Fashion Nova has once again found itself in hot water for apparently ripping off another brand’s design. This time, it is accused of copying the knitwear brand owned by Black Hanifa.
On Monday, Hanifa founder and creative director Anifa Mvuemba took to Twitter to share images of one of her dresses along with a screenshot of an e-commerce site featuring an eerily similar piece. “Just because this sample took me months to perfect. This is actually crazy. I won’t label or name them. But this is crazy,” she wrote.
The now-viral tweet kept the name of the copycat anonymous, but commenters were quick to call out Fashion Nova as the infringer. Mvuemba declined to comment for this article.
The item in question was Fashion Nova’s Sahara Sweater Maxi Dress, which features the same silhouette, sheer sections and sharp color blocking as Hanifa’s Jax Knit Dress. What sets them apart (besides, presumably, the fabric and overall quality) is the price discrepancy: Fashion Nova’s $49.99 piece is a significant drop from Hanifa’s $459 price tag. The original version is currently sold out on Hanife’s website.
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From Washington, DC, Mvuemba has built a business on loyal customers, without relying on the approval of industry gatekeepers, while also working out of a major fashion city. In the last decade, Shea has become known for its bold, modern, body-hugging designs and innovative runway concepts. Despite Hanifa’s success, the brand is relatively small compared to a fast fashion giant like Fashion Nova.
Photo: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images
Hanifa’s clients and fans were quick to amplify Mvuemba’s tweet and share their frustration and anger over the incident and Fashion Nova’s ongoing model to get a little more inspiration from other designers. At press time, the tweet had 21.9k retweets and 3,202 quote tweets.
This is far from the first time Fashion Nova has been accused of design theft. The Los Angeles-based company has even been called out for copying independent black designers, in particular. In July 2018, designer Jai Nice of Kloset Envy exposed the brand for stealing her work; in 2019 Luci Wilden of Knots and Vibes caught Fashion Nova selling an identical piece to her Skin Out dress, released in 2017.
While Fashion Nova has not publicly commented on the controversy, the flood of negative comments was apparently effective: As of Tuesday afternoon, the Sahara Sweater Maxi Dress product page had disappeared from the fast fashion retailer’s site.
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