Forever 21 has knockoffs of the Chanel Camellia Jellies I posted about before. What do you think?

FAKE:

REAL:

Unfortunately, we all know Forever can be a hellhole to navigate through. And then you have to pick through bins like this.

Forever has gotten into trouble before for imitating designer goods. They’ve been sued by everyone from DVF to Trovata to Gwen Stefani. Their claim that they attempt not to copy others’ goods is ridiculous when you see sandals like these. However, copyright infringement is a huge and controversial issue in the fashion industry. Here’s a post from the Copyright Office regarding fashion designs. I think the point is, people are jealous Forever’s making so much money. Other companies copy designs but aren’t this aggressively pursued.

If we do copyright designs, one of the concerns is that there will be a monopoly on things. What do you think about copyrighting a red sole? A certain Aztec or African or leopard design so no one else can use it? It’s my thought that the latter will never happen because it’s ridiculous and belongs to common intellectual property, but I could be wrong.

Sure, Forever is a pain to go to, a pain to stand in line for the cash registers and the dressing rooms for, and the clothes and accessories can be a bit … Hannah Montana. But I got sandals for $5, two adorable light summery dresses for $15 each, three strapless, underwireless padded bras for preventing high beams under summer dresses for $5 each and sexy black undies for $3 each! Friends asked me if my dress was from Club Monaco! Hah!

Recessionistaism 101: Pick your way through Forever and you can still have products that are cheap and will last you quite a while and have you looking fabulous!