What do you do when you feel that your work has been ripped off — not by another artist, or even another store, but by one of fashion’s most influential houses?
If you’re Carmen Colle, you file a $3.7 million lawsuit. The social-worker-turned-seamstress started her business, World Tricot, in 1987, with nothing but a crochet hook. Her vision? To employ & establish a sense of pride in some of the illiterate female refugees in the small town in eastern France where she lived. Like a fairytale, it all came true. World Tricot is one of the many suppliers that the large couture houses use to provide them with the intricate handiwork they use in their garments. Called petites mains, these suppliers work with feathers, beads, lace & crochet which are then used by the likes of Dior, Givenchy & Chanel. In 2005, World Tricot’s profits exceeded almost 3 million dollars.

But it all came crashing down four years ago in 2005, when Colle alleged that a design she had shown to Chanel — and that they had turned down — had gone into production. Mediation between Chanel & World Tricot proved fruitless, & the case is now in court.
The legal proceedings have taken their toll on the small business. The enormous costs and strain caused World Tricot to go into receivership in 2007 — and now only employs twelve people, down from 90 in 2001. Banks have refused to help her & former clients have taken their work elsewhere.
“You cannot imagine what it is like,” Colle said. “You are faced with an enormous machine. You become the guilty party.”
World Tricot’s lawyer, Paul Crehange, said, “Madame Colle is the first woman with the courage to stand up to a major fashion house & say ‘this work is mine’. Chanel does not do knitting.”
Unfortunately, it’s nothing new. Colle is not the only woman that feels her work has been imitated by the couture giant. In 2007, Jessica Kagan Cushman, a jewelery designer from the East Coast, made headlines throughout the blogosphere when Chanel put into production a collection of bracelets which looked eerily like her own.

Cushman’s bangles, made of ivory & featuring hand-inked phrases, are in the style of traditional scrimshaw bracelets, & sell for $2,000 a pop in stores like Barneys. When Fashionista.com spotted a Condé Nast editor wearing a $600 version by Chanel, Cushman’s fans flocked the site, decrying Chanel. Cushman, too, was furious, & sent a letter to the fashion house asking if they would hire her, since they evidently liked her work so much! She even went so far as to make a “Ripped off by Chanel” bracelet, which was a huge hit, but no legal proceedings were undertaken. While the court battle drags on, Carmen Colle is keeping busy. As well as overseeing the day-to-day at World Tricot, her new line, Angèle Batist, opened its first boutique in Paris earlier this year. She said, “I will try to carry on. Whether they find me right or wrong, I have done all I can. Now it’s for them to decide.”
Who will win in this case of David versus Goliath? Only time will tell, but you cannot help but admire Carmen Colle’s bravery.
Words by Gala Darling