Digital Analysis of Meg
Breaking down the clothing brand’s problematic existence, and response to their most recent crisis.
@megbymeghankinney on Instagram is a clothing brand born in Lower Manhattan, NYC in 1994. What started as a small business venture that was sold out of the back of her shop, Meg has since grown into a comprehensive womenswear brand, locally making clothing for real women and their bodies, in five US locations, and one store in Toronto, Canada.
The brand has recently been in a reputation-ruining controversy, surrounding the brand’s founder, Megan Kinney. She and the brand were publicly called out by the popular Instagram page @diet_prada, known for holding members of the fashion community accountable for their problematic actions. The claims that proved to be true, were about how Kinney was stealing other artist’s designs, putting them on her clothes, and selling them. The issue with this is that she never got permission or even asked for it from the original artist, and made profits from the clothes.
Kinney issued an “apology” by posting the email she sent to owner of the stolen designs, Brendan Fagan AKA Judith Supine, with a caption further apologizing, which was later edited and updated to reflect the backlash she got for the email.
Followers did not like the email because she was not trying to really compensate Fagan for the stolen designs. Furthermore, they did not like how Kinney deflected the accountability because she was “excited by the print” and just wanted to use it. They were most disgusted with the fact that her reasoning for the suggested low compensation to Fagan was because she is a “struggling small business”, which is completely tone-deaf to Fagan, who is also an artist who makes his livelihood off of his art.
Since this entire controversy erupted, the brand’s posts have been flooded with comments from people asking if the design in the image above was stolen as well. Under the apology post, no one is taking her side, but rather expressing their outrage and demanding that Kinney do more to correct the situation. The most disappointing factor of this entire scandal is that she has ripped off other artists as well, like Brazilian artist João Incerti, but has yet to comment or offer a plan for repatriation.
