It comes as quite a shock when two fashion heavy-weights go head to head in a design dispute – but there’s no love lost between the latest Christian Louboutin and Yves Saint Laurent feud.
As reports go, Louboutin is suing YSL for putting red soles on its shoe – the global footwear brand ultimately filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in New York on Thursday against YSL for allegedly breaching its copyright by using the red hue.
“Mr. Louboutin is the first designer to develop the idea of having red soles on women’s shoes,” said the lawsuit. “The defendants’ use of red footwear outsoles that are virtually identical to the plaintiffs’ Red Sole Mark is likely to cause and is causing confusion, mistake and deception among the relevant purchasing public.”
In 2008 Louboutin trademarked the red sole in the US and reportedly asked YSL to refrain from using the colour red in January this year – but the French fashion house has not yet responded to their firm request.
And, FYI, this isn’t the first time Louboutin has held a fashion brand under the firing line for using his trademark colour in their work – 2007 also saw the footwear giants sue US label Oh Deer! after it reproduced the iconic red sole.
But this time around Louboutin is pulling out all the stops and asked the court to award his company $1 million in damages and order YSL to halt production of all red soled shoes, reports Vogue UK.
Meow!
