Charity campaigner taken to court by Louis Vuitton
Filed under: Handbags, Accessories, Style for a Cause
Every the most ardent fashionista will surely admit that there are some things which are - yes! - more important than the latest designer bag, Paris Hilton's newest business venture or what the stars are wearing to another black tie event. Nadia Plesner certainly thinks so: the 26-year old artist from Holland has created a series of striking posters to highlight the tragedy of the ongoing genocide in Darfur (in which so far 200,000-400,000 people have died -- and 2.5 million have been displaced from their homes).
To mark the contrast between the suffering of the people of Darfur and our love of celebrity style and gossip, she drew a starving African child holding a chihuahua dog and a purse which looks similar to something LV would make.
Plesner has been happily selling the design on shirts and posters and giving all the proceeds to a charity called Divest for Darfur.
But Louis Vuitton don't care where the profits are going, they just want the drawings to stop. They served Nadia with a "cease and desist" back in February, and in April they filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, charging the artist with owing them $7,700 a day.
What do you think about this: are Louis Vuitton right to protect their image -- after all, the war in Darfur isn't actually anything to do with them? Or should they show a bit more compassion, and a sense of humor, and maybe support Nadia Plesner's efforts in some way? (Perhaps if they asked her to alter the design but donated to Darfur instead of demanding money Plesner doesn't have, they wouldn't come off as the bad guys...)
[via Pretty in the City]
