French designer Jean-Charles (JC) de Castelbajac has posted photos on his Instagram account calling out both Chanel and KITH for copying his designs.
de Castelbajac is currently the artistic director of United Colors of Benetton. Before joining Benetton, he fulfilled the same role at Le Coq Sportif. It was with Le Coq Sportif that de Castelbajac brought his triple hood to the public eye.
In his Instagram post the designer says, "KISS MY DESIGN / I invented the 3 hoods in 1974, and recreated it in 2017 for Le Coq Sportif, I am surprised that such creative brand[s] like @kith x @russellathletic, used my design. It would have been better to do a great collab."
To be fair to KITH x Russell Athletic, they are not selling hoodies with a triple red, white, and blue hood, but rather dressed the model in three different hoodies for the lookbook. However, it's not just this collab de Castelbajac has taken aim at.
Two days ago, JC posted another side-by-side image comparing a pair of color blocked loafers he designed for J.M. Weston back in 1994 with a new Chanel x Pharrell pair. Both shoes feature brightly colored leather panels. Whether he will take his claims any further remains to be seen.
