Designer takes legal action over Kate Middleton wedding dress

A UK bridal designer has launched legal proceedings against a famous fashion house for alleged breach of copyright of sketches she submitted for Kate Middleton’s wedding dress nearly five years ago.

Christine Kendall is suing Alexander McQueen, the luxury label behind the dress Kate wore on her big day on April 29, 2011, after spotting similarities between the gown and her own sketches.

Alexander McQueen denies the claim as “ridiculous”.

“Proceedings have been issued because our client is certain that her company’s design was unfairly taken and copied. The claim is not against the duchess and there is no allegation of wrongdoing against the palace,” Kendall’s solicitor Humna Nadim of the Manchester firm Kuits told ‘The Sunday Times’.

The bridal gown, featuring an ivory satin bodice with floral motifs appliqued onto fine silk netting, was a secret until the Duchess of Cambridge stepped from her car to enter Westminster Abbey on her wedding day.

It was designed by Sarah Burton, the creative director of Alexander McQueen.

However, Kendall believes she could see some of her own work in the dress.

She had sent ideas with a 1950s theme to Kate five months before the wedding and received a letter of gratitude from the office of Prince William and Prince Harry in January 2011.

A spokesperson for the Duchess of Cambridge told the newspaper this weekend that she had never seen Kendall’s sketches.

“We are utterly baffled by this legal claim. Christine Kendall first approached us almost four years ago, when we were clear with her that any suggestion Sarah Burton’s design of the royal wedding dress was copied from her designs was nonsense,” said a spokesperson for Alexander McQueen.

“Sarah Burton never saw any of Ms Kendall’s designs or sketches and did not know of Ms Kendall before Ms Kendall got in touch with us — some 13 months after the wedding. We do not know why Ms Kendall has raised this again, but there are no ifs, buts or maybes here: this claim is ridiculous,” the spokesperson said.