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Did A Project Runway Contestant Rip Off Stephen Sprouse?

by Ruthie Friedlander | 11:24 am, March 28th, 2010


Last week’s challenge on Project Runway was for designers to create their own fabrics, with a special attention paid to patterning. With pattern-maker extraordinaire Vivienne Tam sitting on as guest judge, the remaining contestants had quite a difficult task on their hands.

Evidently the task was so difficult that contestant (and winner of this episode!) Emilio Sosa felt the need to completely rip off the late and great Stephen Sprouse — he of the infamous grafitti-patterned Louis Vuitton bags.

Here’s a helpful side-by-side of Sosa’s pattern with Sprouse’s.

None of the judges — Nina, Michael, Vivienne Tam, or Heidi — noticed the resemblance. We’re more than a little shocked.

While even the great Tim Gunn didn’t catch the copycat, he did have the sense to be skeptical of Sosa’s creation. From his Project Runway post-episode blog:

Emilio’s win left me questioning the critical objectivity of the judges. Let’s begin with the print. I was underwhelmed by the scale, color and hand-drawn execution; it looked sloppy and childlike. There was no semblance of sophistication.

What do you think?

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  • Lindsay V

    I wish that they had done this challenge in season 3 when Uli was on–I think she would have ROCKED this.

  • kathy kitt

    I agreed with Tim; I didn’t understand the print either. I am shocked that of the three top contestant that the judges gave Emilio the victory. The fact that the print was stolen from a previous design should also have been caught by the judges. They accused another of the contestants earlier in the season with borrowing from another designer earlier in the season. I think that Seth Aaron had the best design of all the contestants and should have been declared the winner.

  • CONNIE

    Apparently the judges don’t know everything and should not be so condesinding to the contestants. I would like to see what they would come up with in the same amount of time.

  • http://www.heelshield.com HeelShields

    Trying to understand – since LV did a pattern using their name, any other designer who does a design using alphabetic characters is copying LV? And, taking that thinking further, does that mean that no one can do hand printed hearts anymore since Emilo did it?

  • kathy kitt

    I don’t think this means that you can’t use a design with alphabetic characters. There are always new ways to do things from the past, you just need to do something different with the work you are doing. What Emilio did was nothing special, he didn’t make it his own. Some of the other designers did designs that were more original, more interesting. I think because Emilio does have talent and does a beautiful job constructing garments he is benefiting from previous work that he has done; I believe it is called the angel effect. he needs to be held to the same standards as all the other designers and should not be awarded the win when he hasn’t done the work.

  • John

    Emilio’s print was inspired by GRAFFITI, as was Stephen Sprouse’s, no doubt. Hasn’t graffiti been around, like, forever, or did Stephen Sprouse invent it? – I forget. Not to mention, Emilio’s use of the different colored hearts and doing the letter lines on a diagonal created an interesting graphic pattern in his print that is absent in Sprouse’s. So Emilio DID make the idea his own. Bottom line, his dress looked great. Emilio deserved to win, IMO, and his design is not a copycat.

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