Fashion designer Ash Forde is calling out LaLa Anthony and Pretty Little Thing for mirroring a design she gifted Lala for a PLT collab.
Ash shared her devastation and disbelief via Instagram.
She wrote:
I can’t express the amount of disbelief I’m experiencing right now. For another black woman to mirror the designs of another black woman, pure hurt.
We’ve seen this narrative so many times from different cultures, but girl — OURS?
Before I launched @lala’s stylist @therealnoigjeremy reached out to pull from my first collection for @maisonashforde.
We met in NYC where I personally delivered the dress with excitement.
MY DESIGNS, NO TEAM, NO SUPPORT, MY FUNDING, AND FOR FREE.
Only to find out that the design of my dress would be duplicated by a larger fast fashion brand for @lala’s collab with @prettylittlething prettylittlething and it’s sad because we’ve seen this happen with small black businesses too many times.
We know that @lala had to approve these designs.
The level of respect is at an all time low.
Being an influencer and new designer, I’ve never counted out small businesses. My rates are fair.
I always give recognition and ALL OF MY DESIGNS are original. Just thought I’d share my story so it puts a dent into the cycle stopping in this industry.
In the post she included receipts of her conversation with LaLa’s representative and pictures of the dresses:
In a second post she shared:
View this post on Instagram
On Twitter, people said the situation reminded them of an episode of Grownish:
Not this episode of Grownish in real life!
— CarlitaVictoria (@itscarlitav) November 3, 2021
Ash Forde’s small business is called Maison Ashforde and you can follow them here.
We are hoping she can get this resolved quickly, LaLa has not commented.
