Fashion label owned by Tory Burch's ex-husband is sued after 'copying' Etsy artist's designs
By KRISTIE LAU
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C. Wonder, the concept store of Chris Burch who is the former husband of designer Tory Burch, is being sued for plagiarising designs.
Bulgarian artist Zlatka Pirin Paneva has filed a lawsuit against the company with the California Central District Court that states it breached her intellectual property copyright.
In what seems to be a rather obvious copycat job, C. Wonder has mimicked two of the Los Angeles-based artist's original illustrations; an image of an elephant tied to a cluster of red balloons and one of a hand alongside a red heart.
Mimic: An artist is suing C. Wonder after her designs were seemingly plagiarised by Chris Burch's concept store. Mr Burch is the ex-husband of Tory Burch, who has claimed he copied her own designs in the past
Interestingly, it is not the first time Mr Burch has been at the centre of copycat claims.
His ex-wife, 46, claimed in February that he had clearly copied many features of her own business' design aesthetic, including the logo.
Now it looks as though Ms Paneva, who runs a small business on the e-commerce site Etsy, titled Z Paneva Studios, has become the company's next target.
Originally spotted by YouThoughtWeWouldntNotice.com, a plastic serving tray from C. Wonder appears to feature the same elephant image twice. To add further insult, the original dictionary text that served as a background has also been mimicked.
At it again: Another image by the artist (left) appears to have been mirrored on a C. Wonder plate (right)
Artistic space: The artist's Etsy business, titled RococcoCo, sells many similar works, as seen above
Another C. Wonder product, a small plastic plate, features an image of a right hand that is pinching a red heart between its fingers.
Happier times: Designer Tory Burch (left) and her ex-husband Chris (right), the founder of C. Wonder, split in 2006 and have three sons together
It appears to be the identical mirror image of another of the artist's designs and again, the dictionary text appears to have also been remodeled.
Ms Paneva has claimed that she was never approached by anybody associated with the retailer, prior to the products going on sale.
The items have since been taken down from the company's website.
Each of the products in question sell for around $10.
C. Wonder, which is located in various locations across New York with even more retail spots across the country set to open soon, stocks a range of homewares and women's clothing.
Mr Burch, a venture capitalist, opened the flagship C. Wonder store in Soho in October, 2011 and has since broaden the brand out to five other locations.
When the businessman, who was the co-founder of Tory Burch's fashion empire, launched, a friend of Tory's told New York magazine: 'Tory knows it [the similarities], and everyone knows it. There's the snap bracelets. The wallets. The buttons...'
The pair parted ways in 2006 and have three sons together.
When Tory decided to launch her own line in 2004, her ex-husband developed a more affordable offshoot of the collection as a safety net.
It was never manufactured due to the success of the Tory Burch label but those close to the immaculate blonde designer see C. Wonder as an obvious second attempt to compete with her brand.
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