by 
Two American fashion super heavyweights are going head-to-head in court: Carolina Herrera is suing Oscar de la Renta, didn’t see that coming, are we having another apple vs samsung patent like battle?
WWD first reported Wednesday that Carolina Herrera filed a lawsuit against Oscar de la Renta in the Supreme Court of New York in an attempt to block the fashion house from hiring Laura Kim — a former employee of Herrera and co-founder of the red-carpet favorite label Monse — until April.
Just two months after Peter Copping’s departure from Oscar de la Renta in July (he had been in the position since de la Renta himself passed away in 2014), Kim and Fernando Garcia were named as co-creative directors of the American fashion house. Both designers had begun their careers at Oscar de la Renta, where they worked for 12 years.
However, Kim briefly flirted with the idea of succeeding Carolina Herrera at her namesake fashion house. In October 2015, both Kim and Garcia were hired as full-time consultants, and Kim was in talks with the brand to take over as creative director as the 77-year-old Herrera was transitioned out of the role. According to an affadavit filed on behalf of Kim, Herrera was unaware that Kim had been hired to succeed her.
Said Kim, “According to my offer letter, I was supposed to be reporting to CH’s president and chief executive officer Francois Kress. However, I soon learned that Ms. Herrera frequently took charge, without objection from Mr. Kress.” She claims that her attempt to offer a three-month notice to Kress was turned down.
Kim resigned from House of Herrera in July and was named co-creative director of de la Renta in September. Five days later, Kress sent Kim a letter invoking the six-month noncompete agreement. According to Page Six, Kim’s lawyers claim the non-complete clause is unenforceable because she was pushed out of the company.