Rachel Zoe Trademarked ‘I Die’ and ‘Bananas’

You may recall this brilliant, Rachel Zoe–inspired “Bananas” shirt designed by artist Christopher Sauvé. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, it doesn’t look like you’re going to. Sauvé just received a cease-and-desist letter from Zoe’s lawyer. It turns out “I die” and “Bananas” are trademarked. Oh, excuse us — that would be I DIE™ and BANANAS™. We don’t want to get sued. That would be BANANAS™. WeI DIE™.

Sauvé had only made 25 shirts and was planning to sell them in very limited distribution online and at Seven boutique. “As a huge fan of Rachel Zoe I feel very sad that I couldn’t express myself artistically with BANANAS™ and my fascination with reality television,” Sauvé told us. I DIE™. “But I have come up with this new design based on my favorite things from the 1980s.”

BANANAS™. “She uses celebrities every day to promote herself, and then she won’t let a poor artist in the city do it in a huge recession with all these layoffs?” Sauvé continued. We thought Paris Hilton bogarting the phrase “I’m hot” was the worst offense of trademark’s history. But claiming the genus of an edible plant? If we are indeed now in a time when people can just go around claiming others can’t use the images and names of tropical fruits without permission because you told your lawyer it was yours first, we choose pineapples. Pineapples pineapples pineapples pineapples pineapples pineapples. There — it’s ours! And you know what else? We live.