John Galliano found guilty in anti-Semitism case

John Galliano, the flamboyant fashion designer known for his over-the-top runway collections, romanticism and love of the bias cut and who until earlier this year helmed the venerable Christian Dior luxury label and his own namesake line, was found guilty today of "public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity," the Associated Press reported.

Under French law, Galliano could have faced up to six months in prison and a fine up to $31,622, but the designer, who wasn't in the Paris courtroom when the verdict was announced, won't be required to serve any jail time; the totality of his sentence is a suspended fine of $8,432, which according to the AP, means that although it goes on his criminal record, he is not required to pay it.

The AP quoted the judge in the case as saying Galliano had "sufficient awareness of his act despite his addiction and his fragile state," but that the court took Galliano's apology to the plaintiffs into account and noted the "values of tolerance" in the designer's work.

It's the latest chapter in a scandal that has been roiling the fashion world since March, and the verdict was announced just as New York Fashion Week runway shows were getting underway across the Atlantic. 

Many of the key events in the saga have been framed by the global fashion week calendar. News of the original accusations came on the eve of the Paris ready-to-wear shows in March 2011, when Galliano was arrested in the Paris bar La Perle, accused of hurling anti-Semitic insults at a nearby couple in an alleged violation of French laws designed to curb anti-Semitism.

Dior, where he'd worked for nearly 15 years, suspended him the next day, pending investigation. After another woman came forward with a similar complaint and, later, a video surfaced that appeared to depict a similar incident involving the designer (In it, he appeared to be drunk and taunting two off-screen women, saying he "loved Hitler" and that their ancestors should be "gassed ... and dead.") Galliano was terminated from his role as creative director at the Dior and John Galliano labels.

His one-day trial took place in a Paris courtroom in June -- in the midst of the Paris men's runway shows and two days before his eponymous line hit the catwalk with new creative director Bill Gaytten taking the final bow.

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 -- Adam Tschorn

Photo: Lawyer Aurelien Hamelle, center, who represents fashion designer John Galliano, speaks to the media after the verdict in Galliano's trial in Paris. Credit: Reuters

Hells Angels sue Amazon over T-shirt

When you're a small L.A. fashion house, the last thing you want up in your business is the Hells Angels. The Hells Angels aren't only a notorious outlaw motorcycle club. They're a trademark and a brand. And anyone who thinks otherwise has got it coming.

The latest victim of the Angels' storied litigious streak is Amazon.com and the small Hollywood fashion house, Wildfox, whose puritanically white T-shirts reading "My boyfriend's a Hells Angel" are being sold through a handful of online retailers. The flip side of the shirt depicts a pair of wings. Both sides infringe upon Hells Angels' trademarks of its name and skull-with-wings death head, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court San Francisco.

"We bring these lawsuits from time to time not just to punish but to educate," said Hells Angels' attorney Fritz Clapp. "Somebody thought erroneously that Hells Angels is a generic term."

It isn't. Over the years, the Hells Angels have filed lawsuits against Disney, Marvel Comics and, last October, Alexander McQueen. Last fall, the club sued the designer fashion label along with retailers Saks Fifth Avenue and Zappos for selling items that illegally used the Hells Angels name and death head design in rings, clutches, purses, scarves and dresses. Within days, the offending items were removed from stores and the suit has since been "resolved to our satisfaction," Clapp said.

The T-shirts at the center of the current lawsuit were brought to Clapp's attention within the last 10 days, he said. Several members of the Hells Angels had "reported" them.

"Getting this stuff off the market is our highest priority," according to Clapp. "Hells Angels is a membership mark, and it denotes membership in the organization. Even the Hells Angels do not put it on T-shirts they sell to the public."

A call to the Amazon.com media hotline and an email to Wildfox had not been returned at the time of publication.

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-- Susan Carpenter

Photo: My boyfriend's a Hells Angel T-shirt. Credit: Polyvore.com

Metal Mulisha licensee threatens suit over school ban

There are few things we appreciate as much as a good, old-fashioned dress-code kerfuffle.

