The Kardashians love to appropriate and culture-vulture everything from black culture. It is known. They appropriate language, slang, styling, hair, nails, whatever you’ve got. They’ve been called out on it a million times for a million different reasons. But in the second time this month, a Kardashian-Jenner woman is being explicitly called out for literally copying a black designer’s designs. Like, they think no one would notice? Did they think no one would care?
The first story of just the past week was regarding Khloe Kardashian’s Good American clothing line. I thought Good American was just jeans, but no, it’s a full clothing line and Khloe blatantly copied the work of another designer, Destiney Bleu, someone respected who has well-liked and well-worn designs. Like, she’s designed for Beyonce. She posted this tweet a week ago:
When someone buys 1 of everything on your site, has you make them custom @dbleudazzled work, never posts it or wears it, then copies it. 🙃 https://t.co/hylp6fcOdh
— destiney bleu (@destineybleu) June 2, 2017
Her Twitter got stalked by Khloe fans, but Destiney continued tweeting about how Khloe stole her designs. Apparently, Khloe’s lawyers sent her a cease & desist too but Bleu isn’t backing down. You can read more about it here.
Then yesterday, a designer from PluggedNYC went on social media to accuse Kylie Jenner of stealing their camo designs for her own line. PluggedNYC says that they even worked with Kylie before, and she bought their clothes. And then she just copied them. This isn’t even the first time Kylie has been specifically accused of stealing other people’s designs.
The black owned company that Kylie stole her camo clothes idea from is posting the receipts of when Kylie ordered from them and I'm LIVING pic.twitter.com/4r0xEwhw6o
— Kelsha. (@kelshareese) June 9, 2017
The only thing I’ll say in defense of any of this is that designers copy other designers all the time. Even after Roland Mouret stopped working with Victoria Beckham, her clothes still looked like blatant copies of Mouret’s work. Many designers did their own spin/copies of Tom Ford’s most iconic Gucci looks more than a decade ago. Stella McCartney puts her “spin” on other people’s designs all the time (it’s how she got her start, when she was with Chloe, and accused of stealing other designers’ work). But what the Kardashian-Jenners are doing is something different: they are specifically culture-vulturing black designers’ work, ordering those designers’ clothes and then copying them completely. It’s gross.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
They are culture vultures always have been
Is water wet? Really-do any of those Kardashian/Jenners do anything original?
Exactly. How can all those young girls buy their crap? Stop supporting these people.
Does a Bear Sh*t in the Woods?, Does Day end in Y?, Do fillers Bounce in water? Is a Black Lady of note happy with her Black S.O in Calabasas and a Dime is about to drop on her? Did Pepsi Cure Institutional Racism?, Are The Kardashians About top bring back “natural Hair” or “Boxer Braids” or “ass” as a Comodity?, Did they “create” all the Black Girl Slang that they stay trying to pass as “cutesy family Sayings”
The answer to these and More universal queries tonight at 11 in “BUT BLACK WOMEN BEEN TELLING YOU”
Ha, I love this QQ.. Yeah, they stole her designs and if I heard correctly, the lady has proof. In Atlanta one of the radio dj’s is friends with her and they were talking about it this morning..
But as QQ so elegantly stated, is anyone really shocked?
*eloquently.. damn, my brain is misfiring this morning
If she can prove Khloe ordered one of everything but never posted pics of herself wearing it, and then at a later date lookalikes popped up – that will be quite damning.
I hope Khloe was that stupid to order the whole line in a way that can be traced back to her.
Why not just partner with the original designer and pick up a commission for promoting their work to a new market? Maybe also order new stuff in a similar style for a different market? If she likes the designs that much, that would make so much more sense. Or is Khloe trying to pretend that she herself is the designer? (Remembering Piegate.)
QQ, I clicked on this post specifically to see what your comment would be. And you did not disappoint!
Lol QQ. But yes not surprising. They want to steal everything from black culture. Why are we surprised?
If they could wear Black bodies, the Black experience itself just like Beyonce described in the Lemonade interlude before Don’t Hurt yourself , they would, they would wear our skin like a coat and our teeth as confetti AS FCK and tell their man of the moment all along they are better than us while at it
Girl preach! Like hashtagwhat, I scrolled down just for your comment.
You always bring it! Lol
Speak that truth, girl.
👏👏🏿👏🏽👏🏼👏🏾👏🏿.
THANK YOU, QQ. i skimmed the article hoping I’d find your wisdom in the comments.
Tell em, QQ!! 🙌🏾 🙌🏾
Greedy little warthogs behaving like greedy little warthogs. Khloe seems to be literally morphing into one. Nothing but contempt for that entire family. But I’m really glad people are calling them out for this.
Of course they did. They don’t care about stealing from someone else and claiming it is their own work.
And that, at the end of the day, is why they’re KarTRASH.
I for one, am absolutely and completely shocked. I mean, people have only been saying this for years, but we were called “jealous” and “sensitive”.
The Kardashian Jenners are about as original and innovative as a box of basic crayons.
I can’t wait until they become a distant memory.
QQ you always make my day!
*waves*
The answer to any question about this crew of grifters is always yes. Yes they did. Yes they do. Yes they will.
Ugly cameo clothes aren’t exactly unique… No doubt the K:s copy stuff from all over though :/
That was my thought too, heh. Why do they copy (and I do not doubt that they stole designs here) ugly fashion? But then again, at least they’re not wearing anything I’d put on.
