The wife of Mexican President Beatriz Gutierrez accused Thursday, October 20, the American fashion giant Ralph Lauren of having, according to her, plagiarized indigenous patterns for the making of one of her clothes.
“
Listen Ralph: we noticed that you really like Mexican patterns (...).
However, by copying these patterns you are plagiarizing, and as you know plagiarism is illegal and immoral
,” wrote the wife of President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador on her Instagram account.
Beatriz Gutierrez, who is a historian, accompanied her post with an image of a colorful jacket clearly labeled "
Ralph Lauren
".
The garment, listed on various websites as a "
striped belted cardigan
", costs an average of $300, AFP found.
“
I hope you make amends to the indigenous communities who do this work with love and not for profit and millionaires
,” she adds.
Read alsoThe Californian dream of Ralph Lauren
Complaints from Mexico
The patterns used in the clothes of the American brand correspond, according to her, to designs from the communities of Contla (center) and Saltillo (north).
Mexican copyright law stipulates that all works considered popular or artisanal must be respected, and requires clear acknowledgment of the indigenous community from which they originate in the event of commercial use.
In 2021, Mexico had already filed a complaint against fashion companies, such as the Chinese company Shein, the Spanish company Inditex and the American companies Anthropologie and Patowl, for using Mexican designs in their clothing.
In 2020, Mexico also filed a complaint against French fashion designer Isabel Marant, who later apologized to the government and an indigenous community in Michoacan (west).
In 2019, the Ministry of Culture reported that the company of Carolina Herrera, a Venezuelan fashion designer based in the United States, had reproduced colorful embroidery from the Tenango community (center).
Mexico has 56 ethnic groups, which gives it great wealth in terms of handicrafts, especially textiles and embroidery.