Wild Thing Sandal Copying: Aquazzura Sues Ivanka Trump

By Mary Hall | July 5, 2016

Italian shoe brand Aquazzura is suing fashion brand Ivanka Trump for copying their popular, if pricey, Wild Thing Sandals. To their credit, Aquazzura has not been shy about protecting their intellectual property and let Ivanka Trump know that they have noticed the copy cat sandals.  Months ago on their Instagram account,  Aquazzura sent the first volley.  saying “One of the most disturbing things in the fashion industry is when someone blatantly steals your copyright designs and doesn’t care. You should know better. Shame on you@ivankatrump! Imitation is NOT the most sincere form of flattery.”  We agree and we applaud and support Aquazzura for seeking legal remedies and filing a lawsuit to protect their distinctive design. As a blogger, I’ve have big and small companies copy my blog idea for The Recessionista, even shamelessly calling it the exact same thing.    Fortunately, I was able to defend my trademark rights, but at a high financial cost.

The shocking thing about Aquazzura’s popular design is that there are so many copycats.   To me, the entire Ivanka Trump fashion label is about replicas.  The brand has always appealed to fashion lovers by producing lower-priced goods inspired by the high-end designer collections.  How else would Ivanka Trump succeed? She’s just a beautiful rich girl who happens to be Trump’s daughter, not a fashion designer. But Ms. Trump is not alone in producing a shoe inspired by Aquazzura’s Wild Thing.   Fashion site Racked reports that Steve Madden, ZARA, Banana Republic have all produced a shoe substantially similar to the Aquazzara sandal. Here’s a look at the various sandals from Steve Maden, Ivanka Trump and Aquazzura–can you tell the difference?

According to legal documents filed by Aquazzura against Trump and her manufacturing company  “nearly every detail of [the] plaintiff’s well-known and coveted ‘Wild Thing’ shoe, from the shape and silhouette to the fringe covering the toes, to the tassel on the heel.”  Just look at the Instagram picture, and you can see for yourself how alike the shoes are.  Aquazzura seeks damages, attorney fees and an injunction to pull the Ivanka Trump shoes from being sold.

Aquazzura is also suing Steve Madden for making it’s own fringe sandal retailing for about $129.00.  In the lawsuit filed against Steve Madden, Aquazzara alleges that Madden has copied four of it’s distinctive styles.

Remember the Kardashian Khroma make-up lawsuit? The original creator of Kroma makeup, Lee Tillet, finally won and did get an injunction to pull all the Kardashian Kroma makeup from store shelves.  It’s a shame the Kardashians and their partners in the make-up line choose to defend the lawsuit instead of settling with Tillett.

Good luck to Aquazzara in defending their intellectual property rights.  I hope their legal fees don’t drive up the costs of their already expensive shoes and hurt their business.