Mansur Gavriel Could Face Legal Trouble Over New Shoes

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Mansur Gavriel's brand-new shoe designs, revealed at the brand's NYFW presentation on Monday, are causing tension with another New York-based designer, Maryam Nassir Zadeh. According to WWD, the designer is "investigating legal recourse" after seeing design similarities between the new Mansur Gavriel line and her own shoes, which have cultivated their own cult-like following of cool girls.

Gavriel's block-heeled mules fit well with the brand's minimalistic aesthetic, but MNZ points out that it's not just the mule design that looks so strikingly similar. The colors — uncommon shades of lemon, cobalt, and watermelon — aren't just found anywhere. MNZ told WWD that the watermelon suede in particular was a color that she hadn't seen anywhere else until Mansur Gavriel's presentation.

According to WWD, Mansur Gavriel and MNZ share 13 of the same retail partners, although its not clear how many would be picking up the shoe line. MNZ also noted that she's seen Floriana Gavriel in her shoes on Instagram, so the designers were previously familiar with the brand.

Mari Giudicelli, a model who has worked multiple times with MNZ, was also in Mansur Gavriel's presentation and was slated to appear in the brand's subsequent campaign for the collection. However, after she saw the designs, she told WWD that she canceled on the Mansur Gavriel campaign shoot after the show. "I am really grateful for everything Maryam has done for me and it was not fair to keep working with Mansur Gavriel after the whole presentation thing," Giudicelli told WWD. "The shoes are very similar, and unfortunately there was this whole conflict."

According to Mansur Gavriel, there's no discernible similarity between the two shoe lines. "I think it's a large range in terms of the form and the heel," Gavriel told WWD at the brand's presentation. "We see it as one visual world."

Sonia in MNZ wasabi Sophie Slides #repost @melisadenizeri

A photo posted by Maryam Nassirzadeh (@maryam_nassir_zadeh) on May 22, 2015 at 9:43am PDT

SS16

A photo posted by Rachel and Floriana (@mansurgavriel) on Sep 14, 2015 at 3:18pm PDT