Cardi B Faces Legal Action Over Halloween Costume Based On Artist’s Work
Last month, Cardi B showed off her Halloween costume to her 143 million Instagram followers, dressed as Marge Simpson clad in an iconic Thierry Mugler dress—yes, the one with a cutout at the derrière.
Her post included a slideshow of herself, the original image of the dress, and the Marge Simpson fan artwork that inspired the look. However, the artist behind the piece, aleXsandro Palombo, was not credited.
As such, the pop artist, who created the work in 2013 as part of a series by British Vogue, has hired a legal team to take action against the rapper, her publicists, director, photographer, and stylist for using his art “without authorization.”
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Claudio Volpi, Attorney at Law at the Barberi & Volpi law firm, asserts that Cardi B “illegitimately appropriated the work of aleXsandro Palombo for mere business purposes in defiance of the most elementary rules on copyright and Instagram policies, with the consequent serious risks, both of compensation and of discredit for her public image,” as shared in a statement to DesignTAXI.
Palombo reveals that when he created the piece, he intended to transform Marge, a “mother and desperate housewife,” into a style icon that emphasizes “women’s emancipation and gender equality.”
The artist has often used his reflective Neo Pop Art as a means of raising awareness about important social and cultural issues worldwide. In 2019, his exhibition, Just Because I Am A Woman, portrayed famous female politicians as victims of gender violence.
“Cardi B and her collaborators have used my artwork without any authorization, debasing its original meaning and only to amplify their image with a clear commercial purpose that has nothing to do with that path of social awareness that has always characterized my works,” Palombo reveals to DesignTAXI.
“Cardi B, based on your reasoning, shall everyone illegally download your music?” he questions.
[via Artnet News and aleXsandro Palombo (featured with permission), images via various sources]
