; in 2013, he was accused of imitating a skateboard artist’s designs and now, a graffiti artist, Joseph Tierney, has filed a lawsuit against both the designer and the Moschino fashion house for copying a piece of his artwork.

According to Tierney, who is commonly known as Rime, Scott used his work for The Seventh Letter art organization in the Moschino Fall 2015 collection. “Rime is a well-known artist. Defendants Moschino and Jeremy Scott—two household names in high fashion—inexplicably placed Rime’s art on their highest-profile apparel without his knowledge or consent. If this literal misappropriation were not bad enough, Moschino and Jeremy Scott did their own painting over that of the artist—superimposing the Moschino and Jeremy Scott brand names in spray-paint style as if part of the original work,” states the lawsuit.

The statement also mentions the appearance of the designs at this year’s Met Gala when singer Katy Perry and the designer himself walked the red carpet in pieces that featured artwork allegedly resembling Rime’s graffiti.

“The idea of putting graffiti—or ‘street’ art—on ultra-expensive clothing was meant to provoke and generate publicity for the brand/designer […] Not only did Ms. Perry and Defendant Scott advertise, wear, and display the clothing at the event, they arrived at the event in a spray-painted Rolls Royce, and even carried around Moschino-branded cans of fake spray paint during the event, as if the Defendants were responsible for the artwork […] Ms. Perry was widely photographed in the clothing, as she always is. She even made a number of ‘worst-dressed’ lists as a result. The Defendants were obviously thrilled with how the episode played out […] The only person harmed was Rime. Not only was his art exploited by Defendants, but his credibility as a graffiti artist was compromised by inclusion in such a crass and commercial publicity stunt.”

The artist has demanded that the fashion house stops selling the items that he claims infringe his artwork and also pay him significant damages. Moschino and Scott have yet to comment on the claims made by Rime, but it is safe to assume that the incident has cast an overshadow on their celebratory mood after Moschino’s first New York City store opened with Scott’s Fall 2015 collection hanging on the racks.

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