‘Heartbreaking’: Small business finds brand name on competitors design
An Australian small business has accused a major Sydney-born fast fashion retailer of ripping off their “exclusive” clothing design— with her brand’s name still visible in the dupe.
NSW
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An Australian small business has claimed their “exclusive” clothing design has been ripped off by a popular Sydney-born fast fashion retailer.
Venem 1.0 owner Emily Davies has claimed her Cali Dream fabric print, which took over a year to design, has appeared on a newly released Valleygirl dress.
Ms Davies took to social media to call out the fast-fashion store’s identical print instores, which included her Venem 1.0 brand logo and name.
“This is my dress, I designed this, I designed the print, it took us 12 months to develop because it was the first print that we ever did and this is what Valleygirl have done and it is now stocked in all their stores around Australia,” Ms Davies said in a TikTok video on Saturday.
“It’s f***ing heartbreaking and the worst thing is there is nothing I can do about it because I haven’t trademarked or copyrighted the design or the print.”
Ms Davies included images of the dresses side-by-side to compare the two and point out the gold Venem 1.0 logo on the Valleygirl dress as part of the red, blue, white and pink travel themed print.
“My brand name is in your stores across Australia, you could’ve at least taken out my brand name,” she said.
“Your brand is Valleygirl not Venem.”
Ms Davies said she understood fashion brands would source inspiration from other existing pieces and admitted to doing so herself, however said there was a line between gathering inspiration and copying.
“I understand everyone gets inspo from somewhere, I myself get inspo from other brands, Pinterest, runways, that’s how fashion works but inspo is the keyword,” she said.
“A lot of fast fashion brands will get inspo and they’ll replicate something but they won’t put the brand name they’ve copied from.
“Come on.”
Social media users were quick to support Ms Davies, question the legality of the Valleygirl design and ask her if she had spoken with the print manufacturer, assuming the fabric design had been resold.
“I have spoke to my manufacturers and there is no way that they have reproduced the fabric because it’s different,” Ms Davies said.
“We’re also a small business and we don’t have the money to be able to do anything about this in terms of going to court and stuff like that.
“This is fashion, this is the nature of the game and this is something we have to deal with.”
On Monday, the Valleygirl website and online store was “closed temporarily until further notice,” with the retailer asking shoppers to visit their physical stores.
The Daily Telegraph has contacted Valleygirl for comment.
In February, Sydney-based fashion brand White Fox Boutique was also accused of selling the fashion designs similar to those of small retailers, leading to influencers boycotting the multimillion-dollar label as experts warn the issue is a growing problem in the sector.
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