Keeping with the theme of poorly thought-out monikers, the Daily Beast recently spoke to 24-year-old Robert Wainblat, the founder of Campus Sartorialist. Wainblat uses the website to chronicle the fashion decisions of his fellow Duke University students, applauding those “who take a little time in the morning to think about how they present themselves,” instead of turning up to class in Greek Week T-shirts, sweatpants, Uggs, a topknot, and last night’s eye makeup (I like to call the latter “Black Swanning”). But you know where this post is going.
Quoth the Beast:
[Scott] Schuman did not respond to our request for comment. Wainblat said he received an email from The Sartorialist on Tuesday, claiming trademark infringement on the word “Sartorialist” and requesting that the site’s name be changed. (UPDATE: On Wednesday Schuman called The Daily Beast with the following comment: “I commend their entrepreneurial spirit and think the idea is great, but they don’t need my name to continue to be successful. If the site keeps growing it’s going to create a lot of confusion down the road. People might think The Sartorialist sponsors their site. They have to be prepared for success and using an already established, trademarked name will just make that more difficult.”)
Haven’t we learned anything from the people of South Korea? Anyway, Wainblat’s concept has been around for semesters. See if you can find me on my college’s street-style blog circa 2k6. Hint: I’m not wearing a fanny pack!
