Aussie influencer Em Davies has called out Valleygirl for allegedly ripping off a design she spent 12 months working on.
A feud with Valleygirl? My 13-year-old self has been found shaking. Praying the très iconique jewellery store Diva isn’t involved ‘cos that would be too much to handle.
The Venem 1.0 founder took to TikTok to compare her brand’s Cali Dream dress print to a fabric Valleygirl has used in its recent designs.
“This is my dress, I designed this,” she said.
“I designed the print, it took us 12 months to develop because it was the first print that we ever did and this is what Valleygirl has done and it’s now stocked in all their stores around Australia. It’s fucking heartbreaking.
“The worst thing is there is nothing I can do about it because I haven’t trademarked the design or the print, or I haven’t copyrighted the design or the print.”
Look, I’m just gonna say it: the side-by-side is intriguing to say the least.
My biggest eyes emoji ever.
What makes the sitch even more bonkers is the fact Davies claimed her brand’s name is on the Valleygirl design. I did a wee zoom on the photo on the left and, sure enough, it appears that Venem 1.0 is on the dang top.
Behold a not-at-all pixelated screenshot with “Venem 1.0” written the wrong way around. But alas, you get the drift.
“My brand name is in your stores across Australia,” Davies said.
“You could’ve at least taken out my brand name, right? Your brand is Valleygirl, not Venem.”
The influencer acknowledged fashion brands have got to take inspiration from somewhere, and said she looks at other brands, Pinterest and runways to get the creative juices flowing — but “inspo” was the key word.
Davies said she also understood Valleygirl was a fast fashion brand, but it’s a whole different kettle of fish to “use my brand name in the product”.
“A lot of fast fashion brands will get inspo and they’ll replicate something, but they won’t put the brand name that they’ve copied it from [on the product],” she said.
“This is just the nature of the game. This is fashion — it’s just something we have to deal with.”
Em Davies also used the TikTok to clear the air with Ally Fashion, which she initially alleged had yoinked her design after some fans “misinformed” her.
“I want to make a sincere apology to Ally Fashion. I was misinformed by multiple followers that it was at Ally Fashion and it wasn’t, it’s at Valleygirl,” she said.
“This is my fault. I should have done my research, but in the heat of the moment I was so upset and I’ve learned from it.”
At the time of publication Valleygirl has closed its online store “temporarily until further notice”, which is deeply funny. It’s like the e-commerce version of turning off comments.
PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to Em Davies for comment.
