The Paradox of Parody T-Shirts

Brian Lichtenberg’s is establishing himself as the haute-couture designer of the t-shirt industry – his peculiar take on famous designer logos is creating a buzz among fashionistas and celebrities alike, even r&b singer Rihanna isn’t immune to Lichtenberg’s influence. She has been spotted out and about several times wearing nothing but the Lichtenberg ‘Homies’ sweatshirt ($95), which she accessorized with a hat and several necklaces layered on top. There are a few other parody t-shirts Lichtenberg modeled after Hermes, Celine and Gucci.

Parody T-shirts

Brian Lichtenberg is taking the fashion world by storm. The young designer has already had his garments on Lady Gaga, Naomi Campbell, and Beyoncé to name a few. However Lichtenberg’s t-shirts come with a hefty price which is odd because his designs are a parody of haute couture, and now oddly enough he is becoming haute couture himself by following their pricing model.

In copyright law, parody is one sort of defense to a claim of infringement by the copyright trolls. However Lichtenberg’s designs continue to flourish because of this creative leeway or loop hole in copyright laws. His designs purposely use the familiar font and design of major brands such as Gucci but instead replace it with cheeky or slang terms like “BUCCI”. Applying slang to his designs was done purposely not to confuse consumers, in the past a design parody was automatically considered “fake” or “cheap” – in Lichtenberg’s case a parody is a “hip” remake or upgrade of the original, to be considered as same value if not more expensive.

This is why I personally prefer the alternative – uploading trending designs to custom t-shirt websites and having them made for less than 20$ ;) That is my way of saying – nobody should pay 60$+ for a simple t-shirt.