Did Swedish fashion house H&M copy textured knitwear design from a young designer?

A young London-based Asian-American fashion designer Chet Lo has accused the Swedish clothing brand H&M of copying his signature highly textured knitwear.

The allegation revolves around a pink knitwear dress included in H&M’s “Innovation Cherish Waste” collection that looks like Lo’s famous spiky design, which was featured in Doja Cat and SZA’s “Kiss Me More” music video.

As soon as Lo was made aware of the issue, he started an Instagram post to vent his frustration without naming the brand. He wrote that as a “small brand and queer POC independent designer” who has worked very hard to produce something that represents his culture, he has always created his designs based on personal experiences, which he believes can be seen in his work. He also said that every piece ordered through his website is “hand-knitted with love and care and not mass produced just to make profits.”

He further emphasized that fashion companies regularly copy works of smaller creative designers but believes that authenticity and originality can never be reproduced.

Even fashion watchdog Diet Prada has blamed H&M for stealing designs from small creators. However, most of the comments from Instagram users pointed out that these designs and materials have been around for years, and Lo did not invent them.

H&M has denied any claims made by Lo. They said that their in-house creative teams design all their collections and that the Cherish Waste Collection had many ”90´s and 00´s references” and that during that time “spiky knits were a big thing.”

The design house believes that trends are global and can occur at the same time in various places as many designers are inspired by the same things.

This is not the first time that H&M has been accused of plagiarizing designs. Previously, it has been blamed for copying designs of brands such as Sadboys Gear and Thrasher.

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