Fashion house Alexander McQueen is suing Steve Madden over a bootie design that is too close for comfort.

Fans of Steve Madden's cute black booties may have to say goodbye to the stylish, affordable shoe. Alexander McQueen, a high-end designer known for quirky looks, filed a cease and desist notice against Steve Madden back in September, and the case could go to court if Steve Madden doesn't stop selling the shoe, New York magazine's fashion blog The Cut reports.
 
The trouble started after Steve Madden's Seryna bootie hit stores this fall. The peep-toe heel was black and leather with a zipper down the front, almost like a motorcycle jacket. The only problem is that McQueen designed the exact same shoe months earlier as part of his Fall 2009 collection. The original is called the Faithfulbootie and retails for over $1,000. Fashion blogs immediately pounced on the knockoff, while one even wrote that, "the Seryna Bootie by Steve Madden is an affordable version of Alexander McQueen's Motorcycle Jacket Bootie."
 
McQueen's lawyers thought the exact same thing and issued the order to Steve Madden on September 10. They noted that Seryna is a "studied imitation" of Faithful and that, "in fact, the only design element of the ‘Faithful Bootie’ that Madden did not deliberately copy is the zipper pull that contains the ‘Alexander McQueen’ trademark.”
 
So far, Steve Madden has ignored the warning.

--Whitney Teal

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