An Irish Designer Has Accused Penneys Of Stealing Her Design

Penneys has come under fire this week from an Irish designer, who claims that the store ripped off her design.

Zoe Carol Wong runs the Zoe Carol womenswear brand and took to social media this week to complain that a bird-print shirt currently on sale in Penneys was suspiciously similar to a piece from her collection.

In a post to her website last week, Carol wrote an open letter to the global chain to say that their reproduction was a "clear robbery of intellectual property".

"There’s no law against what you did and there’s no law to protect designers and makers. I’ve often thought about the world and why we have/need a store like Penneys. The fact is the world has become fast, cheap and disposable. It’s not pretty and today was another day I saw the ugly side of fashion."

Penneys has since responded to say that the blouse stocked in stores was in no way inspired by Zoe Carol's Nankim design.

"Primark’s team of designers take great pride in bringing its customers the latest trends at affordable prices.

"The Primark buyers responsible for commissioning and developing the product in question were not familiar with Ms Wong’s company, or with its designs, and at no time took inspiration from them."

What do you think?