Taylor Swift Faces Backlash After Some Allege She Copied A Black Business Owner’s Logo For ‘folklore’ Merch
Taylor Swift was called out for using a logo for her new album folklore’s merch that was quite similar to the logo of a Black-owned fashion business, reports Cosmo.
As you likely know if you’re a TSwift fan and reading this, last week, the 30-year-old dropped her eighth studio album, folklore. Soon after, merchandise for the album went on sale – all of it featuring a logo that looked quite alike to that of the logo for The Folklore, a fashion retailer focused on African brands.
Alongside photos of the two logos, the brand’s founder Amira Rasool wrote: “This morning, it came to my attention that musician #TaylorSwift is selling merchandise to go along with her new album Folklore. She is currently selling merchandise with the words ‘The Folklore’ printed on them.”
“Based on the similarities of the design, I believe the designer of the merch ripped off my company’s logo. I am sharing my story to bring light to the trend of large companies/celebrities copying the work of small minority-owned business owners. I am not going to let this blatant theft go unchecked.”
Later, she added to InStyle: “It’s just very hard to believe that [Taylor’s team] didn’t come across it.” She said she believed they had in fact seen her logo, and that she found it disheartening that they would copy it.
“I had people who asked me, ‘Oh, did you collaborate with Taylor on these?’ They just assumed that it was a collaboration because of how similar the logos are,” she said.
Taylor, for her part, took swift action (had to), issuing a statement to Good Morning America saying they’d stopped production on merchandise displaying ‘the folklore’, rather than ‘folklore’. It read: “In good faith, we honoured her request and immediately notifified everyone who had ordered merchandise with the word ‘the’ preceding ‘folklore album’ that they will now receive their order with the design change.”
Taylor also sent a direct tweet to Amira, saying: “I admire the work you’re doing and I’m happy to make a contribution to your company and to support the Black in Fashion Council (launching on 8/3) with a donation.”
Main Image Credit: Licensed by Getty
