According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, the line dubbed ‘Rhode’, inspired by the model’s middle name, also shares the same namesake as a fashion company formed in 2013. The fashion company’s founders, Purna Khatau and Phoebe Vickers, allege the skincare line by the same name has caused confusion in the market, forcing them to file a lawsuit.
The fashion brand took to Instagram to share a statement following the lawsuit: “Nine years ago, we quit our jobs and founded Rhode out of our apartment, creating a fashion company from nothing,” they shared on Instagram. “We’re two women entrepreneurs who met in college, built the Rhode brand, and put years of hard work into our minority co-owned company.”They continued, “Today, we were forced to file a lawsuit against Hailey Bieber and her new skin-care line that launched last week and that is using the brand ‘Rhode.’ We didn’t want to file this lawsuit, but we had to in order to protect our business.”Bieber launched her skincare collection last week with three products available direct-to-consumer via its own website, Rhodeskin.com, with prices ranging from $16 to $29. The collection was shared with her 45 million Instagram plus followers, as well as her followers on TikTok and on YouTube.