This fashion designer wants an apology from Kylie Jenner for stealing her design ideas — right now!
Last month, Jessica Johansen-Bell blasted the reality star for copying one of her “signature” collections she released “three or four years ago.” The accusation came after Kylie posted a picture of herself in a skin-tight white dress — a piece from her clothing line Khy. A lot of fans agreed it was a stolen design!
And Jessica isn’t the only fashion designer who has accused Kylie of stealing her work! Betsy Johnson (not that one, the one who created the line PRODUCTS) claimed the makeup mogul ripped off her ideas when Khy launched, saying she had emailed Kylie and her team concepts, language, and line sheets from her clothing line in 2023. Instead of working with her, though, they allegedly used her ideas without giving her credit. These scandals are not a good look for the 26-year-old’s brand!
Related: Kim Kardashian Confirms Kylie & Timothée Chalamet Are Still Going Strong!
While Betsy has not pushed the issue since her initial callout (as far as we know), Jessica refuses to back down. In an interview with Dailymail.com on Tuesday, she slammed Kylie for being “morally corrupt” in stealing from a smaller company and apparently not feeling remorse over it:
“I reached out to the Khy company when I saw this. I was like, ‘Take this down. My customers are just getting confused.’ And it was getting worse by the day. It started to stress me out. It just seems so morally corrupt for such a large-scale company to rip off such a small brand and sell it for such a small amount of money. It devalues the whole brand.”
However, Kylie’s team was not willing to budge on the matter. According to Jessica, they refused to take down the looks and insisted the looks were original designs:
“Her team responded and said: ‘We innovated these designs.’ I told them: ‘You did not. This is crazy.’ And that is when they ghosted me. Completely.’”
Hmm. Despite what the brand says, Jessica insists they stole her designs. What makes the whole situation even worse? Kylie collaborated with Jessica in the past! The Australian designer reminded the outlet she first sent dresses to her in 2018, and The Kardashians star posted pictures of herself in them to social media. And that wasn’t the end of their working relationship either. For her 21st birthday, Kylie’s stylist allegedly contacted Jessica to send some dresses and she posed in them for the big day. Jessica recalled:
“In 2018, we sent a few styles to her house, and she wore my dresses in 50 or so videos… I was fresh in my business. At the time I was not sending that kind of stock overseas because that was huge expense for me. But I saw the opportunity and I just took it on. So we just continued sending her stylists clothes. We sent her a box in 2019 of the whole collection, so it had all the twisted strap styles that you see in her current collection.”
Imagine Jessica’s surprise when her social media blew up with a bunch of people tagging her and realized Kylie stole her designs years later! She said:
“When she dropped this latest collection I was getting all these DMs. I just thought it was old content because we get tagged in her old stuff all the time. I saw it and I just thought it was one of my dresses. This is when I first realized. I went on her website, and I was just so shocked.”
While Jessica was “flattered” by Kylie wearing her clothes in the past, her attitude toward the star has completely changed in light of the scandal:
“At first I was flattered by her wearing my clothing. She was the first celebrity that really wore my stuff like I had other celebrities but she was the first big celebrity. It was big for me. But then when she ripped off my whole collection – I stopped feeling flattered.”
Oof. Does Jessica plan on taking legal action against Kylie now? Not at this time. Instead, she’s asking for something so easy: an apology. She explained:
“There has been legal communication, but nothing is getting pursed. It’s like it’s such a fine line between what you can trademark. There are consumer laws where I can say that she’s stealing like my customer base, or she is damaging my brand reputation. There are loopholes and there are ways around it, but it’s such a nasty fight and I’m just not in a place where I want to do that.”
Jessica continued:
“I think she should care more. It is just not fair. Instead of going quiet about it, she could have messaged me and said, ‘I am sorry.’ She could have said, ‘Sorry about this I see the similarities.’ An apology goes a long way. I hope that this is a lesson for her. She needs to get put in her place. No one is too big for the power of the people. But she is already onto the next thing anyways.”
Unfortunately, Jessica might be waiting for that apology for a looong time! Khy denied her claims once again when Dailymail.com reached out. Meanwhile, Kylie has not addressed the controversy at all. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments below!
[Image via Kylie Jenner/Jessica Johansen-Bell/Instagram]
