Remember those embellished Miu Miu flats from last Fall? This morning, I checked the sales at Ideeli.com and was surprised to see an eerily similar Penny Loves Kenny ballet flat in their “Flawless Flats” sale.
I shared a DIY of those gorgeous Miu Miu rhinestone-embellished A/W 2010 ballet flats back in March of this year. The rhinestones, the bow, the beading, the contrast metallic toe – it’s spectacular!! Apparently, Penny Loves Kenny thought so too…and these flats are a pretty good lookalike, and a great bargain at only 10% of the price of the originals.
Detail shot of the Penny Loves Kenny version.
If you don’t feel like DIY’ing, you can always just buy this version – and if you get it at Ideeli, they’re on sale for $39.
And if you’re not a member of Ideeli already, you can get on in the sale action with my invite here.
What do you guys think about this? I think it’s pretty obvious that the lower-priced version is…well, let’s just say it…a blatant knockoff of the Miu Miu design. Sure there are some dissimilarities, but it’s more similar than dissimilar, if that makes any sense.
Is this okay? Would you buy it? Should Miu Miu slap Penny Loves Kenny with a lawsuit? Discuss!
xoxox
Carly
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They aren’t the only ones! Just yesterday I was looking at Torrid online and they are also blatantly ripping on the same Miu Miu flat.
http://www.torrid.com/torrid/Shoes/Flats/Wanted–Gemma-Gold-and-Black-Flat-with-Rhinstone-Medium-Width-597450.jsp
Not to mention of course forever 21 has some very cute “dove” printed items recently.
http://www.forever21.com/product.asp?catalog_name=FOREVER21&category_name=faith_woventops&product_id=2000022814&Page=1
I think these companies are walking an incredibly fine line. It’s a pretty distinctive design, and their dupes are really similar! If it was more in a “inspired by” vein, I’d say go for it. But mass producing straight copies seems wrong. All that aside, I’d love to make my own, it’s still hard to stomach the price of the original Miu Miu’s. A quandary.
Um, wow, gosh those Torrid flats are exactly the same! Good eye! And that dove-print from Miu Miu A/W 2010 has been all over the place – and it’s not just Forever 21 who has produced copies of it. I can totally understand companies looking at designer items, seeing the consumer response and gauging the demand, and then desiring to fill that void with something similar and cheap. I totally understand it!! But just because they can do it – i.e., mass-produce blatant ripoffs and walk away with a bundle – doesn’t mean that they should. It’s tough to point at something and say “That’s a blatant knockoff!” but with the Torrid and Penny Loves Kenny examples, I’m sorry but there’s nothing else I can say. It’s not inspired by – it was obviously made by studying the originals, counting the beads, estimating the size and placement of the rhinestones etc. Nothing inadvertent or coincidental, and the fact they’re doing it for potential monetary gain makes me disappointed in their brand’s integrity.