Wednesday 17 August 2011

Blatant Shoe Plagarism

I am about to get pretty scathing about a popular shoe brand that I have written about before.  I had previously noted similarities between a shoe designed by Salvatore Ferragamo and a shoe designed by Jeffrey Campbell.  I also have noted some things I love about Jeffrey Campbell.  But here is where things go sour.  While looking through shoes at Nasty Gal, many of which are Jeffrey Campbell, I started seeing some shoes that looked extremely familiar.  See for yourself below:

 Jeffrey Campbell Fruitbowl platform.


Charlotte Olympia fruit platform.


Jeffrey Campbell's cutout combat boot.


Balenciaga's cutout combat boot.





Jeffrey Campbell's western-inspired bootie.

Viktor & Rolf's western-inspired bootie.




Jeffrey Campbell's black wedge boot.


Alexander Wang's black wedge boot.


Jeffrey Campbell's brogue flatform.

Prada's "Creeper" brogue flatform.

So (hopefully) you have eyeballs and you see all the similarities that I see.  And I have a big problem with it.  This isn't an instance of two designers both designing a metallic heel.  This is a designer stealing another designer's unique ideas.  I will also note that every Jeffrey Campbell shoe was released after the other designer's version.  I will no longer buy or support Jeffrey Campbell shoes.  I believe that if you choose to become a designer of anything, you make your own designs.  

- Shannon

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for posting this! I'm studying fashion history right now and they posted a photo of the Salvatore Ferragamo rainbow platforms in this weeks lecture. When I saw it I immediately thought of the Jeffery Campbell wedges and how they must have been copied from the SF design because it came out it 1938! I can't believe a designer would blatantly rip off another like that! (I thought only Forever 21 was capable of such thievery...) How very unoriginal. And besides that, JC shoes are poorly made.

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