In the same week her older sister Khloe was accused of stealing ideas from a fashion designer, the spotlight is now on Kylie Jenner, with a New York-based label alleging she stole their idea and made a clothing line from it.
Earlier this week, the youngest Kardashian announced she had dropped a line of camouflage-themed items, including bikinis, crop tops and pants.
However, fashion label PluggedNYC – a clothing brand sold on ASOS – say her designs look very familiar. So familiar, in fact, they believe Jenner knowingly stole them.
Listen: A stylist shares the items everyone should have in their wardrobes. (Post continues.)
Writing on Instagram, the founder of Plugged NYC, Tizita Balemlay acknowledged, that no, she did not invent the camo print. But she wrote there was something particularly dubious about Jenner’s designs.
“I sure as hell brought it back to life and pushed the two piece Camo movement. I can’t remember one brand that sold matching Camo two pieces that weren’t generic tees with cargo for ladies before my brand, unless it was custom. But hey… money is power smh [shaking my head],” she wrote alongside a composite of Jenner’s designs next to her own.
“I started my brand with pennies funny how someone can just take a whole movement bc [sic] of how much money and power they have.”
In two other pointed posts uploaded to the platform, Balemlay shared an image of Jenner’s line, writing “I woke up to b*tches looking like me” and another quote that read: “”Y’all don’t support talent, y’all support popularity.”
In a second, she wrote, “I am the influence… copy and paste down to the shoes I used on my models”.
Speaking to BuzzFeed, Balemlay said she first realised Jenner had just released an almost identical line of clothing to her own when “hundreds” of people started tagging her in Jenner’s announcement.
“At the end of the day money equals power and the Kardashians have that power. This is a prime example,” Balemlay told BuzzFeed.
“I don’t have the buzz she does or the money for billboards.”
Making the case against Jenner even more damning are unconfirmed screenshots doing the rounds on Twitter which suggest the 19-year-old has bought pieces from Balemlay in the past.
In April, PluggedNYC uploaded an image on their Instagram account of her actually wearing one of their designs.
The accusations come in the same week a separate designer, Destiney Bleu, made accusations on Twitter that Khloe Kardashian’s fashion label Good America had ripped off her designs.
A campaign video released by Kardashian’s brand features glitter bodysuits that look remarkably similar to some of Bleu’s designs for her label dbleudazzled.
Much like the claims leveled against Jenner, Bleu has leaked screenshots to People of email exchanges between her and Khloe’s then-stylist Monica Rose, where Rose asked on behalf of Kardashian to borrow two of Bleu’s bodysuits in black and nude. The screenshots also included an invoice that Bleu sent Kardashian for customised jewelled underwear, after the reality TV star decided to keep the garments.
According to People, in November and December 2016 Khloe ordered 14 items from dbleudazzled. Days later, her stylist Monica Rose asked to borrow two bodysuits in black and nude -and it's these designs that Bleu claims were copied.
Kardashian's camp maintains that Good American design team "had never heard of Ms Bleu or seen her designs".
Jenner has yet to address the criticisms of her own label.