Designer vs. designer: Steve Madden turns nasty in a Boca hotel lobby, and it was shared
Stacey Bendet put Steve Madden on blast, aka Instagram, on Tuesday.
The well-known designers went at it in the lobby of the tony Boca Beach Club over the holiday weekend where rooms start at $1,000 a night. A Bendet spokesperson told the Miami Herald that the fashion darling was on vacation with her family.
The two have history.
In 2018, Bendet sued Betsey Johnson, which Madden took over in 2010, for allegedly copying Alive + Olivia’s trademarked “StaceFace,” a female face with large black sunglasses and red lips. The two companies reached a confidential settlement in June 2019.
On video posted to Bendet’s Instagram account on Tuesday, you can see the partial heated exchange.
“I usually have my feed filled with positivity, female empowerment and the beautiful clothes my team and I are so proud to create,” wrote Bendet, “but today I am posting this example of bullying, copying, and overall disrespect toward creativity and women.”
The A + O designer, who recently collaborated on Candytopia’s Aventura Mall pop-up, says Madden at first said hello and complimented her outfit, but then proceeded to launch “a verbal assault” after she asked him if he was going to continue to copy her designs.
“You can see him lose his temper and become aggressive using vulgar language all while my four year old screams mommy in the background,” she wrote.
“You can go [bleep] yourself if you’re going to be rude to me, OK?” said Madden in the clip. “You copy people all the time.”
Bendet responds: “No I don’t. No, I have a trademarked branded Stace.”
She said she was sharing the video “because his behavior is not acceptable in business or life...we can’t stop bullies unless we stand up to them!!!”
The accessories king did end up apologizing, according to Page Six.
“I’m sorry for losing my temper with Stacey. I have the utmost respect for her,” he told the newspaper in a statement. “I was raised better than that.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 12:26 PM.
