Saturday, January 29, 2011

Great Site, Shame About the Name...

covetedpast participle, past tense of cov·et
Verb: Yearn to possess or have (something).

Oh, the irony. A couple of posts ago, I sang the praises of a new website, The Coveted, giving us a glimpse into the enviable closets of fashion insiders. And at the time, it vaguely clicked that "The Coveted" did already exist out there, I made a mildly perplexed face (which kind of looks a lot like my regular face), shrugged and went about my business. I've been so completely absorbed in my little bubble lately that I missed the implications of this completely. The other The Coveted, the original, in fact, is the personal blog of Jennine Jacob, founder of blogger community Independent Fashion Bloggers (of which I am a member), and has been around since 2007. As Jennine says in her most recent post, "Privately, I was devastated. Angry. Disheartened. Deflated. The only thing that kept me from losing it was the outcry from my fellow bloggers." So enpowered by her support system, she sought legal counsel. Next came a flurry of cease-and-desist letters back and forth between the two Coveteds, culminating in the newer site not only strongly recommending that she no longer discuss the matter but that the rest of us hush up as well. And the blogger community exploded.

I honestly don't know what to think, while I appreciate and genuinely really like the concept of the new site (I wouldn't have posted it if I didn't), Jennine has done so much to unite and support the blogger community and to think of all the hard work she's done building her brand going down the tubes and how all this must feel is seriously disheartening. For more insight check out these posts on Signature 9, Racked, and Grit and Glamour.

What do you think? I have trouble believing that the new site was unaware of the original site's existance as a simple Google search reveals it to be the first result and it's really a shame, as the concept is so solid. Which of the two should bite the bullet and re-brand?

Update: The newer site was renamed The Coveteur

1 comment:

  1. In my move (I hate moving, I'll leave it at that. it's awful) I've been really absent lately. I'm just now hearing about this from you, and am baffled. J is a brilliant fixture in the blogging scene, someone I've enjoyed for years and beeped with on Twitter. I had no idea about this, but am just as outraged as you are.

    I mean, I've had rude commenters say they were going to start a Bungs + Burkhas or the like, just to screw with me (kind of funny, you have to admit), but in the event it actually happened, I can't imagine how I'd feel. I can imagine it's worse when you're as big as J and The (Orig) Coveted are. I mean, what a slap in the face.

    -C

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