WeWoreWhat's Danielle Bernstein Accused of Attempting to Steal Yet Another Design From a Small Business
BeautyStyle
Two weeks ago, WeWoreWhat founder Danielle Bernstein was accused of stealing a mask design from the small Latina-owned brand By Second Wind. Fashion industry watchdogs Diet Prada acquired what appeared to be private messages between Bernstein and the small business, in which Bernstein asked for two masks with removable chains and then a few days later, told By Second Wind’s creator and sole employee Karen Perez that she was making her own, similar design—but didn’t want her to think she was “copying.” Now, Diet Prada has uncovered a second incident of Bernstein’s alleged, attempted thievery, this time involving shorts.
On July 15, Bernstein posted an Instagram photo of herself wearing loose-fitting, elastic-waist, marigold shorts that hit at the mid-thigh. She captioned it, “Woke up to so many DMs about these shorts… they’re vintage gym shorts from the ’90s and I’m already remaking them for my brand!” Except that wasn’t the whole story—the shorts were from a small Australian Etsy shop called Art Garments operated by Grace Corby; Bernstein had purchased the shorts on November 11, 2019, according to screenshots from Corby. “I hand source, shoot, edit and upload, measure & describe, hand wrap & post each piece myself…. it’s a labour of love and never really feels like work,” Corby told Diet Prada, explaining that the shorts are not from a vintage brand, as Bernstein had claimed, but are made by Art Garments and are currently available for pre-order. Apparently Corby saw a spike in sales from her shorts once Bernstein tagged them in her Instagram post but misidentified the item as a vintage, unique piece. That’s when Corby went back and found that Bernstein bought a pair from her last year.
