The 'Drag Race' star took to Twitter on Wednesday to sound off about Grande's lawsuit against Forever 21.
RuPaul's Drag Race star Farrah Moan went viral this week with a tweet about Ariana Grande stealing one of her looks, but she swears she's still a massive fan of the "Thank U, Next" singer.
"I honestly had no idea that my tweet was going to blow up so much," Farrah told ET Live's Jason Carter on Thursday. "I thought maybe it was gonna get two or three thousand of my fans going like, 'Oh, sure,' but I guess, internationally, people kind of see the similarities."
The drag queen posted a series of tweets on Wednesday about Grande's $10 million lawsuit against Forever 21 -- in which the singer alleges that the popular fashion retailer launched an ad campaign that falsely made it look like she was backing the brand, while also claiming that they capitalized off her success and fame to sell their products. However, one of the images in question, from Ariana's "7 Rings" video, bears a striking resemblance to one of Farrah's outfits from the season 4 premiere of Drag Race All Stars.
"Ariana should give me a cut of that 10M since her team literally sent a pic of me to the designer and paid them to copy my look from as4. (Finally met the designer and got told the Tea)," Farrah tweeted on Wednesday. "I guess stealing from queer artists for profit is fine tho."
She also shared a gif from the video, parodying the song lyrics in the caption, "You like my look? Gee thanks, just stole it!"
Forever 21 also addressed the lawsuit on Thursday, telling Today: "Forever 21 does not comment on pending litigation as per company policy. That said, while we dispute the allegations, we are huge supporters of Ariana Grande and have worked with her licensing company over the past two years. We are hopeful that we will find a mutually agreeable resolution and can continue to work together in the future."
Farrah insists that her tweets weren't intended to be malicious, adding that she wishes the singer "great luck" with her lawsuit. However, after hearing about the accusations that Ariana leveled against Forever 21, she decided to speak up on behalf of marginalized artists -- like the young designer who hand-stoned her own corset -- who have seen their ideas lifted in a similar way.
"Ever since I heard about the lawsuit a few days ago, I had kind of been letting my emotions about it simmer a little bit. I kept going back and forth about posting something or not posting something, because I know that she has a very strong fan base, and I knew that they probably weren't gonna like me, you know, spilling the tea," she explained. "I think that just ultimately, I see it too often where so many millionaire names will take ideas and a little bit more than creative inspiration from queer and other minority artists out there, and I felt like I just needed to say something."
"I'm not here to sue Ariana Grande, that's so ridiculous. I am such a fan of hers. But I do think, you know, you should cover your ground a little bit before you want to so intensely come for someone for taking something from you," she added. "It's too often a subject where I'm seeing friends of mine having their own personal designs stolen [by] multi-million dollar names and brands. It's just sad. If you are feeling so inspired by somebody, give them a platform. If you like something that they did, or came up with, hire them to come up with something for you. Buy something from them. Don't go behind their back and try to steal it and backpedal."
When asked why she didn't initially speak up when the "7 Rings" video was released in January, Farrah noted that she did tweet about the similarity between the ensembles when fans brought it to her attention, but didn't feel the need to press the issue at the time.
"I was like, 'Oh, this is a flattering coincidence,' because, as I said, I'm a fan... It didn't honestly grind my gears until I saw the lawsuit, to be fair," she explained. "And also, part of my tweet mentions that I [later] met the seamstress that put together Ariana's version, and they told me straight up that Ari's team was in love with my look and they wanted a repeat of it... I was like, 'Oh wow, I'm not crazy. She did copy the look.'"
For Farrah, the important issue isn't her look or the money Ariana stands to make from her lawsuit, but lending visibility to the pervasive trend of ripping off queer artists and other marginalized creators.
"It's nothing new, and I just hope that, if there's anything that could come from my visibility right now, it's that other teams of big names or big brands could maybe include and incorporate the queer and other minority artists that are underground into the projects that they're doing," she added, noting that what she'd like to tell the singer is that "there's a lot of people that can relate to what she's going through with her Forever 21 lawsuit."
"I just want her to think about all of the artists that look up to her as well. Maybe in the future, when you're with your design team, maybe just like, go over things a little bit more and just be conscientious of the way that people could feel the same way that you're feeling with Forever 21."
As for the singer's passionate legion of fans, who have flooded the drag queen's social media pages with vitriolic attacks in the days since her tweets, Farrah offers, "I just hope the Ariana fans know that yes, my tweet may have seemed a little harsh in the moment. I was worked up. But I'm not hating on our girl, I'm not suing our girl, and at the end of the day, let's not spread hate."
ET has reached out to Grande's rep for comment.
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