Two prominent Chicago fashion Instagrammers have traded accusations their work has been copied by the other, after a blog post drew attention to a huge number of damn-near nearly identical images shared on their accounts.
In a lengthy piece recently posted to her blog, public relations guru Jennifer Lake said the content on her Instagram account had been systematically copied by another user with zero attribution.
Citing the other user’s affinity for the same vibrant backdrops, poses, and even the same dresses, Lake said “I’ve taken immense steps to try and evolve the look and feel of my Instagram account to further differentiate myself and push the creative boundaries.
“Every time I pivot into new territory, the individual does the same soon thereafter.”
Lake said that the issue isn’t just pride in her own creativity, but that the similarity has actually cost her business opportunities. She claimed brands are more likely to hire influencers that have a unique style – and that her claim to that particular aesthetic has gradually been eroded.
While Lake didn’t name names in her blog post, Chicago Mag reports the alleged copier was pretty readily identifiable: Rosie Clayton, former boutique owner, and Lake’s one-time mate.
Without further ado, here’s a selection of their posts. Keep an eye on the dates these were posted:
There are several points of contention, as both Clayton and Lake appear to have initiated some of the elements shared between their accounts.
Here’s the timeline, as laid out by Chicago Mag: It was Clayton who actually first started her feed back in November 2011, with Lake starting hers a month later. Both of ’em started to produce the bulk of their images in front of vibrant walls at around the same time, too.
The use of punny captions, a tactic PEDESTRIAN.TV thoroughly endorses, was technically started by Lake in the middle of 2013. She really started using ’em en masse near March the next year, and Clayton started flexing her pun prowess around that September.
However, it was Clayton who started wearing shades in nearly every photo in June last year. Lake then adopted the hater-blockers in September.
When Chicago Mag contacted Clayton to discuss the matter, she said any insinuation she had copied Lake was ass-backwards. In fact, she pointed out the negative connotation provided by their follower counts – Lake’s 149K to her own 119K – saying “because I have less followers it looks like I’m the one copying.”
There are also instances when Clayton found herself posted an image before Lake’s similar take.
There’s no copyright protection on the concept of standing in front of a wall, and we’re sure that even a city as huge as Chicago only a finite number of technicolour murals.
But the similarities do raise questions about the ownership and authorship of social media content, and whether what one could define as a personal ‘brand’ deserves more recognition, and protection.
This drama also comes after Australian travel Instagrammer Lauren Bullen claimed she was being followed around the world by a copycat who went to painstaking lengths to mimic her work.
To see how this one pans out, carry on as usual in the digital age: make sure to like and follow the both of ’em. The photos are nice, but the prospect of further social media drama is damn near undeniable.
