July 21st, 2016 @ 7:17 pm

over the years, even before i made jewelry, i was always enraged by copy cunts.  i have always gone out of my way to support and purchase jewelry from indie designers, even while contributing to the chain stores/boutique designers.  if i saw a major chain ripping someone off, my loyalty was soon redirected away from supporting them.  i’ve not spent a penny at urban outfitters in almost a decade, and i lecture anyone that mentions that basic bitch, hipster shit hole.

it’s SERIOUSLY annoying when people try to mimic what other people have put their personal touch on.  i started out making “dreamcatcher” style hoop earrings, but they were insane colour combos and colourblocked, and they never had hanging feathers or anything – just my personal spin on them…  luckily i haven’t come across too many people making anything close (an etsy shop here or there, but they usually add feathers, be they soft or metal).

when i started #JAEJESS (my brand before UNRULEDclub), i used to market my earrings all over the place online.  they’d be on instagram (when i still had a public account), tumblr and pinterest.  i thought pinterest especially would be a great place to have them, since i’ve sold a bunch of stuff through that site, and even find/purchase things for myself.  welp, i thought wrong.  the majority of the time, idiots on pinterest users would pin them to their DIY ideas boards.

¯\_(ಠ_ಠ)_/¯ . o 0 O (  ¿DA FUQ? )
how disrespectful and negligent of stoopid humans.

i sell jewelry that really isn’t all that expensive, so i don’t understand aside from the love of crafting, why someone would have to do that.  like, at least put it in a secret board, or remove any links to the pins… sigh.

anyways, this comes about bc of all the internet posts i keep seeing re: the current zara/tuesday bassen issue.  it instantly reminded me of this bullshit, this bullshit (google urban outfitters ripping off artist and you’ll find countless articles) and finally – this really horrible bullshit.

i can’t speak for every indie designer, but after reading lot of articles about this, it all seems that we don’t have the money to defend ourselves if we are indeed ripped off.  it’s very sad.  in fact, tuesday bassen even mentioned that it took $2K just to get a legal complaint over to zara about it…  and that’s not even making a dent in that infuriating situation.

everything i make, i’m making straight from my brain/heart, or if i’m inspired by something, i twist that shit around.  a lot of the times, i just see a colour palette or a shape that i’m super inspired by…  i would never knowingly dupe a piece of jewelry.  if something inspired me, i’d keep it from looking like whatever the foundation inspiration was, as best as i could.  you can’t help inspiration – but straight jocking someone’s designs are just plain wrong.  i would never do that, and as a company, that should be part of your core values.

when i first read about the whole nasty gal/saylor rose thing, i was astonished…  i thought they seemed like a pretty cool landing site for fashun!  BUT that quickly faded for me.  see, miss *inspiring girl boss* herself came back at this girl like a vile human being:

“We are pulling it from the site. Forgive us for never having heard of you and give me a break for having done so. There are better ways of eliciting a response from us and it starts with being polite. Congrats, you’ve been knocked off. It’s a rite of passage.”

That wasn’t the end of it, though. Amoruso then posted a screengrab of the back and forth, commenting, “Great promotion for whatsherface. No way we knew that a goofy charm bracelet was invented by miss @saylorrose. By the way, when we know something is a knock off, we act. No way to pay attention to every single mom of an Etsy scrapbooker out there.”

instead of just pulling it, she chirps back like a total butt-hurt, caught-in-the-act asshole and says:  “Forgive us for never having heard of you”? clearly, one of your idiot employees actually DID hear of her – that’s how she was copied.

“congrats, you’ve been knocked off.  it’s a rite of passage.” ??? that’s just not okay.

what irritates me, is that sure – sophia probably never saw saylor rose’s initial creation.  she’s running a company, whatever that may entail, and might not have her hands on approving or researching that kind of stuff…  but you know what you do then, to make your brand not look like a cunty pile of shit?

…you hire someone that does.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii can often point out who designed jewelry/clothing/etc just from being an internet consumer.  you get to know shops, and their networked shops/friends.  if i can do that, other people can.

it made me nauseous as to how many of my feminist/bad-ass, indie designer girlfriends read that turd’s book (bc of course it was all over my social media timelines when it dropped) and prob have no idea about any of that…  i just rolled my eyes, said nothing, and kept it movin’, but i hope they read this and now they’ll know better.

lesson learned: do a little research instead of doing what the internet tells you to do… that’s what sets us apart from the basics!

SHOP SMALL.

fuck all of those companies, and go find the OG products online.  do some research, and stop supporting assholes like urban outfitters, who completely sold their souls at some point.  it’s definitely not the same company i used to shop from in the 90’s.

if you need to use those online brand sites, go to karmaloop or asos (yeah yeah, sometimes they’re super pricey) or something.

karmaloop may have had their ups and downs, but i think it’s safe now (and i’ve been a customer for YEARS).  they’re pioneers in the game, and don’t do designers dirty (as far as i know – aside from the general downfall of the company – i’ve never ever heard of any issue with them/their brands ripping ppl off).  they were looking to support and expose indie brands, that’s what i always loved about them… and that they used to carry triple 5 soul on the regs.