The navy-and-white cardigan is adorned with red spouting whales and sells for $47.90 at Forever 21. And according to a Metro Vancouver clothing company, it's also a flagrant ripoff.

Brian Hirano of Granted Clothing recently discovered the familiar-looking sweater while browsing through photos on Instagram.

"I said, 'Oh that's weird, it looks exactly like our design,'" he said.

He turned to the Forever 21 website and discovered that the discount American retailer was selling a second sweater that looked nearly identical to a Granted Clothing product. This one, too, was a chunky zip-up cardigan, but in grey, brown and white with patterns of bears and axes.

"I was quite disappointed, to be honest with you. I've calmed down quite a bit since then, but it's definitely not professional in any industry," Hirano said.

Unlike the hand-knitted, wool sweaters designed and produced at Granted's Richmond shop, the Forever 21 versions are imported and made of an acrylic-wool blend. They sell for a fraction of Granted's $385 price tag.

Granted, a family owned business that has been around since 1978, has seen imitators before, but usually those designers add variations to their patterns. The Forever 21 versions, on the other hand, are nearly identical.

"What has happened is a blatant act of plagiarism — or just copying," Hirano said.

A media spokesman for Forever 21 did not respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.

Management at Granted aren't sure yet how to handle the situation and are asking industry colleagues for advice, according to Hirano.

"We would like to see something positive come out of it. Maybe an apology from a big company, but I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen," he said.

But legal action could be a possibility as well.

"We haven't really looked into the legal side of things. We do have a copyright and a trademark on our logo, but it is really difficult to trademark everything that you design," he said.

The experience may be a new one for Granted, but Forever 21 has a long history of copyright infringement allegations.

The company reportedly has been sued more than 50 times for copying the work of other designers, including big names like Diane von Furstenburg and Anna Sui. A 2011 article on Jezebel.com reported that the vast majority of cases were settled out of court.

The sole lawsuit that made it to trial, filed by the California company Trovata, ended in a hung jury and then an out-of-court settlement.

In a reversal of the usual pattern, Forever 21 filed suit last fall against a number of small fashion companies, accusing them of trademark violation for using its designs and logo to sell clothing.

blindsay@vancouversun.com

Twitter.com/bethanylindsay