Fashion & Beauty

That knockoff dress will make you look fat: lawsuit

Buyer, beware: That cheap designer-dress knockoff will make you look fat.

It might seem like party time when customers snag a fake Sherri Hill prom dress or a flirty, flouncy cocktail concoction for a fraction of what the real gowns usually cost, but the celebrated designer says the bogus product is not worth the deal.

Texas-based Sherri Hill Inc. has gone to court to stop a counterfeiter that it claims is selling flimsy copies of its high-end beauty-pageant gowns — and alleges that the knockoffs add pounds to a gal’s frame.

One such knockoff, sold for $177 by Manhattan-based Merle Dress, is made in such a way that it “makes the customers appear heavier around the waist and hips,” is uncomfortable to wear, and has shoddy materials and poor craftsmanship, according to Manhattan federal court papers.

“The worst-case scenario [for us] is that a girl receives the dress and thinks it’s really a Sherri Hill dress,” Dusty Hill, the designer’s son and company president, told The Post. “We looked at this sample and put it on a mannequin . . . It would make the girl look very heavy.”

Dusty Hill claims Merle Dress, which operates out of New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, has been offering “Sherri Hill” gowns on the cheap for months, taking business from legit retailers.

The real thing sells for $450, he said — and the company gets thousands of inquiries a year from customers wondering whether they’ve nabbed a real Sherri Hill dress or complaining they’ve been saddled with a cheap copy.

Sherri Hill has sued in California and the United Kingdom to try to stomp out fakes. In 2012, the company scored a $5 million default judgment against a pair selling counterfeit goods under the Hill name — but putting a stop to the practice takes a lot of work, says attorney Joseph Gioconda, whose firm won the Manhattan federal court case.

“It becomes a game of Whac-A-Mole, where you’re constantly hopping around and having to shut down one, and then shut down the others,” Gioconda said.

Merle Dress is unique because of its extensive online presence and persistent marketing, says Dusty Hill. It has an extensive Web site with live customer support, more than 463,000 Facebook likes and has been ever-present in Google ads for months.

“The dollars that must be involved and the amount of people they must be ripping off must be so great,” he said. “They’re the worst offender we’ve seen in the last six months.”