Taylor Swift Donated to Amira Rasool After Being Accused of Copying the Black Business Owner’s Logo
Black business owner Amira Rasool called out Taylor Swift for using a logo similar to her retailer’s, The Folklore, on merchandise.
Taylor’s team promptly changed the logo and is in further talks with Rasool about the matter.
Update: July 31, 2020
After changing the logo of her Folklore merch, which was suspiciously similar to a Black-owned brand founded by Amira Rasool, Taylor Swift pledged to donate to Rasool’s company and the Black in Fashion Council. In response, Rasool tweeted, “Thank you, Taylor. Wishing you all the best.”
Amira, I admire the work you’re doing and I’m happy to make a contribution to your company and to support the Black in Fashion Council (launching on 8/3) with a donation 💗@thefolklore @amirarasool @bifcglobal #blackinfashioncouncil
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) July 30, 2020
Original story: July 30, 2020
Taylor Swift quite literally came, saw, and conquered when she released her eighth studio album, Folklore, last week. And despite Taylor giving the internet only 24 hours to mentally and emotionally prepare for the album’s release, it outsold…and so did her merchandise. But it didn’t all drop without a hiccup, because Folklore’s merch was notably similar to the logo of The Folklore, a Black-owned fashion retailer focused on African brands founded by Amira Rasool.
On July 24, Rasool brought attention to the similarities, pointing out how Taylor’s logo looked a lot like her brand’s. She urged her followers to spotlight the issue so it would be addressed. She said:
“This morning, it came to my attention that musician #TaylorSwift is selling merchandise to go along with her new album Folklore. She is currently selling merchandise with the words ‘The Folklore’ printed on them. Based on the similarities of the design, I believe the designer of the merch ripped off my company’s logo. I am sharing my story to bring light to the trend of large companies/celebrities copying the work of small minority-owned business owners. I am not going to let this blatant theft go unchecked.”
A post shared by Amira Rasool (@amirarasool) on Jul 24, 2020 at 9:17am PDT
Rasool later spoke with InStyle and said she couldn’t accept that the logo branding on Taylor’s merch was a case of mere coincidence.
“It’s just very hard to believe that [Taylor’s team] didn’t come across it,” she said. “And if they did come across it—which I believe they did—for them to model Taylor’s merchandise on our logo, especially having seen what our company is about, is especially disheartening to me.”
In fact, the branding was so similar that people actually asked Rasool if she worked with Taylor to develop the logo design. “I had people who asked me, ‘Oh, did you collaborate with Taylor on these?’ They just assumed that it was a collaboration because of how similar the logos are,” she added.
Thankfully, Taylor’s camp heard about Rasool’s claims and swiftly (no pun intended) addressed them by creating a new logo for the Folklore merchandise. In a statement to Good Morning America, Taylor’s camp said:
“Yesterday, we were made aware of a complaint that the specific use of the word ‘the’ before ‘Folklore album’ on some of the Folklore album merchandise was of concern. Absolutely no merchandise using ‘the’ before the words ‘Folklore album’ has been manufactured or sent out….In good faith, we honored her request and immediately notified everyone who had ordered merchandise with the word ‘the’ preceding ‘Folklore album’ that they will now receive their order with the design change.”
As promised, the change is now reflected in the merch on Taylor’s website. According to Rasool, she and Taylor’s team are having conversations about what the next course of action is following the misuse of her logo format.
A post shared by Amira Rasool (@amirarasool) on Jul 28, 2020 at 8:18am PDT
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