Seeing double? Well, Diane von Furstenberg is seeing red.
The famed designer thinks cheapie-fashion store Forever 21’s $32 “Sabrina” smock dress looks suspiciously similar to her own $325 “Cerisier” design.
Von Furstenberg’s studio filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit last week against Forever 21, claiming the downmarket retailer willfully copied the pattern, colors, and measurements of her popular frock – as well as another dress from a previous season.
While the fashion industry has long been plagued by counterfeiters hawking knockoffs on Chinatown street corners, rarely do established mass-market retailers so brazenly mimic high-end designers’ current-season offerings, von Furstenberg’s lawyers say.
“The so-called ‘legitimized’ versions are slightly better in quality [than knockoffs] but none are the same as the original genuine product,” said Harley Lewin, of law firm Greenberg Traurig, who is representing von Furstenberg’s studio.
“The harm done is probably greater. Consumers are more likely to think they’re buying the real thing at a retail outlet like this one, as opposed to a street corner,” Lewin said. “When the quality isn’t there, as it ultimately isn’t, the consumers blame the brand.”
The similarities go beyond appearance. Both dresses are 100 percent silk, and both are made in China. To the untrained eye, the construction seems almost the same.
The difference in prices likely has to do with the premium put on a designer name, product development on the part of von Furstenberg, the manufacturing conditions and the quality of the material.
It’s rare that designers willingly spend the time and effort to go after offenders. But von Furstenberg, whose fans include the likes of Susan Sarandon, Paris Hilton, Carmen Electra and Kate Moss, has taken a more aggressive approach. In recent months, she’s filed lawsuits in five states in an effort to protect her brand’s intellectual property.
In addition to seeking unspecified financial damages, von Furstenberg requested a court order that Forever 21 remove and recall the dresses and any promotional display or commercial distribution of products that infringe on DVF’s copyrights.
Forever 21 did not return calls seeking comment.
Digital images and the Internet have made it more difficult for fashion houses to fight imitators. Where sketchers from rival houses were commonly banned from fashion shows in the 1940s and 1950s, today rivals can log on minutes after a presentation and see incredibly detailed images.
“With today’s electronic media, you can show something in a store or on a runway [and] pictures, good ones, are available on the Internet within hours,” Lewin says. “To digitize a print from such a quality photograph is relatively easy. After that, it’s a matter of finding someone to make the fake goods and in China, unfortunately, that’s not terribly hard.”
Additional reporting by Raakhee Mirchandani