By Shirley Farmer 
A work by Porto artist Lara Luis is being copied and inappropriately sold on various sites. Shein, a Chinese fast fashion brand, was selling it for almost half the price.
One of her misused works was seen by 34-year-old Portuguese illustrator Lara Luis, China’s Shein Company. The e-commerce giant has been selling, at least since April, an illustration of the artist stamped on a T-shirt, at a cost of six euros.
After the case was condemned on Instagram Porto (where it is followed by a crowd of more than 22,000 followers), the massive engagement of the post and even the intervention of some young women with advertising links to the platform, the product was withdrawn in the meantime, but SHEIN has not provided any justification yet. “They haven’t answered me yet. Neither me nor the ‘influencers’ who tried to talk to them. But they’ve already deleted the product from the store. They’re taking over something that isn’t theirs and not even a mention of the artist, who graduated in graphic design and advertising, and has a master’s degree in Illustrations and comics.
Lara Lewis, who was flagged by a follower Thursday about misusing Shein’s illustrations, discovered that the same design, printed on T-shirts, was on sale on other big digital commerce sites. He emphasized that this is not exactly a surprise, giving examples of other cases of “stealing” the works of Portuguese painters. So he hopes that revealing the issue will raise public awareness about the behavior of “fast” brands (the type of production and consumption in which products are manufactured, consumed and disposed of quickly).
The illustration in question, created by Lara Lewis in 2016, is inspired by the world of cats, particularly her cat, and shows a lying black cat, accompanied by the phrase “You run, I see and judge,” written in English. Anyone wishing to purchase the design or T-shirt from its legitimate author can do so through the site laraluis.comThe dress is currently on sale for €10.