Chanel Rampart / 12 January 2025 / Categories: Product and Brands, Brands, Clothes, People, Creative

Guess Don’t Mess With Banksy

I love the California vibe of the guess aesthetic. I bought into designer Paul Marciano way back when curvy rebel Anna Nicole Smith catapulted the brand into the global stratosphere back in the 1990’s. That controversial Jean ad commercial 1992-1993.

The brand represented to me the James Dean beauty and sex appeal “rebel without a cause” but this time for women, a magic formula for commercial success.

I love Guess but I love Banksy more so when I saw on Banksy’s instagram a couple of years back him:her calling for action after he:she alleged his:her art was being used for commercial gain by the brand without his:her authority, my ears pricked up.

For me this was a conflict. At the time I remember thinking about heading to Regent St myself just out of curiosity.

According to Time Out, it would have been pointless as the windows were immediately covered, the flagship store shutdown and extra security brought it.

The Instagram post has since been removed but it did tickle me at the time;

“ ‘They’ve helped themselves to my artwork without asking, how can it be wrong for you to do the same to their clothes?’

Banksy has power and a voice so they were unable to steal from the artist without fundamentally damaging the brand.

I haven’t bought anything from Guess since. My values align with Banksy more.

Why do big brands do this it makes me think, the powers that be at the top of these global brands must think we are all stupid.

I read a tweet a few years ago from a New York designer Adam J, Kurtz alleging Zara Inditex was stealing the work of over 20 independent artists including LA based artist Tuesday Bassen, finding her designs all over Zara clothing without agreement or remuneration. You only have to look at the dupe fake market. Stealing in general appears to happen a lot in fashion.

I wanted to share this story as it is one lovely example where Guess may have picked the wrong artist to pinch from.

It tickles me every time I think about it, Banksy’s army descending on Guess to pinch his art back.

Fabulous.