Steve Madden and Alice + Olivia’s Stacey Bendet Publicly Spar Over Alleged Knockoffs
Steve Madden and Alice + Olivia CEO Stacey Bendet got into a public argument over the weekend when the two accused each other of creating knockoff designs. Bendet posted the heated exchange on Instagram and the video has since made waves online.
The dispute appeared to have taken place in a hotel lobby, where Bendet said she was accompanied by her four-year-old daughter when she ran into Madden, who is founder, creative and design chief of his eponymous footwear and accessories conglomerate. Madden, said Bendet, complemented her outfit. Then, she asked him “if he was going to continue to copy it like he did with my trademarked Stace designs,” Bendet’s said in her social media post.
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In the video, Madden is heard responding, “Honey, if you’re going to be rude, you can go f**k yourself. … You copy people all the time. We were making faces way before you.”
In the now-viral exchange, Bendet was likely referencing a lawsuit her company filed in 2018 against the Steve Madden-owned Betsey Johnson label for copyright and trademark infringement. The Betsey Johnson company was acquired by Madden in 2010. In the 2018 suit, Alice & Olivia had accused Betsey Johnson of using Bendet’s signature face, the “StaceFace,” on its bags.
On social media, Bendet posted another video of herself, which can be found on her Instagram Story highlights, adding, “Brands like his can’t be allowed to do that. They can’t go and knock off designer product, put it under a different label and think that’s OK. In truth, as a person, I think he showed his true colors, which is a full-on pig.”
The incident is not the first time Madden and his company, which owns Blondo, Brian Atwood, Greats and several other shoe brands‚ have been accused of copying designs. A decade ago, British fashion house Alexander McQueen filed a trade dress suit against Steven Madden Ltd., alleging that the latter’s Seryna boots were a clear copy of its Faithful boots. The two settled out of court. Most recently, Steve Madden and Yves Saint Laurent also settled a dispute out of court, jointly filing in May 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to voluntarily dismiss the case that alleged Madden’s Sicily flats design had infringed on the latter’s high-heeled Tribute sandal. In 2017, eco-friendly label Allbirds accused Steve Madden of copying the design of its signature wool lace-up sneaker.
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