Famed fashionista Kate Spade pulled a fast one when she came up with a line of floral-print dresses and cellphone cases last year, a new suit charges.
The company that controls the work of the late artist Vera Neumann filed a $1 million-plus copyright suit yesterday alleging that Spade “obviously copied” her design from Neumann’s 1979 work “Poppy Field.”
The Manhattan federal-court filing says Spade has publicly acknowledged “that among the items and products that have inspired her designs are the silk-screened scarves of Vera” Neumann, whose fans also included Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly.
The Vera Company noted praise in Spade’s 2004 book “Style by Kate Spade,” for how “when Vera made scarves, there was nothing cutesy about them. They always made you feel happy.” A Spade representative also said the disputed design was “in fact created from a ‘vintage’ design,” which was “obviously the plaintiff’s,” the suit says.
Reps for the defendants — Spade’s parent company, Fifth & Pacific Cos., and its predecessor, Liz Claiborne Inc. — didn’t return requests for comment.