In Sunday's paper, our compatriot Shan Li reported that the licensees of the motocross-inspired action-sports label Metal Mulisha were threatening to sue Murrieta Valley Unified School District  over a ban of the brand's logo.

Apparently, backers of the ban consider the jagged lightning-bolt letters and the helmet-wearing skull that make up the brand's logo Nazi-esque references that are tantamount to hate speech (which is prohibited under the school's dress code).

Read the full story here: "Clothing company threatens to sue over school district ban."

Hate speech or free speech? What do you think?

-- Adam Tschorn

Photo: In a 2009 file photo, Metal Mulisha Team Riders founder Brian Deegan practices a jump in front of a banner bearing the helmet-wearing skull logo that's currently banned as hate speech under Murrieta Unified's school dress code. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

 

Fordham University launches Fashion Law Institute, a first for the industry

Wednesday morning, before Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week got underway at its new Damrosch Park home, the fashion industry's legal landscape was being reshaped just across 62nd Street at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus.

That's where fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg brought down a wooden gavel tied with a pink grosgrain ribbon, marking the official opening of Fordham Law School's Fashion Law Institute.

"As someone who has been around this business a long time, I can tell you that a lawyer who understands fashion is a very important thing," Von Furstenberg told the crowd.

So important, in fact, that von Furstenberg personally donated $50,000 to help fund the new program, an amount matched by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, of which von Furstenberg is president. She said she is convinced the new program would be beneficial to the fashion industry after meeting the professor who will serve as its academic director.

"I was immediately impressed by Susan Scafidi, Von Furstenberg said. "She was wearing one of my wrap dresses with the epaulets, and she'd changed the buttons on it and given it nicer buttons."

More impressive, Von Furstenberg said later, was that Scafidi seemed to genuinely understand the vagaries of the law as they apply specifically to the fashion industry.

"It's not that the laws are any different, but if the lawyer speaks the same language from the start it makes things a lot easier. There are a lot of issues you need to get to early."

Von Furstenberg wasn't the only one to sing Scafidi's praises at the press conference. "Professor Scafidi created the first course in fashion law, so it's only fitting she's at the helm of the world's first fashion law center,"  said the dean of Fordham Law School, Michael Martin. The program will focus on the five most important aspects of the law as they apply to fashion designers: "intellectual property, business and finance, international trade and government regulation," Martin said.

Said Scafidi: "We want to address all the legal issues that arise throughout the life of a garment, from the designer's original idea to the consumer's closet."

While intellectual property rights (dealing with trademark, knock-off and counterfeit issues) are the first thing that spring to mind when thinking about the intersection of the law and fashion, Von Furstenberg said that for a young, emerging designer, negotiating the world of legal contracts is even more important. "When you're just getting started, there is tremendous [legal] exposure, and signing a contract that you don't fully understand can be one of the biggest problems."

After the press conference, Doug Hand, a lawyer who has worked with the Rag & Bone label and the CFDA, also pointed out that funding a fashion brand often leads back to some unique intellectual property challenges. "Other industries have two major ways of funding -- competitive finance [a stock initial public offering, for example] or mergers and acquisitions. With fashion there's a third: a licensing transaction." Hand said that properly understanding a designer's or brand's rights and responsibilities in a licensing agreement is crucial.

In addition to offering a fashion law survey course, Fashion Law & Finance, Fashion Ethics, Fashion Retail Law, and a class in sustainability and development, the new institute hopes to host legal seminars and help law students get real-world experience by working with the CFDA and New York's fashion community.

"What better time to do this than right now, with Fashion Week moving right to our doorstep?" Scafidi said.

Legal pinstripes never looked so stylish.

-- Adam Tschorn reporting from New York

Photo: From left, Susan Scafidi, academic director of Fordham's new Fashion Law Institute, Fordham Law School dean Michael Martin, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, CFDA Executive Director Steven Kolb and Sheila Foster, associate dean of academic affairs, at the Sept. 8 opening of the new institute. Credit: Adam Tschorn / Los Angeles Times

Designer Julia Clancey's collection stolen, partially recovered

On Tuesday, five days before her scheduled Los Angeles fashion show, two sets of designer Julia Clancey's entire Spring/Summer 2010 collection were stolen from in front of her Marina del Rey apartment unit, forcing the designer to cancel the show, a scenario reminiscent of Clancey's March 2008 runway show at Smashbox Studios, which was nearly derailed after that collection was detained by U.S. Customs.

