It’s the email you’ve been waiting for: that high street giant likes your stuff so much that its decided to splash it over a whole range of products. You’d be jumping for joy, wouldn’t you? You’d sit down with a celebratory glass of vino. You’d probably even call your mum.
That is, of course, unless the note wasn’t from the actual shop, but from someone who’d spied your work on someone else’s product. Which is how the story of stationery supremo Paperchase and Hidden Eloise the Etsy seller begins. It’s the usual little guy v big corp tale and it came to a head on Wednesday night when an exasperated Eloise spilled all on her blog.
Crikey, grounds to sue, you’d think. Chloe brought in the lawyers back in 2007 when Topshop ripped off a pair of dungarees from its See collection, as did Jimmy Choo’s Tamara Mellon when Oasis reproduced a pair of their shoes. Nice thought, but it’s all a bit pie-in-the-sky for Eloise. She’s no Tamara and doesn’t come armed with a band of heavyweight lawyers. When she did pluck up the courage to approach a legal firm, the figure thrown back at her was about $40,000. Etsy sales might be on the up, but sellers are not making this kind of money.
Read more here.
Print by Hidden Eloise and a bag in Paperchase bearing a similar design. Photograph: Hidden Eloise
