Who gets paid when fashion says it “loves art”?

Monday Bitch #2: Being Loved and Used Enough

A short art-world exorcism every Monday. One thought, one scream, one deep breath after.

Quick check. Fashion slides into your socials, is it here to collaborate or to copy-paste?

Some houses commission, collect, and actually credit: Prada, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, to name a few. Respect where respect is due. Smaller labels like Marine Serre, Susan Fang, and KARA do it properly too, with real commissions and real credits, just on a smaller scale.

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The trouble begins when “inspiration” becomes inventory.

Has this happened to you. A follower DMs: “Is this yours?” You click. There it is, your image, now a product with a chirpy caption, with your name no where in sight.

To be clear, this is not about the houses that pay and name artists. It is about the copy crowd that courts your feed for a reel and ghosts the invoice.

Let us be honest about the whiplash artists feel. Before anger hits, there is often a brief flicker of pride. Out of billions of images, a giant machine picked your work. For one blink, it feels like recognition. Then the floor drops: your masterpiece reproduced for pennies, your name erased. Pride turns to outrage. It is not a tribute. It is theft in museum lighting. It corrupts the brain for a second. Then you remember who is cashing out.

Collaboration is two “yeses” and a receipt. Copying is a shrug on a deadline. It is not edgy. It is bullshit. And honestly it is frustrating. I am not an artist, but boy do I feel you. Nothing flattens a vibe faster than seeing your work lifted off a feed and printed on polyester.

I do not know the clean answer. Fighting back means fighting a very big, very hungry machine. Do you have it in you. So what to do? Slap your name across images and post lower dpi, that feels like taping plastic over a window in a storm. Ugh. If I were an artist, I would probably clench my teeth, cross my fingers, and pray some bigger force steps in and protects the work.

So I am talking straight to you.
If you love an image, follow the artist.
If you work at a brand, make the call before you make the product.
If you defend your logo like a deity, defend your makers with the same muscle.

Love the art, not just the aura. Ask who made it. If nobody answers, you already did.

Has this happened to you. Tell me where your work turned into “inventory.”

Heart lighter. Todays rant a bit longer...
Monday Bitch. Every Monday.

Tell a friend. Tag a thief.

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