Leading fashion outlet gets dressing down over "stolen" photos

Leading Spanish fashion outlet Stradivarius, part of the Inditex group, has been forced to withdraw a line of t-shirts from its stores after complaints from a number of female fashion bloggers who say that photographs from their sites were used without permission.

Inditex, the world's largest clothes group and the parent company of Zara, says that it intends to offer a formal apology to the young women, who include 19-year-old Michèle Krüsi, the Swiss author of Beware-of-my-heels, and 22-year-old French woman Louise Ebel, responsible for Miss Pandora, a blog that has attracted a worldwide following for its fashion tips.

Writing in the breathless tone and somewhat inaccurate English that characterizes her blog, Krüsi makes an appeal on her site to readers to help identify other young women on the t-shirts.

"I need your help! I just received an email from a spanish journalist and blogger. She told me that she found a tee with my picture into the new collection of Stradivarius in Valencia. They never asked me about my agreement so I'm a little bit angry about that. Not about the fact that they made a tee with my picture just because of the fact that they did it behind my back and I wouldn't know it if the spanish journalist/blogger wouldn't told me about it. Of course I would agreed if they asked me, but they didn't!"

Krüsi says that she does not intend to take legal action against Inditex. But Ebel, who has spoken to EL PAÍS, says that she will be seeking damages. "I am very disappointed to find my work, and that of the photographers who took the pictures, on these t-shirts without having been asked. I think this shows a lack of respect. I feel used and undervalued."

Inditex responded to the criticism by making clear that Stradivarius does not design its own clothes, and that the t-shirts had been provided by an external supplier. It added that it is investigating whether the supplier had the rights to use the images.

This is not the first time that Inditex companies have found themselves in hot water over image rights. Betty Autier, a French woman who writes Le Blog de Betty, also appeared on a Zara t-shirt last year without being asked. Spanish photographer Gerard Estadella is currently negotiating with Bershka over the unauthorized use of a photograph he took of blogger Pelayo Díaz.

Meanwhile, Inditex's low-cost outlet Lefties is accused of using a snap taken by photographer Yvan Rodic of Andy Torres, a Mexican freelance stylist based in Amsterdam.