Zara or Zero?

. Fast fashion, thrifting, online stores — all of these places have one main thing in common; they all sell clothing. Fast fashion is necessarily known as a well-known store or company which retails popular and trendy clothing articles along with accessories and shoes occasionally. Some of these stores and companies are well known as Forever 21, Zara, Charlotte Rousse, Macy’s, JCPenny’s and so forth.

Zara

. Now, I’m all for shopping and being up to date on the latest fashion trends and all that, my issue is that fast fashion brands tend to steal their clothing designs and ideas from entrepreneurs who promote their work on social media sites like Twitter and Instagram. These entrepreneurs tend to sell their work on sites like Etsy or Depop — sites where people can either sell used clothes and items, or their own designs.

. Gabby Bess stresses this in her article “How Fashion Brands Like Zara Can Get Away With Stealing Artists’ Designs”. Graphic designer Adam Kurtz got his designs stolen by name brand Zara, as well as Los Angeles based artist Tuesday Bassen. Zara seems to be a tad unoriginal with their designs, however, because they are a name and well known brand, they seem to have the higher take on this situation.

. Bassen had spent $2,000 in legal fees just to get the response “We reject your claims here for reasons similar to those stated above: the lack of distinctiveness of your client’s purported designs makes it very hard to see how a significant part of the population anywhere in the world would associate the signs with Tuesday Bassen.” Seems as if entrepreneurs ought to start copyrighting their art before it gets stolen.

. Now, while all the dishonesty is going on with name brand companies and stores, it leaves us wondering “well, where am I supposed to shop?” and most people would think of the response of thrift shopping. While thrift stores do tend to have really good deals (occasionally), people seem to forget that thrift stores were originally made for families and people who make a lower income and cannot afford more expensive and luxurious clothing and household items.

. Since so many people forget this, thrift shopping has become a huge trend over 2016. These thrift stores, like Goodwill, have recognized this, too, so they decided to raise the prices on their items. So these stores are raising their prices and we wonder, where is the money going?

. Goodwill donates a percentage of their profits to charities, which is wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but the prices are still being raised. Because of this, the families who make a lower income can hardly afford shopping at thrift stores on top of other expenses such as rent and food and utilities.

Goodwill

. The question makes an appearance once again, where are we supposed to shop now? There are always online stores such as Etsy and Wanello which sell used clothing or even original pieces, but as far as I’m concerned, shopping at fast fashion places aren’t completely horrible. I feel as though it is perfectly fine, as long as these companies recognize what they’re doing isn’t right nor okay.

. I’m not telling you where you can and can’t shop, but this may contain information that you may not already be aware of. So my piece of advice is to watch where you spend your money and take into consideration where that money is actually going.

Kayla Delfin