Fashion store Urban Outfitters found itself in hot water this week when an independent Chicago-based jewelry designer accused the store of copying one of her necklace lines.

It wasn’t the first time the store, known for its hipster, urban fashion, has been labeled a copycat. In 2006, online vendor Johnny Cupcakes noticed that the store was selling a near replica of a T-shirt he had created showing a plane dropping cupcake bombs. In 2010, two Brooklyn (N.Y.) Flea market vendors found designs identical to their own on the store’s shelves.

But Wednesday was the first time Urban Outfitters has faced such a maelstrom of anger over a supposed imitation.

The controversy began Wednesday when independent jewelry designer Stevie Koerner published a post on her Tumblr blog. The post showed photos of her World/United States of Love line, which she has been selling for two years on e-commerce craft website Etsy.com, side by side with Urban Outfitter’s I Heart Destination necklace line. The similarities were impossible to miss.

Her post said that when she saw the Urban Outfitters line, “My heart sank a little bit. The … line that I created is one of the reasons that I was able to quit my full-time job. … I understand that they are a business, but it’s not cool to completely rip off an independent designer’s work.”

Twitter latched on to Koerner’s blog post, and soon so many users were rebuking the chain for the supposed imitation that “Urban Outfitters” became a trending topic on the social networking site.

Even pop singer Miley Cyrus got in on the debate, tweeting: “Not only do they steal from artists but every time you give them money you help finance a campaign against gay equality,” a reference to Urban Outfitters’ donation of more than $13,000 to the presidential campaign of former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who opposes gay marriage.

Urban Outfitters said in a tweet Thursday that it was looking into the matter, but it let its Twitter stream go silent Friday. The item’s link on the company’s website is now dead.

Urban Outfitters didn’t reply to multiple requests for comment.

Koerner said she has no plans to sue. Since the controversy, she said she’s been “overwhelmed” by the number of orders for the jewelry and by the “support that has resulted from this incident.”