Shortly after designer Olivier Rousteing showed his fashion collection for Balmain in Paris last September, French designer Thierry Mugler posted on Instagram.
Mr. Mugler, famous in the 1980s and early ’90s for power suits and the George Michael “Too Funky” video, posted a series of side-by-side images comparing his past ensembles to Mr. Rousteing’s new looks. Next to a Balmain black, one-shouldered jacket-dress with white lapels, Mr. Mugler posted his own similar design from 1998 with the comment: “Really?”
Along with Balmain’s dress featuring a graphic, webbed print, Mr. Mugler, who now goes by the first name Manfred, attached his own webbed design from 1990. “No comment!”
The episode surprised Mr. Rousteing. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry for him, seriously,” said 33-year-old Mr. Rousteing about 69-year-old Mr. Mugler in an interview. He denied copying the designer.
In the past, copycat allegations rarely reached beyond fashion industry gossip—or sometimes courtrooms—and rarely made it to the wider public. Now with Instagram, fashion’s favorite app, accusations spread much faster and to a wider audience. Eagle-eyed accusers can post comparison pictures and add arrows and circles to zero in on the alleged offense immediately after a fashion show, now that runway images are beamed out in real time.
High-end fashion labels are increasingly being called out on social media for copying other designers or designs, leading to back-and-forth exchanges, lawsuits and expensive apologies.
Instagram accounts, including Diet Prada, have formed to focus on designers and retailers whose creations some feel look too much like other designers’ past work. Since its 2014 launch, Diet Prada, which isn’t affiliated with Prada, has amassed more than 960,000 followers. The Fashion Law blog and CashinCopy Instagram feed also name and shame copying.
Unless an item is identical, it can be hard to prove legally that something was copied. Designers routinely are inspired by other garments, often reinterpreting or expanding them. Still, some details are so distinctive they immediately draw comparisons.
Last year, some fashion fans on Instagram pointed out similarities between a new balloon-sleeved Gucci bomber jacket emblazoned with the fashion house’s double-G logo and one created by urban designer Daniel Day, known as Dapper Dan, in the late 1980s.
When the matter was brought to Gucci’s attention, its designer, Alessandro Michele, described the design as an “homage” in the New York Times. Gucci then collaborated on a collection with Mr. Day and financed the reopening of the designer’s defunct Harlem boutique. It was an odd turn: Mr. Day shut down his original atelier in the 1990s after allegations of copying the logos of designer labels, including Gucci’s. Mr. Day didn’t respond to a request for comment. Gucci confirmed the episode, but declined to comment further.
In September, London-based womenswear designer Edda Gimnes complained on Instagram about resemblances between her hand-scribble-printed designs and those in Moschino’s Spring 2019 show the day the before. Ms. Gimnes said she was “hurt” since she had previously met with someone at Moschino in New York and showed her work, original sketchbooks and ideas. “Someone has, the way it looks to me, unquestionably used my SS16 and SS17 collections as inspiration without granting me any credit,” she wrote. “As a young designer one is so vulnerable and they probably think that this would go unnoticed. I will make sure it doesn’t.”
Moschino designer Jeremy Scott commented on Ms. Gimnes’ Instagram post in caps: “I’ve read your post and want to assure you that you are incorrect in your accusations.” He then posted images via the app’s Stories feature citing archival Moschino collections as his inspiration. A Moschino representative also told the Fashionista blog that Mr. Scott and his team had never seen Ms. Gimnes’s designs or sketches. Ms. Gimnes’s label didn’t respond to a request for comment. Moschino declined to comment.
In 2015, after a social-media firestorm, Chanel said that some of its Fair Isle sweaters owed a debt to Scotland-based designer Mati Ventrillon. The designer wrote on Instagram and Facebook complaining about the looks, saying two members from Chanel’s team had visited her and purchased items for research before the show. Chanel issued a statement vowing to credit her by including the words “Mati Ventrillon design” in its communications. Chanel and Ms. Ventrillon didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Nonfashion brands are also crying foul at designers. Paris-based luxury label Balenciaga was sued in October by the company that makes Little Tree car air fresheners for keychain designs that look similar after images of the accessory spread online. Leah Waite-Holland, senior legal coordinator for Car-Freshner Corp., which owns the Little Tree brand, said by email the case was pending and it didn’t have comment. Balenciaga didn’t respond to a request for comment.
One of the earliest known designer copycat spats occurred in 1906 between couturiers Gustave Beer and Jeanne Paquin, according to Ariele Elia, who curated a 2014 exhibition called “Faking It: Originals, Copies, and Counterfeits,” at the Museum at FIT in New York. Mr. Beer was forced to pay 8,000 francs for copying a Paquin design. French couturier Paul Poiret was so angered by American designers copying his work in 1913 that he took out an ad vowing to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who would counterfeit his label. He did and won in one case, in 1914, according to Ms. Elia.
There is a fashion copyright law in France, but not in the U.S., according to Susan Scafidi, founder and director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School. Shaming on Instagram can be quicker, less expensive and, in some cases, more effective, many fashion observers say.
In an interview in October, Mr. Rousteing denied his designs were referencing Mr. Mugler’s work—they actually were inspired by different designers. “Oh my God, seriously, all this kind of metallic…was more a reference to [Alexander] McQueen,” he said. The black-and-white ensemble Mr. Mugler referred to “is like an old French suit from Mr. [Pierre] Balmain and Monsieur YSL,” referring to Yves Saint Laurent.
Mr. Mugler said in an email sent by his manager, “When things are too obvious, it seems good to me to share them. All I wanted to express is on my Instagram account.”
Mr. Mugler should be flattered if he felt referenced, Mr. Rousteing added. “I would be so happy if…in 50 years, someone is actually having inspiration [from] what I was doing in 2018,” he said. “It’s really nice of him to actually check my show. I think he was such a great designer.”
Write to Ray A. Smith at ray.smith@wsj.com
Appeared in the December 3, 2018, print edition as 'Fashion Gossip, Once Whispered, Is Everywhere These Days.'