When Kylie Jenner unveiled her clothing line, Khy, last October, artist Betsy Johnson* quickly accused the brand of stealing her designs.
*Betsy is a creative director, stylist, and consultant — not to be confused with American designer Betsey Johnson.
As you might recall, the first collection launched by Khy featured a bunch of all-black, faux-leather garments, with Kylie telling WSJ magazine that the line had been “inspired” by her “personal wardrobe.”
But amid the launch, Betsy took to Instagram to accuse Kylie of ripping off her own clothing collection Products.ltd, which had been released the month before, in September.
The Products.ltd collection featured a series of all-black leather looks that bore similarities to Khy’s items — with Betsy claiming that she'd emailed Kylie “and all her team” the concept of her own collection six months earlier.
“We emailed Kylie and all her team @products.ltd. concept and langauge and a line sheet 6 MONTHS AGO. INTERESTING CONCEPT KYLIE:..INTERESTING / Thanks for the co-sign,” Betsy alleged.
Kylie did not publicly address the controversy at the time, and her brand has continued to release other collections since.
But now the billionaire has come under fire again, with another designer, Jessica Johansen-Bell, accusing Khy of ripping off her own clothing brand, Johansen, within its latest collection.
Khy’s new collection features a bunch of slinky, neutral-colored tops and dresses with twisted straps.
“I’ve had Johansen for like 10 years now. And we launched a collection so similar to the one she launched — but we launched ours like three or four years ago. And it’s been our signature range ever since,” she said before going on to say that her brand has “dressed Kylie before.”
Back in 2018, Kylie shared a series of photos of herself wearing a corset shoulder dress from Johansen. After the pictures were shared, the garment reportedly immediately sold out in size S/M, with Jessica addressing the action herself in a statement shared with the press.
Elsewhere in her TikTok video, Jessica claimed that she’d reached out to Khy, which allegedly got back to her and said that its clothing designs were developed through the team’s “hard work and innovation.”
Jessica further addressed things this week on Instagram. Releasing a written statement, she began, “I created JOHANSEN from my love of styling and designing in 2015 as a starry eyed 19 year old. I have worked 7 days a week ever since, learning, designing, and growing my business.”
“Kylie has worn Johansen multiple times, and we have been selling this signature collection since 2020 during Covid. It has become synonymous with our brand,” she claimed.
“I respect young women who truly are innovators in their field, however monetising someone else’s intellectual effort, concept and mass producing their unique collection, without their consent or in collaboration with Johansen, for a fraction of the price is destructive, disheartening and morally corrupt,” she continued.
Jessica added, “My quality dresses retail for $329, and Kylie’s fast fashion price point sits somewhere between $52-98 and is simply a price I can’t compete with and is unsustainable for quality. A larger scale fast fashion company knowingly undercutting a smaller brands intellectual effort and products for fast profit purposes is simply something I will never respect.”