16 Jul 2019

Is Angelic Pretty Just Copying Meta? Conspiracy Theory


I didn’t notice this at first. Mostly because it took me a while to fully convert to the Church of Meta, whom I now do hail as king, love and life (Meta forever). But once I saw it – I could not unsee it! You may think that I’m mad, like all those other conspiracy theorists, but hear me out and then make up your own mind.


It all started off with the lemon print…

We all know that even in this ugly sack cut Meta did it better, let's not kid ourselves here.

I mean, look at it! Yes, AP has chicks frolicking amongst the lemons instead of bears, but the rest is done down to the sack cut of the OP and two out of three colourways. I remember enjoying Dreaming Heart Lemon when it came out back in 2016, even if I do agree with the concerns over the inappropriate bears. It should have caused the stir that Fruity Lemon did, especially considering how there were 3 JSK cuts as well as the OP to choose from, instead of just one of each. AP is just cashing in on Meta’s amazing idea, despite the fact that their design is inferior to Meta’s.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg of how our community has been kept in the dark. Because then I made more discoveries – like this one.

Look into the print closeups to really see this one.

This one is easy to miss – AP was less obvious about their copycattery shenanigans back then. We all know of Romantic Rose Letter, this undoubtedly gorgeous and elegant series from 2014. However, 3 years earlier Meta released their Rose Letter series. Like I said, this one is easy to miss – 2011 was still the heyday of OTT Sweet and as the Mad Hatter of the lolita fashion brand family, Meta really went for it and avoided pastel colourways (bar pink), opting for more bold tones. Nonetheless, both the name and the theme of these two print series – handwritten letters with envelopes surrounded by roses and random blingy bits for fillers – are a little too similar to be a coincidence, don’t you think? I see what you did there, AP. You waited until we forgot about this and distracted us with your more classic styling of this theme. Calculated and cold, like a true villain.

And that’s not even the worst of it!

Leopard prints were Meta's thing. Stop coming for everything iconic that Meta ever did, AP!

Oh, how everyone mocked Meta for daring to be different! A leopard print is too tacky for lolita, they said. Were they blind when they did that, they said. And yet those leopard prints are now iconic and legendary – and Meta did exactly three of them, starting as early as 2008, then in 2013 and lastly in 2015. There were no tacky fur chokers or weird overlays (is AP ashamed for doing a leopard print and wants to hide it?), Meta fully embraced the pattern that it wanted to do and even mixed in some cute shapes in between the spots to add some charm. Jewel, Heart and Rose Leopards don’t need any of those extras to shine bright as the iconic pieces of lolita fashion history that they are. AP thought that they could improve an icon – a step too far, AP…

That was it. Once I discovered this one, I had to dig deeper and the more I looked, the more I found. Angelic Pretty shamelessly ‘borrowed’ from various successful Metamorphose designs, then sold them as their own. And like the blind sheep, we followed them and bought that stuff. Oh, you think I’m making this up? How about all of those then?

Radiant Candlelight (2013) might be in velvet, but Dim Light (2012) is the OG candle print!

We all thought that Honey Cake (2011) was so special and unique - ooh, it's a pancake print, look! Well, guess what, Meta did a pancake print a whole year earlier with Honey Picnic (2010). All AP did was make it in yellow.

Really, AP? You're coming for swans now? Don't try no shenanigans with your Milky Swan (2016). While it resembles Meta's Swan Lake (2008) most closely, they have swans in so many of their other prints because, guess what, it's in their bloody logo.

The community was so shocked with Lovely Bathroom (2018) theme, as if it was something unique and novel. Look at Bubble Bath (2013), at how perfect it is with its bathroom theme and loveliness.

I'm sorry to break it to you, but not even carnival prints were safe. We all thought that Carnival Print (2006) was the OG one - but it isn't, it's Meta's Carousel Horse Print (2004).

I guess all we have to do now is wait for AP to do kimono and camo prints. They have been struggling so much with their lower quality and mediocre prints and cuts that their only choices are either stealing more of Meta’s ideas or continue rehashing the same old themes that everyone is doing and that AP themselves have done a dozen times already.

All of this just so that our community doesn’t realise that Meta is the true king of burando. Don’t let them deceive you. You have been shown the light, now follow it. Join the Church of Meta and preach the light onto others.

Just stay careful, AP doesn’t want you to know all this. They are onto me, which is why I’m on the move. They’ll never catch me – or my Meta stuff!



8 comments:

  1. I totally want an AP camo print now! ANd I'm loving your snark ^__^

    Though I should say, to further enhance your conspiracy theory...a designer who worked for Meta was also responsible for the print on British Bear. Not sure if they wholesale moved to AP or just freelance to both but who knows what it means....

    Legit though, I had no idea how close some of these classic AP designs are to older Meta pieces.

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    1. I would be interested in seeing what an AP camo print would look like, but I hold absolutely zero faith in it working out. They're too much about cuteyfying things.

      And oooh, I didn't know that! See? It is all making sense now! This is definitely not a coincidence now :P

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    2. There actually was an AP camo print back in 2005!
      https://lolibrary.org/items/ap-aya-army-set-0

      Which I guess technically is just one more AP copy-of-met :P

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    3. My mind is officially blown to pieces!
      I was right though in thinking that it wouldn't be as nice as Meta's :P

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  2. That was reason I actually begun to like Meta in the first place. They were more fashion forward trend creating than AP ever be. Even on their offs and fails they inspire other brands(I just hope for AP's own sake they don't get too inspired by Meta's infamous Military series, that did look a bit like WW2 German uniforms).

    Although as true follower of Church of Meta, I just want to point out that you did use the stock image of the 2017 rerelease of Dimlight, not the OG 2012 release, the original square cut jsk has red trim and a extra bow pin that could be worn with cameo(a Meta swan logo cameo, not a meta cross logo cameo).

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    1. Meta is definitely more forward looking. Especially recently, it is ever more evident that AP creates with the intention of selling (which I get, they've expanded to such an extent that if they want to maintain that, they have to keep making sales) and so many of their recent designs (from, say, the past 2 years) just look like rehashes of their older one or of something else. Whereas Meta keeps doing their own thing and even when they rehash something from their own past, it still feels like their style or like an update on an older design, not like a poor man's copy of it.

      Haha, I know that I used the re-release stock picture. The original one was so much lower resolution that when enlarged to match the AP one, it would've been too pixelated. I should've pointed that out, I'll add it somewhere now.

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  3. Actually, AP did do a camo print in 2004, a year after Meta did! I never noticed how many of their prints looked alike, especially the swan lake ones, damn...

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    1. Yeah, Raine Dragon mentioned it earlier. When I shared the link to this post to the Lolita Amino, the people there found a couple of other ones that were that little bit too uncanny too.

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