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Did a London Store Copy Solange's Album Art?

Twitter certainly seems to think so.

By Sarah Rufca Nielsen December 2, 2016

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The album cover of Solange's A Seat at the Table.

"Don't Touch My Hair" is the ethereal and emotional lead single and video from Solange's critically acclaimed new album, A Seat at the Table, so you'd think anyone with a passing familiarity with her latest work would, you know, leave her hair alone. 

But this week London retailer Oasis is taking heat online for an image provided to London's Evening Standard newspaper that appears to rip off Solange's unique hair look from her album cover—but on a white woman. Both images feature women with flowing wavy hair and multiple hair pins arranged throughout. Twitter users immediately called out Oasis for "gentrifying," the Solange image—that is, cribbing the aesthetic and creative direction while erasing its black origins. 

Solange herself hasn't commented on the controversy, but many fans have noted how the theft is particularly ironic considering how the record specifically covers the pain of cultural appropriation. As The Root notes, "Oasis needs to have a seat at a table, and listen to the album just to see why its image is problematic."

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