Good American settlement Lawsuit reveals a bigger issue

Last year in May 2020 news started to surfaced that Khloe Kardashian was being served a lawsuit against her brand “Good America”. The lawsuit against the Kardashian had claimed that their brand had plagiarized a bodysuit design from a smaller and less widely known brand. The brand that laid the claim was an Indie clothing brand located in Los Angeles named “d.bleu.dazzled” and the lawsuit that was filed stated that the brand was seeking 10 million dollars’ worth of damages.

The owner of D.Bleu.Dazzled had stated that they believed that Khloe had plagiarized her bedazzled bodysuit designs and created their own designs for her brand Good America. This came after Khloe’s team had purchased as well as borrowed fashion items from d.bleu.dazzled under the pretense that the items were for Khloe’s personal use. But this wasn’t the case. However a year later, the matter has now been settled between the two and the case had been closed.

However, this does reveal a much bigger issue when it comes to the recognition to ideas of smaller brands - or at least the lack thereof. Teen Vogue brought up a very good point within their article titled “Kylie Jenner and Khloe Kardashian Accused of Stealing Ideas From Indie Black Designers”. They stated that: “Since the Kardashian-Jenners first rose to fame, they’ve been lauded left and right as revolutionary for embracing looks black women have been overlooked or outright degraded for — looks that run the gamut from cornrows to full lips. Now Khloé and Kylie are allegedly taking their design ideas straight from black creatives to turn a profit ” .

Smaller brands deciding to settle lawsuits is a HUGE yet quiet occurrence when smaller labels go after bigger brands with much more funds and better lawyers on their side. And while we are not privy to the settlement agreement or the terms that had been agreed to- we can be certain that D.Bleu.Dazzled did not receive the $10 million she originally asked for.

However, the silver lining is that we are now seeing how powerful social media can be. Individuals are now more sensitive to the struggles of smaller business and brands. And the backlash that bigger brands can receive if they are caught stealing from a smaller brand. And while there might not always be justice or recognition for theft of designs- it is definitely a start. Until we can redress and change the copyright-issues that come with American law, smaller business and brands will have to continue to fight for justice.

By : Megan Maritz