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If you’re a photographer, illustrator, brand representative, or designer who’s landed on this page, thank you for taking the time to read it. This page exists so that you have a clear, calm way to reach us if you find your work anywhere on Willow Forte. We built this page with you in mind, not around you.
Willow Forte is a fashion publication for women over 40, and visual content sits at the center of almost everything we do. Silhouette, drape, styling, color, fit. None of it can be taught in words alone. That means we publish a lot of images, and it means we take the sourcing of those images seriously.
Our Position on Image Use
Every image published on Willow Forte is used with the honest belief that it either falls within the public domain, is licensed for our use, is shared under a Creative Commons license we’ve honored, or qualifies as fair use in an editorial context such as commentary, review, or reporting. We have no intent to infringe on the copyright or intellectual property of any photographer, brand, illustrator, or creative studio.
We understand the internet blurs a lot of lines. This page is Willow Forte’s answer to that reality, laid out plainly.
How We Think About the People Who Make the Images
Fashion writing depends on the eye and effort of a lot of people who never sign the byline. Photographers who wait for the right light on a runway. Studio teams who style a lookbook for months before a single shot is taken. Independent illustrators building a portfolio one commission at a time. Brand image teams protecting a season’s identity.
Willow Forte respects that work. Our default position is that if a creator is uncomfortable with how their image appears on this site, we want to know, and we want to fix it.
How Images Get Onto Willow Forte
This is the longest section of this notice on purpose. We’d rather be specific than vague. Here are the categories of images you’ll find across Willow Forte, in roughly the order of frequency for our niche.
Paid stock photography. A large share of the editorial imagery on Willow Forte, including model shots, flat lays, styled outfits, textural close-ups, and lifestyle scenes, is licensed from commercial stock libraries. These include Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, iStock by Getty Images, Depositphotos, and Canva Pro. Each of these platforms provides a written license for the images we use, and we use those images within the terms of those licenses.
Brand, editorial, and press imagery. As a fashion publication, Willow Forte regularly writes about specific brands, collections, product launches, and public figures. When we include a product photograph, campaign image, runway shot, or press-kit image in that kind of coverage, we do so in an editorial context. This includes commentary, criticism, review, and reporting, which is where the fair use doctrine typically applies. Where a brand or photographer credit is available, we include it, and we link to the original source whenever we can. If you represent a brand and would prefer a different approach to how your imagery is displayed here, please write to us.
Creative Commons images. Willow Forte also uses images licensed under Creative Commons, including CC0, CC BY, and CC BY-SA licenses, sourced from platforms like Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, Burst by Shopify, and Flickr Commons. Where a specific license requires attribution, we provide the creator’s name and, where possible, a link back to their profile or portfolio. When a license permits modification, we treat any modification as our own editorial choice and do not attribute changes back to the original creator.
Public domain imagery. For historical fashion pieces, vintage silhouette references, or archival context, Willow Forte draws on public domain sources such as Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Open Access collection, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s open collection, and the Rijksmuseum’s public archive. These images are either out of copyright or dedicated to the public domain by their creators or the institutions holding them.
Original photography. Some of the images on Willow Forte are shot by our team or by contributors specifically for this site. These include outfit photographs, styled test shots, and images of pieces we have reviewed in person. Willow Forte owns or has secured full rights to publish those images.
Reader and collaborator submissions. On occasion, readers, stylists, boutique owners, and small brands share images with Willow Forte for use in specific posts, reviews, or interviews. Those images appear only with the permission of the person who submitted them, and only in the context they were shared for.
How Willow Forte Handles Attribution
Where attribution is required by a license, expected by editorial convention, or simply the right thing to do, Willow Forte provides credit. That usually looks like the creator’s name, a link back to the original source, and, where relevant, a note about the license under which the image is used. If we’ve credited an image incorrectly, missed a credit line, or linked to a source that has since moved, we treat that as a small mistake worth correcting quickly. Just tell us and we’ll fix it.
When an Image May Appear Without Complete Attribution
Willow Forte publishes thousands of images over time. Between our archives, our Pinterest workflow, and images that circulate widely across the fashion internet before landing in our research, it is possible that an image occasionally appears here without complete or fully accurate attribution. That is never our intent, and it is not a matter of policy. It is a matter of scale, and it is something we correct as soon as we learn about it.
If you spot an image on Willow Forte that should have credit, different credit, or should not be there at all, please reach out.
If You’re the Rights Holder of an Image on This Site
You have three options, and any of them are welcome:
- Ask for proper credit. If you would like your work credited, or credited differently, tell us how you would like to be named and, if you have one, share a link you’d like us to point to.
- Ask for a modification. If you’re comfortable with your image remaining on Willow Forte but would like it displayed differently, we can crop it, resize it, add a watermark, change the caption, adjust the link, or make similar changes.
- Ask for removal. If you would prefer the image be taken down, we will remove it. No explanation is required from you.
What Helps Us Act Faster on Your Request
You don’t need to send us anything formal. A short email is enough. If you can include the following, we can act on your request within one business day in most cases:
- A link to the page on Willow Forte where the image appears
- A link to the original source of the image, or something that shows your relationship to the work (portfolio, brand page, prior publication)
- Your name and how you’d like us to reach you back
- Which of the three options above you’d prefer: credit, modification, or removal
That’s it. There is no form to fill out, and there is no template to follow.
What Happens After You Contact Us
Once your message reaches to us, we will confirm receipt so you know it landed. From there we will verify the request where that’s reasonable, take the action you’ve asked for, and follow up to confirm the change is live. If your request is a straightforward removal, we usually complete it the same business day it arrives.
Our Response Commitment
Willow Forte commits to responding to image-rights requests within 48 hours. In most cases, our first reply lands sooner than that. Simple removals are typically handled on the same business day the request is received.
You Do Not Need to Involve a Lawyer to Contact Us
Please do not feel that you need to send a formal legal notice or hire an attorney before writing to Willow Forte about an image. A direct email from you or a representative on your behalf is more than enough for us to take action. We prefer to handle these conversations directly, quickly, and respectfully.
How to Reach Us
For anything related to imagery, licensing, credit, or removal, the fastest path is:
Email: contact@willowforte.com
We read every message that comes through this address, and we take each one seriously. Willow Forte would rather hear from you and fix something than have you leave the page frustrated. Our door is genuinely open.