On Thursday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, a portion of the collection was recovered after an employee of the cleaning service hired by the Dolphin Marina Apartments on Panay Way allegedly confessed to stealing the box of designer clothes. The Sheriff's Department said Sara Avigal Herrera  was booked on suspicion of grand theft.

Thursday, Clancey told All the Rage she'd invested six months in creating the collection, which had been designed here and manufactured in Mumbai, India, placing the value -- including lost sales to L.A. boutiques and exposure to potential buyers -- at roughly $300,000.

Friday she said only seven of the 40 pieces, valued at about $20,000, had been recovered. "I think the rest are probably in a landfill somewhere," she said.

Clancey said that the clothes had been sent by a Mumbai-based courier, which contracted with Federal Express to courier the single box containing the clothes to her Marina del Rey home. 

"That courier didn't ask Federal Express to require a signature so the box was left in front of my apartment, where it went missing sometime between 10:15 a.m. and 1 in the afternoon," Clancey explained. "The company in India is going to have to make me another whole set but it's not going to help me now. I was already late having this show and the buyers at all the boutiques won't have any money left to spend."

According to a news release issued Friday afternoon by the Marina del Rey Sheriff's Station, detectives in the area are still trying to locate the outstanding stolen property. Clancey said that might never happen, since the clothes might have been stuffed down a trash chute at the complex and the trash has since been trucked away.

"When this first happened people were saying some horrible things on FaceBook like I was only doing this for publicity," she said. "At the very least they should have egg on their face that I didn't make this whole thing up."

-- Adam Tschorn

Photos: Some of the pieces of designer Julia Clancey's Spring/Summer 2010 "Tutti Frutti" collection, two sets of which were stolen from the designer's doorstep Tuesday, causing her to cancel her Los Angeles Fashion Week show which had been scheduled for Sunday. Credit: Julia Clancey

American Apparel settles Woody Allen case: No love for Dov

For all his tough talk about 1st Amendment issues, Canadian-born American Apparel founder Dov Charney has apparently folded like a pair of jersey leggings in his battle with actor-director Woody Allen.

The Los Angeles Times Business section reports this morning that a $5-million settlement — to be paid by American Apparel's insurance company — was reached this morning just as the trial had been about to get under way in a federal court in Manhattan.

Based on his comments to reporters afterward, Charney seemed none too happy with the outcome, citing American Apparel's insurance company, which he said "controlled the defense" and decided to settle.

Still, it was half the $10 million Allen sought after billboards bearing unauthorized images of him — a still from "Annie Hall" depicting him with a beard, black side curls and hat in a style commonly worn by Hasidic Jews — appeared in Los Angeles and New York City as advertisements for the Los Angeles-based maker of  T-shirts, leggings, shorts and socks.

— Adam Tschorn

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Top photo: Woody Allen outside a federal courthouse in Manhattan this morning. Credit: Seth Wenig / Associated Press. Bottom photo: American Apparel founder Dov Charney in a January 2008 file photo. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

More on the Woody Allen-American Apparel trial

Are you following the feud between downtown Los Angeles clothier American Apparel and Woody Allen over the company's use of the filmmaker's image in his movie "Annie Hall" for a billboard ad campaign? Our colleagues at The Times' California Consumer blog have an update from American Apparel Chief Executive Dov Charney regarding the media's "numerous inaccurate reports" about the case:

"I have not made personal comments to the press in the last few months because of the impending trial of this case," Charney says. "However, during the last month, numerous inaccurate reports have appeared in the media which have created misperceptions I feel compelled to correct. The media has misinformed the public that American Apparel supposedly plans to make Woody Allen's personal life the central focus of our defense. This is false. It has also been reported that American Apparel intends to call Mia Farrow or Soon Yi as witnesses in the upcoming trial. This also is false." Continue reading on California Consumer.

