Los Angeles, Sep 1 (IANS): Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli has denied plagiarising a group of graffiti artists, who have slapped a lawsuit against him.

The ace designer has responded to the lawsuit from several graffitists, who have claimed that he used their artwork for his label Just Cavalli, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

In a statement to The Cut magazine, a spokesperson said: "In response to the recent lawsuit brought forward by artists Jason 'Revok' Williams, Victor 'Reyes' Chapa, and Jeffrey 'Steel' Rubin, the Roberto Cavalli company would like to state that no official notice of such suit has been received.

"However, we have heard of some highly inflammatory allegations, which have no basis in fact and are incorrect; we intend to contest and defend against these allegations vigorously.

"In order to avoid the time and expense of unnecessary litigation, we also intend to communicate with the artists' attorneys to discuss a mutually agreeable resolution of the issues."

The legal issue first began Aug 21 when the Northern California-based graffiti artists filed a lawsuit against the designer, accusing Just Cavalli of infringing their copyrights on work they did in San Francisco's Mission district and altering the images without their permission.

The lawsuit stated: "If this literal misappropriation was not bad enough, Cavalli sometimes chose to do its own painting over that of the artists - superimposing the Just Cavalli name in spray-paint style as if were part of the original work."

Three artists named Jason, Victor and Jeffrey are seeking damages and have asked the court to see that the offending collection be discontinued.