Ariana Grande Is Suing Forever 21 For $10 Million For Allegedly Ripping Off Her Look
TMZ reports that Ariana Grande is suing Forever 21 for $10 million for some alleged copy cat-ism that can be traced back to December 2018. Ariana and Forever 21 were in talks for an endorsement deal, but it fell through in January because Forever 21 reportedly wouldn’t pay Ariana enough money. Not long after, Forever 21 launched a campaign featuring a model that looked suspiciously like Ariana, wearing a similar look to Ariana’s from her video for 7 Rings.
The video for 7 Rings was released on January 17th, and here’s one of Ariana’s looks from it:
Now here’s what Forever 21 posted in February.
Their caption, “Gee thanks, just bought it!“, is a direct reference to a lyric in 7 Rings which says, “You like my hair? Gee thanks, just bought it.” In case you’re not convinced, here is more evidence provided by Ariana’s lawyers, which they believe is proof that Forever 21 ripped off her look:
Not exactly a perfect match, but you can’t deny that it could totally pass for one of those Get The Look For Less spreads from TeenVogue or Seventeen. Forever 21 had also been posting images from Ariana’s video for Thank U, Next when it premiered last year, which could be used to argue that Forever 21 is definitely familiar with who Ariana Grande is.
According to Ariana’s lawsuit, her legal team alleges that Forever 21 tried to pull a fast one by choosing models that looked like Ariana and used a similar color scheme to 7 Rings, all in an attempt to dupe consumers into thinking it was a legitimate partnership. Her lawyers accuse Forever 21 of publishing at least 30 unauthorized images and videos copying Ariana’s likeness and style, all in an attempt to dupe people into thinking Ariana was affiliated with the brand. The lawsuit states that when Ariana discovered Forever 21’s alleged plagiarism, she contacted her lawyers, who contacted Forever 21 and told them to remove the images. Forever 21 allegedly agreed to that, but then they never took it down. Now there’s a lawsuit involved, which is why you can’t find the images on Forever 21’s social media accounts at the present time.
Riley Rose, which is an off-shoot of Forever 21 that was launched by the daughters of the founder of Forever 21, were also named in the lawsuit. TMZ says that Ariana is suing for at least $10 million in damages. To put that into perspective, that’s almost five million Forever 21 crop tops.
Ariana Grande has every right to sue Forever 21 for knocking her off in such a brazen and shameless way. But she also needs to understand that providing people with a cheap knock-off is kind of their thing. She also needs to brace herself for the fact that $10 million might be a bit much to a company that is reportedly considering bankruptcy. Ariana deserves retribution, but she probably shouldn’t be too surprised if it comes in the form of several trucks worth of itchy velvet hair scrunchies and gold lock and key chokers that will instantly turn her skin green.
Pics: Wenn.com, YouTube, Instagram via Ariana Grande’s Lawsuit