Updated: It appears that the brewing legal battle between Kylie Jenner, Kylie Cosmetics, makeup artist Vlada Haggerty, and photographer Julia Kuzmenko is officially over. Jenner just shared one of Haggerty and Kuzmenko’s photos on Instagram, which the photographer then reposted with the caption, “We are very happy to share that the issue has been resolved . Thanks so much to every single one of you creative souls who supported us, we truly appreciate you.
Original: When Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics holiday collection dropped last year, Los Angeles-based makeup artist Vlada Haggerty thought something about the red-and-gold imagery looked familiar—too familiar. You might remember that Haggerty claims Jenner stole the idea from a shoot she posted on Instagram months earlier, and then threatened the makeup mogul with a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Kylie Cosmetics later edited their original Instagram caption to credit @VladaMUA—then ultimately deleted the image altogether—but the damage was already done.
With legal action looming, it seems like Jenner and Haggerty might have finally made up. Or at the very least, settled. Jenner just posted an image of Haggerty’s work to her personal Instagram page (and Kylie Cosmetics’s) with the caption “This really is everything 😍 Check out the wonderful makeup art of @vladamua!”
Could one post to Jenner’s 83.9 million followers be enough for Haggerty to bury that hatchet? Maybe. At the time the lawsuit was filed, neither party had any comment, and they’ve yet to comment since. But the scuffle over the ombré lips and gold fingers image was actually the second time Haggerty accused Kylie Cosmetics of ripping off her work. Jenner’s now-iconic dripping lip logo is a staple in Haggerty’s portfolio of visuals. “It breaks my heart to see how large brands take independent, unprotected artists’ work and use them to multiply their wealth,” wrote the photographer of the red-and-gold image, Julia Kuzmenko McKim, on her blog. “In an ideal world, big brands would easily prevent such backlashes by hiring the artists who have already created something that they would love for their own campaigns.”
So while this might mark the end of Kylie Cosmetics’s legal troubles, hopefully it will be a new start for both the makeup mogul and makeup artist to come together. We only imagine that an authentic, original beauty collaboration between the two of them would be hands-down stunning.
By Harper’s Bazaar