14 DAY TRIAL // Last month, Kim Kardashian launched her Belle Noel jewelry line, which is available at Kardashian Dash stores. Designer Alexis Bittar has gone on the record saying that her designs are actually rip-offs of his own.
The accusation is a serious one, but it wouldn’t be the first time that Kim is blasted for finding “inspiration” for her designs and then forgetting to give credit where credit is due.
Bittar says he discovered the rip-off by pure chance, as he happened to walk past a Dash store and recognized the designs as poor replicas of his own, Fashionista informs.
“In the reality TV world, there are so many people coming out with lines to capitalize on their TV shows. They are not designers and they are just stealing,” Bittar says.
“I passed the Dash pop up store on Broadway, and I saw that Kim’s pieces were very similar to mine, and she definitely has been taking note (of my designs),” he adds.
The fact that he repeatedly lent her pieces to wear on public appearances only increases the odds that she might have stolen his ideas and passed as her own.
“The tricky thing is that we have sent pieces to Kim in the past to wear, so now I have told my staff we cannot send anything to her. She was definitely influenced by my designs without a doubt,” the designer explains.
He may be convinced of this, but proving it is an entirely different matter. Bittar knows he’ll have a hard time proving it, which is why he’s not even saying anything about taking Kim to court.
“You have to be very careful to pick and choose your battles. I haven’t talked to Kim about it, the truth is she might not even know,” he says.
“She might be so far removed from it (the design process), and her designers just go shopping and knock things off. But we are definitely not lending to Kim any more, she has been barred,” Bittar adds.
A rep for Kim issued a statement to say that she finds inspiration for her designs in her travels all around the world, but the allegations Bittar is making are ludicrous.