Fashion Forum

Smalltown Seamstresss $3.7 Million Lawsuit Against Chanel Goes to Court



Carmen at her fashion show in May.
Carmen Colle, a 61-year-old seamstress in a small town in Eastern France, is suing Chanel for $3.7 million over a crochet pattern they allegedly copied from her. She runs World Tricot, an ethical clothing company that handmakes haute couture for some of the industry's top designers, and which Colle founded to give employment opportunities to refugees. Colle has made pieces for Chanel before, but alleges they never bought the disputed design. She first saw a Chanel cardigan with the pattern in question in a shop in Tokyo in 2004. After four and a half years, her case is finally in court. Armed and ready for a fight, Chanel says they came up with the design all their own.

Colle's business, whose roster of clients includes Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Givenchy, is hurting. The Guardian reports:

Because of the lawsuit, banks have refused to help her, former clients have disappeared and she has had to lay off all but a dozen employees, she added. "You cannot imagine what it is like," she said, claiming she had been subjected to a strategy of "pressures and manipulation". "You are faced with an enormous machine. You become the guilty party."

She adds:

"It is not just World Tricot at stake. It is the recognition of small businesses and their creations," she said. "[Big names] treat us as things they can take up and then throw away. It's a shame for them. The greatness of a country, and the greatness of a brand, is the respect it shows for its petites mains."

Chanel has asked the Parisian court to rule on World Tricot's "blatant denigration" of the Chanel name. The outcome of the suit could empower the tailors who work for big fashion houses in France. In the meantime, Colle is working on her own line, Angèle Batist, which staged its first fashion show and opened a boutique in Paris earlier this year.

That will be an interesting case to follow...

And it's been thrown out of court.

Textile supplier World Tricot sued Chanel a few years back for allegedly copying one of its designs. Carmen Colle, the 61-year-old woman who runs the company, said she proposed a white crochet pattern to Chanel in 2004, and they rejected it. But a few months later she saw the same design on a Chanel piece in a boutique in Tokyo, and sued the house for about $3.7 million for alleged counterfeiting and breach of contract. The case finally went to court, and the judge has decided to throw it out.

However, Colle isn't upset with the decision. The judge awarded her 400,000, or $583,960, for breach of contract, because Chanel halted orders for crocheted and embroidered pieces from World Tricot after the suit arose. Chanel's orders accounted for about 89 percent of World Tricot's revenue, and when they pulled out Colle was forced to lay off most of her staff. (Making her story more sobworthy, she founded the company to employ refugees.)

The judge also awarded Chanel 200,000 for what the house labeled "a smear campaign." Colle hasn't decided if she will appeal the ruling or not, but actually sounds pretty happy with it. "It's a victory for us because the court has recognized that suppliers and artisans are not disposable," she tells The Wall Street Journal. Likewise, Chanel is "very satisfied" itself, since the decision, they say, distinguishes them as the designers from the suppliers, who are just the people who make things for them.

Colle has her own line, Angèle Batist, which opened a boutique in Paris earlier this year. A victory for Colle could have had serious implications for small tailors who work for big couture houses in France (you know, empowered them some). But alas, probably not

.

Who is to say really who is really telling the truth. '3 sides to every story' or 'Occam's razor' Choose a theory.

However, I recall there was this photographer that worked for advertising giant Leo Burnett during the 80's. Whilst in their hospices, he created a 'style' of lighting that blew th art directors and ad industry away. Later in the 90's he parted ways and continued to use this style of lighting. Leo Burnett sued based on Copyright infringement. The photographer lost as the court ruled; based on the employment agreement initiated with the employee; anything created under the employment of Leo Burnett, is Property of Leo Burnett.