Amelia Ravelo – In June 2013, a line of colorful, bright, exposed-yarn bikinis burst onto the racks of high-end department stores and beaches around the country. The suits, sold under New Yorker Ipek Igrit’s self-described “high end resort wear” brand Kiini, cost about $29 dollars each to make, but sold for $285 each at retail. The suits proved both popular and lucrative for Igrit: Kiinis were featured on the covers of such prominent fashion magazines as Condé Nast Traveller, and by 2015 had brought in about nine million dollars in sales.
Other apparel companies took notice of Kiini’s success. Despite the federal copyright protection Igrit secured for Kiini’s design in 2014, Victoria’s Secret began selling virtually identical styles shortly after. Kiini sued Victoria’s Secret in 2015, alleging copyright infringement, trade dress infringement, and unfair competition. By 2017, the two companies agreed to a confidential settlement. Igrit became confident after Kiini’s success against Victoria’s Secret, and in April 2018, Kiini’s legal team sent cease and desist notices to additional retailers selling similar styles, including Neiman Marcus. However, this time around would not prove as easy for Kiini: a lawyer for PilyQ (one company who sold Kiini-esque suits to Neiman Marcus) found an online video from 2016, featuring a woman named Solange Ferrarini selling hand-crocheted bathing suits identical to Kiinis in the Brazillian beach town of Trancoso. Kiini’s new adversary found it illuminating that Igrit had visited that same beach town in 2012, shortly before she had the first batch of prototypes made.
PilyQ’s legal team then contacted Igrit’s former business partner, Sally Wu, who had arranged for the prototypes’ production in China. Wu provided PilyQ with the original reference photographs Igrit sent for the prototypes. Shockingly, when a PilyQ lawyer zoomed in on one of those photos, he saw Ferrarini’s signature on the suit’s interior, accompanied by the words “Trancoso, B.A.,” and a phone number. As it turned out, Ferrarini had been selling her bikinis in Trancoso since 1998. In response to this finding, PilyQ negotiated a deal with Ferrarini to compensate her for the design, now sold under the brand “Platinum Inspired by Solange Ferrarini.” Around the same time, Igrit amended her current complaint to formally add PilyQ as a defendant. Soon thereafter, however, Ferrarini obtained counsel for herself, and sued Kiini in the United States District Court for the Central District of California in June 2018 (in front of the same judge who oversaw Kiini’s original suit against Victoria’s Secret, coincidentally). Kiini withdrew its complaint against PilyQ the following month. Igrit still maintains her position that the suits are her own intellectual property, inspired by her Turkish grandmother’s own designs.
The debacle over the colorful bikinis raises questions about the point in which inspiration crosses the line into counterfeit, and how independent designers can protect their intellectual property. Generally, United States copyright law does not protect clothing designs in and of themselves; designers may be able to obtain protections, however, under design patent (protections for ornamental aspects of traditionally patentable, functional items), or trade dress law (where materials’ design and shape are protected if they serve the same identification purpose as a trademark). For example, luxury shoe brand Christian Louboutin’s recognizable red soles qualify for trade dress protections, because they serve an identification purpose in addition to their aesthetic utility. The problem for independent designers like Ferrarini, however, is that these protections can be difficult and expensive to obtain, and litigating to enforce them can be costly and time-consuming, especially when against powerhouse apparel companies.
Currently, Kiini has responded to Ferrarini’s complaint with multiple pending motions, including a motion to dismiss, which has not yet been ruled on. When an investigative reporter asked Ferrarini her thoughts on Igrit and her imitation, Ferrarini responded, “Eu quero que ela se ferre em verde e amarelo” (Porteguese for “I want her to get screwed in green and yellow”). If she can prove that Igrit knowingly copied and misrepresented the Brazilian designer’s bikinis, Ferrarini might just get her wish.
