Supreme clothing has been around since 1994, advertising themselves as the "home of New York City skate culture" and boasting about how they are the "embodiment of the downtown culture, playing an integral part in it's constant regeneration" on their website. Supreme has always been a prominent and influential company, with multitudes of celebrities such as Kylie Jenner, Kanye West, Jonah Hill, John Mayer, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber sporting and supporting their clothing. While artists behind Supreme have put in a lot of time and effort making the company what it is today, we often forget the true hero behind Supreme--Barbara Kruger.

Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual/pop artist that radically changed the way that women are perceived in the art world. She started producing artwork in 1969, 25 years before Supreme began. Kruger overlays her typography on images in the media or photography that she has taken. Adopting a black, white, and red color scheme, she proved that to be an influential artist took no more than some feisty words and a crazy imagination. Look familiar?

With her point blank diction and anti-authoritative messages, it is not hard to see why James Jebbia, the founder of Supreme, has openly spoken about being influenced by Kruger and her work. In 2013, we learned that this admiration may not be reciprocated, when Complex Magazine asked Kruger what she thought about a lawsuit going on with Supreme and a company called Married to the Mob.

Married to the Mob had released a shirt that read "Supreme Bitch" on the front. Designer Leah McSweeney of MTTB had been selling the shirt design for almost ten years and had originally gotten Jebbia's blessing for the shirt, according to her account here. But then in 2013 she was sued for ten million dollars for copyright infringement.

Complex Magazine then reached out to Kruger asking her what she thought about the fact that Supreme has essentially been ripping off her style for twenty years and is now suing other artists for copying them. She responded in a word document titled "fools" which read,

Besides proving that she is a crazy awesome lady, Kruger probably also hurt the ego of a bunch of downtown skater kids. This probably makes her the only seventy year old lady that has had any giant influence on the skate and downtown culture of today.

After this fiasco, French artist, Kidult started making new designs poking fun at the whole ordeal such as Supreme logos changed to "Suepreme" and giving away the tees for free.

Even through all of the nonsense, Kruger has continued to produce artwork and be true to her original style. Just remember that whenever you see a design by Supreme, it was this great lady that started it all.