Black Fashion Designer Claims Luxury Brand Balenciaga ‘Borrowed’ His Design

By Simone Johnson, Finurah

Fashion designer Lamont Stapleton has recently accused Balenciaga of “borrowing” his design. The designer wore an original crewneck he made in 2019 to a party in Los Angeles. Stapleton claimed that a slew of famous fashion elites were present, and during the event, he received compliments and comments about his shirt. 

Two years later, Stapleton came across his design on Balenciaga’s site, where it was being sold for around $25,000. Stapleton promptly released a video and photos that showed that he debuted his design in 2019, more than two years before Balenciaga’s 2022 release. In the video, he also expresses that he would appreciate connecting with someone from the high-end brand regarding the situation. 

But as small business owners or creatives, how does one protect their designs and art from being duplicated? 

For starters, a healthy business practice, in general, is to have nondisclosure agreements, according to Lisa Bonner, a veteran entertainment and intellectual property attorney. 

“Your business and marketing plans…include valuable company information: the outline of your plans to grow your business, customer lists, and trade secrets—all highly confidential information you need to protect,” she explains in her book “Legalities of Entrepreneurship.”

“In order to make sure the information and plans you share are kept private and used as intended, you want to ensure that the people with whom you are sharing are keeping your business confidential,” Bonner continued. “You can do this with an NDA, also known as a nondisclosure or confidentiality agreement, which is an agreement drafted to protect the disclosure’s proprietary information against unauthorized use and disclosure by the receiving party.”

Finish the article, which includes advice for protecting your work.

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