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Did Jeremy Scott rip off legendary Skateboard designers Jim and JimboPhillips?
1:42 PM
Nowadays the Internet is not only a source of inspiration but also an incompliant platform when it comes to intellectual property. While big fashion brands have always been inspired by youth and street culture and probably have even ripped off artists and smaller labels, it becomes pretty obvious when you are jacking ideas these days.
Jeremy Scott now faces exactly this situation as it seems that he created the prints for his latest Spring/Summer 2013 collection to a large extent by basically using the exact designs from legendary skateboard graphic designers Jim and Jimbo Phillips.
The two designers who were responsible for many popular board graphics during the Bones Brigade era, such as the Screaming Hand and many trippy faces, have now pointed their fingers on Jeremy Scott for using some of their legendary designs without permission or any clearing payments.
The similarities between the original designs and Scott's fashion are pretty obvious and while some pieces just reference the original artwork by blending it into crazy all over prints, others basically feature the exact same graphic. Particularly the trippy faces on dresses and sweaters look like someones just tried to reproduce the exact same graphic. I mean, the dress even features the exact same wording as the original skateboard.
Some of you might be a little perplex why this is suddenly causing such a shitstorm on the Internet since Jeremy Scott has always been known for making pretty bold references to youth culture. From selling a Sweater with Bart Simpsons face on it for 500 bucks to referencing the Flintstones with one of his Adidas shoe models, he was applauded for these pieces in the past.
However, I doubt that Scott was able to use the Simpsons or Flintstones characters without asking their creators for permission since these TV-shows are multi-million corporate driven productions. In contrast to that, the designs of Jim Phillips were created in an era where skateboarding was just emerging as a sport and certainly did not provide high revenues for most of the involved parties. Hence, Phillips and his son Jimbo were never really paid high salaries for their work in the first place.
The fact, that Scott now relies on these cultural icons without even giving any credit nor any compensation to the original creators seems pretty disrespectful for someone who has always pointed out his deep roots in the street-scene.
I have not heard of any statement from Scott yet, but I am pretty sure that he will have to defend himself eventually. Let’s hope that he has enough backbone to straighten things out with Phillips and gives him his due credit!
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