Who Is Danielle Bernstein? WeWoreWhat Influencer Accused Of Stealing Designs
This is the second time this summer she's been caught ripping off other designs.
Ovidiu Hrubaru / Shutterstock WeWoreWhat blogger Danielle Berstein is a top influencer in the fashion world. With millions of followers and several fashion lines of her own. Bernstein has been considered incredibly successful, especially considering she's only 28 years old. But this summer she has been dogged by accusations that she is stealing other companies' designs and passing them off as her own.
In June, Bernstein came under fire for releasing a COVID-19 mask design that was very similar to masks from the brand Second Wind. Bernstein had requested samples from Second Wind in the weeks before her own masks came out. Now, a lingerie company called The Great Eros is saying Berstein has stole a design from them as well.
Who is Danielle Bernstein?
Danielle Bernstein was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List.
In 2017, Bernstein appeared on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List for her growing influencer blog. She started WeWoreWhat as a sophomore at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She had recently transferred to FIT from the University of Wisconsin and the street style she was seeing around the campus inspired her to start the blog.
She didn't intend for it to blow up; it was simply a way for her to show her friends back in Wisconsin what people were wearing in New York City. But the site was so successful that the Great Neck, NY native decided to leave school to focus on growing her brand. By 2017, she was making thousands of dollars per Instagram post and her whole site and related fashion lines were earning her seven figures every year, though she wouldn't say how much exactly.
Danielle Bernstein in 2020.
Bernsted started designing her own line in 2016.
Bernstein launched Second Skin Overalls in 2016. The idea came from her blog's tag line "Overalls are my second skin." She funded the project herself, without any investors and was able to launch it from her own websites. The line of denim clothes raked in $70,000 in the first three days. Since then, she has expanded to a swimwear line, a collaboration with Joe's Jeans, and forays into jewelry and accessories.
Danielle Bernstein has been accused of stealing other people's work.
As far back as 2018, there were rumors Bernstein copies other people's work. In 2018, she launched a jewelry collaboration with Kulu de Kwiatkowski of Lulu DK. The pieces were going to sell at high-end department store Nordstrom. The problem was, the pieces she was selling looked nearly identical to a collection by Foundrae, a fine jewelry line.
Bernstein might have tried to say it was a coincidence, but the Foundrae designer Beth Bugdaycay took to social media to share that Bernstein had not only seen the designs before, but she had also been to Bugdaycay's home and borrowed sample pieces in the year before the LuLu DK line came out. Bernstein tried to cover her tracks and claim that she was actually inspired by a vintage locket she found at a flea market. Nordstrom, however, took it all more seriously and yanked the problematic pieces, though the rest of the collection went off as planned.
Bernstein was accused of design theft again this summer.
Bernstein is back in hot water this summer after two incidents of potential design theft, In June, a company called Second Wind claimed that Bernstein asked for samples of a distinctive mask they were releasing. A few weeks after her request, Bernstein dropped masks that looked strikingly similar to the Second Wind designs and she was called out by Second Wind and other fashion watchers. In a now-expired Instagram story, Bernstein cried and begged critics to stop harassing her over the controversy.
This week, the latest company to accuse her of design theft is a lingerie brand from New York that says Bernstein took a pattern they intended for use in packing tissue and slapped it on her swimwear line. The Great Eros is asking that she donate the profits from her items to charity to make up for stealing their design.
Danielle Bernstein likes older men.
Bernstein tries to keep her personal life out of the public eye. While she discusses a painful break-up in her recent memoir This Is Not A Fashion Story, she doesn't splash her more current relationships on the pages of her blog or social media. She does admit that she likes to date men who are older than she is, saying she has dated guys who have a decade on her age-wise.
Bernstein hasn't commented on the latest design theft controversy yet.
The story about The Great Eros accusations has just broken and Bernstein is laying low for now. She hasn't made any statement to media outlets or on social media about it so far. Since this is just one in a growing list of accusations of design theft, she should probably tread carefully once she does speak up.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. She is the creator of the blog FeminXer and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.