Victoria’s Secret accused of copying designs from black-owned lingerie brand

The lingerie retailer is accused of of taking more than inspiration from underwear by a black-owned brand

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Victoria’s Secret is accused of producing underwear with "distinct similarities" to the designs of black-owned lingerie brand Edge O’Beyond.

Another label, d.bleu.dazzled, has outed an order placed by someone with the same name as a Victoria's Secret's designer, which led them to allege the retailer of attempting to copy their creations. This included a style worn by Beyoncé.

Victoria's Secret, whose UK arm went into administration during lockdown, has been outed on fashion news Instagram account Diet Prada.

“Recently, two panty styles popped up on the VS site, both featuring distinct similarities to signature elements from Black-owned lingerie brand @edgeobeyond,” the account captioned a post with the headline “Is Victoria’s Secret coming for Black-owned lingerie brands?”

The post likens a “floral embroidered trim that cuts across the hip, illusion netting folded over a black elastic edge, and small gold rings” on new underwear styles sold on Victoria Secret to the signature designs in Edge O’Beyond’s Daisy collection.

Edge O' Beyond founder Naomi De Haan also purports that she received an order in March 2019 to the value of £1150 from a customer who she claims shares a full name with the Creative Operations Coordinator at Victoria's Secret. It included “items from the Daisy range, and a few additional styles” she told Diet Prada.

De Haan points out that the copycat behaviour feels all the more pertinent given recent events. ”Seeing someone as big as Victoria's Secret, during the era of BLM, preying on an independent black business and then using predominantly brown and black prison labour to copy our products was a HUGE slap in the face”, she said.

Fellow black-owned label d.bleu.dazzled, who are based in LA, have also accused Victoria's Secret of ordering its items, with suspicions they had a view to imitate them.

Earlier this week, the founder and designer of Destiney Bleu told Diet Prada that she had “noticed a suspicious discrepancy on an order.”

The order was for a mismatching bra and knickers and a bra in a very different size, as well as the $300 (£227) "Celestial" skirt, which is the same style Beyoncé wears in the video for her song Black is King.

“My intuition told me today to Google the name of this large order,” Bleu said. “It’s standard practice... in case it’s fraud, or a stylist/influencer and we want to send any extra gifts or a note”, Bleu said to Diet Prada.

Searching the order details online, she found that the name matched that of Victoria's Secret’s Vice President of design on Linkedin.

The billing address also matched VS's corporate headquarters, leading Bleu to cancel the order.

The Independent has reached out to Victoria's Secret for comment.