GUESS: The Bushwick Birkin Bandit

Telfar Clemmens is a Black designer from Queens, NY, who began his self-named brand in 2005. Being a genderless brand, Telfar asks its supporters to embrace the phrase “It’s not for you–it’s for everyone.”

Fast forward to 2020, Telfar released the brand’s it bag: The Shopping Bag. The faux leather tote bag stands out for the originality of its design, which features a logo on the face of the bag. The logo incorporates a capital letter ‘T’, fitting perfectly inside of a lowercase ‘e’. The bag offers two pairs of straps, one pair short for a handle and the other long for cross body styling. Available in three sizes and several colors, every variation is currently available through their bag security program.

Image Courtesy: Telfar

Ever since the weekend, social media has been in an outrage, as GUESS ripped off the Telfar Shopping Bag. The copycat faux leather tote bag features the same logo design, except with a G inside of a circle. The same two pairs of straps can be found on the GUESS bag as well.

This isn’t even the first time we have caught GUESS copying another designer, almost to a T. We witnessed GUESS barely even put a spin on Prada’s nylon bag.

Image Courtesy: GUESS

Brands rip off brands all the time. However, GUESS ripping off Telfar struck a nerve, as GUESS is ripping off the creativity of a Black queer designer.

@bibbygregory perfectly explained the situation on Twitter: “I think the most annoying and yet interesting part of this is the fact that a company like GUESS has the capital and resources to produce this bag in great quantities when the original designer could not. And it really speaks to the lack of access granted to Black designers. The lack of capital. The lack of resources the industry provides them.”

So why is copying and ripping off so easy to do? Protection of designs costs money.  For an independent designer, like Telfar, legal protections are often self-funded and costly. It can be difficult for those who work independently to fund protection for their designs. The virality of social media can be bittersweet when a designer is receiving exposure, but must live in fear of being ripped off. Time and time again, we have seen the fashion industry deny designers of color equal resources and capital. The fashion industry places designers of color at a disadvantage, while it simultaneously copies and rips off the creative work of those same designers.

How often does this actually occur in the fashion industry, and sometimes even go unnoticed? We’ve all seen fast fashion brands create designer-inspired looks at a more desirable price point. Pretty Little Thing and Fashion Nova are notorious for stealing the creative work of Black designers. @_tdionne on Twitter mentions that Pretty Little Thing had reached out with an invitation to be a brand ambassador, before going ahead and ripping off her work. In this case, imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery. The process of protecting a design can be difficult, so one can only imagine the lengths it must take to reclaim an original design.

Thankfully, GUESS has withdrawn its lookalike bag. Hopefully, this can be used as a turning point and lesson to other designers in the industry. GUESS is a widely known name and has been around for quite some time; therefore, as @bibbygregory explained, the brand has the power and capital to mass produce a bag of any kind. Ripping off the creative work of a Black designer will prove to be unsuccessful when those that shop and support Telfar choose to do so because they see meaning behind the brand.

Strike Out,

Writer: Jackie Elliott

Boca Raton