Luxury fashion label Yves Saint Laurent accused of 'ripping off' a $23 Forever 21 dress design - and selling its own version for more than 150 TIMES the price
- Eagle-eyed blogger and Marie Claire contributing editor Nicolette Mason, 29, spotted the dress in the Saint Laurent Fall/Winter 2015 collection
- She tweeted her discovery, saying that the fashion giant was 'trolling' by producing a '$3,490 Forever 21 knock off'
Designers ripping off other designers is simply a tool of the fashion trade, but usually it is budget retailers creating work inspired by the runway giants - and not the other way around.
But this was discovered to be just the case when a savvy fashion blogger and Marie Claire contributing editor, Nicolette Mason, 29, saw an all-too-familiar - and far too expensive - design hitting the runway in the upcoming Fall/Winter 2015 collection for Saint Laurent under creative director Hedi Slimane.
Posting to Twitter with an image of the top fashion brand's new pussy-bow lipstick-print crepe mini dress and a photo of a strikingly-similar jersey dress from budget fashion retail chain Forever 21, Nicolette wrote: 'In other fashion news, Hedi Slimane is LITERALLY trolling us with this $3,490 F21 knock off. [sic]'
Seeing double: Fashion blogger Nicolette Mason, 29, claims a new lipstick-print crepe mini dress in the Yves Saint Laurent Fall/Winter (L) bears an all-too striking resemblance to an older design from Forever 21 (R)
Spreading the word: Nicolette posted the comparison to Twitter, singling out Saint Laurent Paris creative director Hedi Slimane
Both dresses appear to bear a nearly-identical pattern of opened bright-red lipsticks on a black background and even resemble each other in style with longer sleeves and a thin tie - albeit with one at the collar and the other at the waist.
Obviously used to the natural order of catwalk-to-budget-knockoff, Nicolette's followers immediately asked if she was mistaken and the Saint Laurent version had come first.
'No, the F21 version is a couple years old,' she wrote. 'The Saint Lauren dress is new for Fall 2015.'
The most shocking part of the rip-off is the lofty price tag which, at $3,490, utterly dwarfs the reasonable $23 label placed on Forever 21's version.
The reasonably-priced counterpart, the Lipstick Jersey Knit Dress, was apparently a part of the Forever 21 canon back in 2013 - coming in a white, sleeveless version as well - and has since sold out.
Too late: Nicolette's followers immediately asked if she was mistaken about the order the dresses were created, but she confirmed that the Saint Laurent dress (pictured) was the most recent design
Hiked: The Saint Laurent dress costs an eye-watering $3,490 as opposed to Forever 21's $23 version
It proved popular on the website with plenty of high praise from buyers and was even included in a 2013 round up for plus-size fashions in xoJane.
Although the lipstick print is nothing new, the resemblance has been strong enough to inspire fashion fans to hit out at the brand on social media.
'YSL, nice attempt at changing it up but copying fast fashion isn't a good look,' wrote one unimpressed Twitter user.
'Ehhh... I'm falling multiple ways on this, but kind of nice to see reverse "comp shop" for once,' wrote another.
Daily Mail Online has reached out to Yves Saint Laurent for comment.
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