Yesterday, Nasty Gal posted a photo to its Instagram feed of Taylor Swift in the white cutout jumpsuit she wore to the Billboard Music Awards. The caption read: “One piece wonder @TaylorSwift in the #NastyGal Frisco Inferno Jumpsuit at the @officialbbmas #NastyGalsDoItBetter.” Today, said jumpsuit is nearly sold out in every size on the Nasty Gal site. Problem is: Swift was wearing Balmain.
Nasty Gal has since removed its promotional post, but has regardless left everyone on the Internet wondering how the brand mixed up one of its own designs. Or worse: Was it an intentionally misleading statement? While neither Nasty Gal nor Balmain has yet made any comment on the Instagram post, we wonder whether Olivier Rousteing (Balmain’s creative director and owner of the world’s most perfect cheekbones) even cares.
In a 2014 interview with The Independent, Rousteing addressed the many fast-fashion knockoffs of his Balmain designs. “I love seeing a Zara window with my clothes mixed with Céline and Proenza [Schouler]! I think that's genius,” he said at the time. Furthermore, we doubt the designer would be one to throw stones in glass houses. After all, his recent spring ’15 collection — the same one that included Swift’s actual white BBMA jumpsuit — featured a twist-front, cut-out, white tuxedo that bore a nearly identical resemblance to a Givenchy Couture runway look from 1997.
Although not every designer would agree, we can assume that such an homage was more flattery than forgery. Hopefully that's how Rousteing feels about this instance as well. To be fair, Nasty Gal is hardly the only retailer to mimic a high-fashion brand.
We've reached out to Balmain and Nasty Gal for a comment and will update this story when we we hear back.
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