EXCLUSIVE
A trendy Sydney fashion brand – which has made its millennial founders very wealthy – has been accused of copying the designs of a smaller Aussie niche label.
Fast-fashion giant White Fox Boutique, whose sweaters are a favorite among fashionable Gen-Z Aussies, was publicly blasted last week by womenswear label Pfeiffer for allegedly copying its designs.
The Bondi-based label posted photos on social media comparing its own popular Apollo dress with an apparently very similar version sold by White Fox.
One image shows a screenshot from the White Fox website of a model wearing a yellow dress with a button under the bust.
A second photo shows a model wearing Pfeiffer’s dress, with a similar motif.
“Our Apollo style has already fallen victim [to imitation]Pfeiffer claimed.
White Fox Boutique, founded by fashion power couple Georgia and Daniel Contos (pictured), has been accused of copying the designs of independent brands
Bondi-based label Pfeiffer posted photos to Instagram comparing its own popular Apollo dress (right) with a similar version sold by White Fox Boutique (left)
White Fox Boutique did not respond to written requests for comment from Ny Breaking Australia.
Pfeiffer’s accusation comes after the fashion label’s founders, high school sweethearts Daniel and Georgia Contos, made a real estate spree in one of Sydney’s most exclusive eastern suburbs.
Georgia, 32, and Daniel, 33 – who started White Fox as a small start-up selling clothes on eBay – recently completed the purchase of their fourth home in Vaucluse, bringing their total real estate spend to almost $120 million.
The latest addition to their fast-growing property empire was an off-market listing of Laing+Simmons in Double Bay. A lien on the property was filed on the home earlier this week, showing the sale to a Contos company.
That they can spend $120 million on real estate in two years and have enough left over to spend millions more on renovations shows how far the glamor couple has come.
Pfeiffer co-founder Angela Aspradakis told Ny Breaking Australia reports of the property splurge were a factor in her label’s rise to public criticism of White Fox.
“We have done copying in the past, but the timing of this has been difficult,” she said.
‘The news of the property purchases made it too difficult to ignore. She [the founders of White Fox] I literally bought $100 million worth of real estate in the last year.”
She said her message to the company was: “Don’t take away another Australian brand.
‘We don’t like the idea of taking down another brand in our industry because we believe fashion can do great things, but the investment we make in ethical manufacturing in Australia, plus the fact that we are carbon neutral, is not something that is reflected in fast fashion. ‘
Pfeiffer co-founders Angela Aspradakis (left) and Virginie Pepin (right) publicly called out White Fox Boutique
White Fox Boutique is best known for its oversized hoodies that are popular among Gen-Z women
Design imitation is notoriously difficult to prove in the fashion industry.
Ms Aspradakis said her label struggled to take legal action against brands that copied their designs.
“The laws are that if you change 10 percent of the design, which could literally be a change in the fabric, it’s legal,” she said.
This isn’t the first time White Fox has been accused of copying a smaller brand’s designs following an industry backlash in early 2022.
Influencers and small businesses then took to social media and accused White Fox of selling designs similar to those of Australian and international brands Winston, Miaou and Dion Lee.
Ilah Watson was one of several small business owners who pointed fingers and accused the label of creating designs that resembled products sold by other brands.
In an Instagram post, Ms Watson shared an image of a blue miniskirt sold by her online retailer Vesper.co, alongside a near-identical design from White Fox.
‘Am I crazy, or…?’ she wrote.
At the time, a spokesperson for White Fox told the Daily Telegraph that it “takes intellectual property and the allegations… very seriously.”
‘As these matters have been referred to our lawyers we are unable to comment.’
Since launching in 2013, White Fox’s business has grown exponentially, landing its co-founders on the AFR Young Rich List.
Georgia and Daniel Contos bought this 1920s home designed by architect F. Glynn Gilling in Vaucluse for more than $25 million
The couple spent $34.55 million on this Mediterranean home in Vaucluse in 2021
White Fox turned out to be a great success. The brand is worn by, among others, the Kardashian sisters Sofia Richie, Hailey Baldwin and Emily Ratajkowski.
“I was working a full-time job so I had no idea it would become as big as it is or that it would be recognized by a lot of the people I meet,” Georgia Contos previously told Ny Breaking Australia.
She said the main driver of the label’s success was social media.
Known for their skimpy dresses and oversized hoodies, White Fox now has showrooms in Sydney and Los Angeles
The Covid-19 lockdowns saw their sales skyrocket as shoppers flocked to stores to stock up on activewear and loungewear for all those extra hours at home.
They experienced a massive 154 per cent increase in sportswear sales after NSW went into lockdown for the second time in June 2021.