To say I was a diehard Nirvana fan as a young teen is something of an understatement. I was that level of obsessed that only a teen trying to formulate who the hell they are can be. And yes, I may have made my own iron on Nirvana band shirts for a time because my Baker’s Delight after school gig didn’t really cover $50 t-shirts.
[jwplayer XP9zfY4m]
However, I feel like every basic bitch teen-targeted clothing store did not have the excuse of ‘poor af but passionate fan’ to allow their clear rip offs of the Nirvana smiley face. You know, this one:
I always wondered how they were getting away with it. Turns out they just weren’t important enough to bother. Now, Marc Jacobs has jumped on the lets-commercialise-the-very-band-that-probably-hated-it-the-most bandwagon by including socks, shirts and jumpers featuring a VERYYY similar smiley face as part of their recently released Bootleg Redux Grunge collection.
I mean, the evidence is pretty damning. Replacing X with other letters and using the exact same font for the writing does not an original design make. WOAH, woah, they even copied the exact font and design of the text on the back? Ok teen me is offended, just look:
TMZ reports the band have finally drawn the line and brought a lawsuit against Marc Jacobs for clearly stealing their trademark. The lawsuit takes it a step further by also claiming Nirvana were among the founders of the whole ‘Grunge’ scene in general and therefore should be thanked for the whole concept of the Marc Jacobs line.
And yes, hello, diehard fangirl over here agreeing wholeheartedly. Sure, sure there were plenty of lesser known bands also strongly represented in my playlists that may have been inspiration for the movement. But you really can’t argue that many band made it more of an actual ‘thing’ then Nirvana.
Don’t get me wrong, overall this collection is completely my aesthetic and I kind of like the idea that I can combine my teen self with what I hope is a much better fashion sense. Although lets be honest it’s a fair bit more pricey than the weird shit teen-me put together out of coloured stockings and op shop gems, so it’s not like I could afford it. But it features designs originally showed for Perry Ellis back in 1993, so ya know, they totally nail the grungy 90s vibe.
But just, don’t steal other peoples trademarks?
