Copycat

Louis Vuitton is being sued for copying another brand's design. Again.

Also in this issue:

• President Trump has given up on reshoring apparel and textile manufacturing.

• Dior settles the Italian Competition Authority investigation into sweatshop allegations.

• Pioneer silent era director Alice Guy-Blaché is celebrated at the French Cinémathèque in Paris

• The Berkshires International Film Festival unspools next weekend, including me as a guest speaker!

Earlier this month, the Australian sweater brand Coogi filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that Louis Vuitton, its men’s creative director Pharrell Williams, and Williams’s collaborator, the Japanese fashion designer Tomoaki Nagao, aka Nigö, copied Coogi’s colorful knitwear designs the Vuitton’s Fall/Winter 2025 menswear collection, The Fashion Law reports.

Louis Vuitton, left; Coogi, right.

Coogi was big in the 1990s, especially with the hip-hop set. Notorious B.I.G., otherwise known as Biggie Smalls, wore a Coogi sweater in the video for his hit, Juicy.

Notorious B.I.G. wearing a Coogi sweater in the “Juicy” video.

When Williams presented his sweaters during the Louis Vuitton menswear show in Paris last January, the fashion press and social media commenters described them as “Coogi-flavored” and “Coogi-inspired.” Coogi contends in its lawsuit that the designs are “identical or virtually identical” to its “Rag & Bone” sweater, as well as its “Trade Dress,” or overall commercial image.

“It makes you want to send a photo to Anna Wintour saying, ‘That jacket you’re wearing was ripped off.’”

This follows a lawsuit brought against Louis Vuitton last summer by Paula Hian, an independent fashion designer on the Philadelphia Main Line, for copyright infringement. Hian claimed that Louis Vuitton copied her distorted black-and-white checkerboard pattern, called Plaque d’Egout, or “manhole cover.”

Louis Vuitton designs, left, and Paula Hian's design, right.

In that case, Hian said that in 2020 she emailed some of her textile and clothing designs to Louis Vuitton executives, including to the luxury brand’s director of development and acquisitions, in a bid to collaborate with the company. Vuitton allegedly responded positively, but nothing came from the discussion.

Or so Hian thought.