Not sure what race has to do with it. It’s not okay to steal from anyone.
When you steal things from black women, who are often overlooked, trivialized, derided or whose issues are demeaned or not deemed important enough to deal with, then race has to do with this. The fact that these women have to draw attention to this themselves Is significant in that respect (if stealing did occur, I’m kind of assuming that it did as the Kardashians lost their presumption of innocence in these kinds ofthings with me, but to be fair, I’m clueless about apparel and LA based designers).
Race has a lot to do with it actually. I for one am tired of hearing what a legend Elvis Presley is and the Beatles. They stole from black music and culture and get worshiped as original and amazing by people everywhere. The black people they stole from get little to no credit. It is the same with the Kardashians. They hate blacks but have no problem ripping off black culture. If it had been whites that were stolen from you best believe that it would be known everywhere and by everyone.
Most artists are ‘inspired’ by others. On a level playing field, all’s fair. But when one race is economically dominant in the system, they intrinsically have an upper hand. Do I think the Beatles deliberately took advantage of African-American musical heritage – it’s every rich musician’s responsibility to pay it back (and not just be greedy as f*ck…)
Aw, leave the Beatles alone! They were Teddy Boys originally. If you want to talk about black culture being exploited in rock n roll Led Zepplin is your guy. They have even lost court cases for blatantly copying poor black blues musicians.
Because they specifically and only do this to black women. Pay attention.
kendall + kylie’s line knocks off a pair a designer Barbara Bui’s heels (that Kylie was once spotted in) and the Chanel slides. I’m guessing there’s many more…
Talentless hacks being talentless hacks. Of course they’ll have hoards of sycophants to blow smoke up their a**es about them just being the victims of envious people. Can’t wait until this whole family is GONE
They should be thanking black culture for why they’re famous to begin with…they’ve been leaching off their backs from the start. These self-hating Caucasians steal their hair styles, fashion, even body parts…and exploit the shit out of them for money. I hate seeing them credited for a hairstyle or fashion trend that has been ingrained in African American and black culture for centuries. It really, truly is disgusting what they’ve exploited for monetary gain.
They wouldn’t dare to steal the style of another white woman. They only steal from black women, because they don’t respect black women and because it’s hard for black women to capulate to fame. Black women are generally ignored in our society, so it’s easier to steal from them and no-one will stand up for them. Black women are never seen as a victim in any situation, and left to their own mercy.
Those crooks of the Kardashian/Jenner are reassured that there will never be an uproar for their actions. But those stylists should keep on exposing them, they have profited too long from black women looks and persona. They should finally be put in their places.
They steal from white women as well hun. That make up artist Kylie stole from was white. I personally wish they would just go away, so tired of seeing them everywhere. They basically planted one of each in different categories and won’t go away.
Whatever Kim is trying to be, Queen B. already is. Kylie can never be the sex symbol kitten she’s forcing on us, that title goes to Rihanna. And Kendall… oh lawd. Pretty girl next door but Gigi is THE model Kris wishes she birthed. Let’s just celebrate the fact that Rob is fat so we don’t have to see his ass everywhere too.
They have stolen from white women, but they obviously steal way more from black culture. Black designers have a harder time getting recognition for their work so it’s especially egregious when they do it. Shouldn’t be stealing from anyone though.
I hope those designers sue them for every penny.
Me too. They should start crowd funding for their legal case against the K klan. I would donate!
Not directly related, but a good read: http://racebaitr.com/2017/05/22/the-nyt-review-of-venus-is-a-reminder-that-black-women-and-our-suffering-are-often-invisible-to-others/
Why would anyone want to buy Kardashian clothing?
What’s new?
https://tenor.com/view/the-wire-gif-4207772
Please tell me that those ugly ass camouflage outfits are not considered “in style”.
Thank you for posting this story, and others like it. While it’s not really “news” that the Kardashians rip off designers, I like that your articles remind people of where the designs came from — to give the real designers publicity and recognition.
Is water wet?
QQ. respect! Nailed it.
UPDATE: Khloe sent Destiney (the og designer of the bodysuits) a cease and desist letter for defamation of character. People! has the scoop, but Destiney’s lawyers hit back WITH receipts, emails of the conversation, the specifics (Khloe asked for a bedazzled suit with Tristan’s name on it)
I’m “living”? Hahaha wot
For my 2pence worth, I think they steal from black designers because black culture seems to be where most mainstream white fashion gets its inspiration from. So, they look at what’s fresh and new with their friends and boom!
I mean, they’re definitely getting inspiration from these designs, but the designs themselves are not remotely original. They’re just perfect replicas of older trends. The two piece camo outfits especially. That exact design, down to the choice of colours, was literally everywhere in the early 2000’s.
The thing that I find Mind Blowing is that the Black Community and the Black Men in Sports work and date these scumbags. Why are these Black Men dating these Racist Hoes? It’s Racism to fetishize and date only Black Men. It’s also Racist to steal, profit and destroy another Race’s work and achievement. There aren’t words despicable enough for this family. They have used Money and Undue power from that wealth to rob from poor folk. It goes back to Kim stealing from Brandy’s mother way back when when she ran her money through their store to swindle Brandy’s mother and it continues today. And yet, you see Black models wearing stolen work from a struggling Black Female designer. Beyond disgusting.
I think armies invented camo. I will check my military history books to be sure
This kind of camo design was big in the 80s and again in the 90s and yet again in the 00s. None of these designs are remotely original and no, they do not “belong” to any particular race