American Apparel founder Dov Charney speaks out on Woody Allen trial

American Apparel slams Woody Allen's sex life

Woody Allen calls American Apparel ads 'sleazy,' back at ya, bub!

Follow the Image section on Twitter

Photo: Pierre Verdy / AFP / Getty Images

Hot mess no more, 'Project Runway' suit settled, will air on Lifetime

Our compatriot blog Show Tracker recently posted news that the legal imbroglio that has held up airing of the next season of "Project Runway" has been settled. You can read the whole story here, but apparently the season will air "this summer" according to a statement issue by Lifetime's president.

Of course we've already seen the final three designers' runway shows, which were staged anonymously during New York Fashion Week, so it will be interesting to see how the season unfolds (or is that "gets sewn up"?) now that we know what the final designs look like.

Of course there's not just a new channel, there's a new locale. The recently wrapped but yet unaired season was shot right here in Los Angeles. And that should make for some drama all of its own.

— Adam Tschorn

Photo: Host Heidi Klum on Feb. 20at the "Project Runway" finale taping during New York Fashion Week. Credit: Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images.

Photos: "Project Runway" show at Fall 2009 New York Fashion Week

'Project Runway' alums: Where are they now?

New York Fashion Week reivew: Michael Kors

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Inspiration or theft? Michael Kors vs. Tony Duquette

Hutton Wilkinson, keeper of the legacy of the late Los Angeles tastemaker and  interior, home furnishings and jewelry designer Tony Duquette, filed suit yesterday in U.S. District Court against Michael Kors. He's alleging that the New York designer and "Project Runway" judge used the Duquette name to market his resort collection of tie-dye caftans, tunics and sweaters in stores now.

The lawsuit claims Kors knowingly and willfully used the Duquette mark in conjunction with clothing without permission or license, and used photos, images and patterns from the Abrams book "Tony Duquette" in advertising and promoting the resort collection. Unspecified damages are sought.

Duquette, who died in 1999, was the first American to be honored with a one-man exhibition at the Louvre celebrating his work for clients such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Elizabeth Arden. He won a Tony award for costume design for the original Broadway production of "Camelot." His Dawnridge estate in Beverly Hills is a local treasure full of pagodas and lush gardens, and is often used in fashion spreads.

Longtime business partner Wilkinson has continued to design, market and license textiles, jewelry and home furnishings under the Duquette name. Known for his over-the-top, ethnic-inspired exoticism, Duquette is still an influential figure in design, having inspired Tom Ford, Kelly Wearstler and others.

Kors has often used sunny Southern California as a touchstone for his collections. Kors spokesperson Billy Daley said the company "does not comment on pending litigation."

-- Booth Moore

Photo: Michael Kors at at New York Fashion Week in September 2008. Kirk McKoy/ Los Angeles Times

Sonya Dakar, facialist to the famous, pleads not guilty in battery charge

This morning, a lawyer representing Sonya Dakar, facialist to the famous, entered a plea of not guilty to a charge of battery on her client’s behalf in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Beverly Hills. Dakar, who was not present at the proceeding, was arrested July 29 after allegedly attempting to bite the hand of an inspector from the California Department of Consumer Affairs Bureau of Barbering and Cosmetology during a routine inspection July 29. (See the original story here).

Judge H. Chester Horn Jr. said that as a condition of her continued release on $20,000 bond, Dakar was not to interfere with any inspection efforts on behalf of the Bureau of Barbering and Cosmetology and that she was not to act as manager of the skin-care clinic that bears her name at 9975 S. Santa Monica Blvd. in Beverly Hills. “There needs to be a manager other than Ms. Dakar,” he advised Dakar’s attorney.

The case is scheduled to return to court for a pretrial hearing Oct. 7.

-- Adam Tschorn

Photo: Facialist to the stars Sonya Dakar, left, with Paula Abdul at a 2007 Emmy gifting lounge. Credit: Michael Bezjian / WireImage