Roberto Cavalli Sued For Graffiti

Roberto Cavalli is being sued by a group of Northern California-based graffiti artists who have accused him of copying their work. The street artists - Jason Williams, Victor Chapa, and Jeffrey Rubin - filed a suit at the Central District of California court, claiming that Roberto Cavalli's Just Cavalli label infringed their copyrights on a work they did in San Francisco's Mission district.

"Just Cavalli introduced a clothing and accessories collection in which every square inch of every piece - including clothing, bags, backpacks, and shoes - was adorned with graffiti art," the complaint states, The Fashion Law reported today. "If this literal misappropriation was not bad enough, Cavalli sometimes chose to do its own painting over that of the artists - superimposing the Just Cavalli name in spray-paint style as if were part of the original work. Sometimes, Cavalli added what appears to be a signature, creating the false impression that Roberto Cavalli himself was the artist."

Roberto Cavalli

The trio are asking the court to award them damages, and that the collection be discontinued. Just Cavalli's branding itself caused controversy earlier this year when an Islamic group - the MTO Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism - accused the brand of adopting its ¨sacred emblem¨ as its logo.