High fashion brand Zadig & Voltaire have been widely accused of plagiarizing the work of Franco-Swiss artist Julian Charrière during its Fall/Winter 2023 show collection in Paris. 

The promotion material released early last week for the show, featured a foundation of fire, and picked up criticism from those in the art world for its undeniable similarities to the work of Charrière, And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, a video of Charrière’s dating back to 2019. The runway show itself was then staged around a fountain of fire in which models paced round.

A Video still taken from And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, courtesy of julian-charriere.net

Many professionals from the art world have been commenting since the videos and comparisons began circulating on social media. Zadig & Voltaire are yet to comment on the accusations – simply deleting all comments making any reference to Charrière has been their sole response thus far. 

Promotional Material from the FW/23 show taken from the Instagram of Zadig & Voltaire.

The artist himself has responded to the announcements from fans, many questioning if the work was produced in collaboration with the artist himself – due to its absolute undeniable similarity, that bears more than a striking resemblance, and goes way beyond what could be considered an artistic reference point or inspiration. 

On Friday evening, before the live show, Charrière posted on his instagram starting, “Many of you have asked me about my involvement in the current promotional campaign of @zadigvoltaire for their upcoming fashion show planned tonight. I have never been contacted by this brand and must clearly state that I have not given any permission. I only discovered this campaign a few days ago, when people reached out to me about it and started tagging me. As of now there is no resolution on this matter and it seems that the company started deleting every comment mentioning my name under any of their posts and reels.”

@julian.charriere