Thursday, April 28, 2016

McQueen Denies Copying Royal Wedding Dress

Alexander McQueen has vehemently denied claims by a Hertfordshire-based designer that its creative director, Sarah Burton, used her sketches as inspiration for the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress, calling the accusations "ridiculous".

Designer Christine Kendall claims to have sent wedding-dress sketches to the Duchess in November 2010, for which she received a letter of thanks from the office of Prince William and Prince Harry in January 2011, reports The Sunday Times.


"Miss Catherine Middleton has asked me to write and thank you so much for your letter of November 18 enclosing bridal-gown designs," the letter, which was written by an official, said. "Miss Middleton was most interested to see your work and very much appreciated you taking the trouble to write. Should she wish to see more of your designs I will of course be in touch." A spokesperson for the Duchess said this weekend that the Duchess has never seen the sketches.

After the unveiling of the royal wedding dress on April 29, 2011, Kendall said in December 2013 "that without my sketches, the royal wedding dress would not have looked like it did". She has now started legal proceedings at the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court in London, but her legal team are keen to point out that "the claim is not against the Duchess and there is no allegation of wrongdoing against the palace".


"We are utterly baffled by this legal claim," said a statement from Kering-owned Alexander McQueen, which revealed that Kendall first approached them almost four years ago "when we were clear with her that any suggestion that Sarah Burton's design of the royal wedding dress was copied from her designs complete nonsense".

"Sarah Burton never saw any of Ms Kendall's designs or sketches and did not know of Ms Kendall before Ms Kendall got in touch with us - some 13 months after the wedding. We do not know why Ms Kendall has raised this again, but there are no ifs, buts or maybes here: this claim is ridiculous."

No comments:

Post a Comment