Balenciaga, under the helm of creative director Demna Gvasalia, consistently draws on pop culture as an influence. Last season it used the familiar Bernie Sanders campaign image and flipped it into the Balenciaga logo. On Wednesday June 21, apart of the Balenciaga Men’s Spring Summer 2018 collection was an all over print shirt plastered with what looks identical to the recognizable Ruff Ryders logo. Instead of an “R” a metallic “B” with the word Balenciaga across it is featured on the runway look.
Swizz Beatz chimed in on Instagram throwing up a pic of the shirt in question asking its creators for a chat. Next he put up a pic of the original now vintage collard shirt and obvious inspiration for the runway piece.
Gucci and its creative director Alessandro Michele recently got into hot water for copying one of Dapper Dan of Harlem’s most famous looks, instantly responding to the criticism quoting Dan as the inspiration. Swizz feels as though the culture was robbed of its just due on this one and is calling out the creators of the shirt, asking them to simply to give back. Demna Gvasalia and Balenciaga might be in some legal trouble. Stay tuned for updates.
