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Following last week's much-ballyhooed launch of TheCoveted.com—a closet-voyeur site we talked about yesterday—the fashion blogosphere has exploded with allegations that TheCoveted.com stole its name from an already-established fashion blog called The-Coveted.com.
Founded in 2007, the original The-Coveted.com is run by Jennine Jacob, who also happens to be the founder of the Independent Fashion Bloggers Network (IFB). Often cited as one of the most influential independent style blogs, The-Coveted.com receives more than 115,000 pageviews each month and has a dedicated following that's been extremely vocal about defending Jacob's name.
We reached out to Jacob for statement—the full text of which appears after the jump—and we also reached out to Erin Kleinberg and Stephanie Mark, founders of TheCoveted.com to hear their side of the story, but we haven't yet heard back.
Jennine Jacob's statement:
When I began writing my blog The Coveted in February 2007 it wasn’t just about fashion, an industry that I was, and continue to be, passionate about and inspired by. In that first year of blogging I truly fell in love with the kindness, openness and integrity of the blogging community. I met so many fascinating people both online and offline with similar interests, and it was the energy of dedicated bloggers creating a new industry and mode of expression that motivated me to continue blogging on The Coveted and eventually to start the Independent Fashion Bloggers (IFB) network.· Everybody's talking about: The Coveted [Racked]At the time there were no resources for fashion bloggers—no place for people to come together and share their knowledge about fashion blogging, no place to share contacts or tips on how to improve your blog, deal with monetization, or how to grow your blog, or the infinite number of issues that bloggers face. IFB, a community that today has over 15,000 active participants, grew out of an idea that started on The Coveted and over the last four years the two blogs have been integral to each other. Further, over the last four years I have done my very best to build both The Coveted and IFB with the same goal: to create a place for people to come together to share common interests and to support each other in our endeavors.
It is disheartening that after growing and establishing my brand, The Coveted, through my own hard work and the encouragement of so many bloggers and fashion insiders, there is another site attempting to use my name. I am grateful that so many people have reached out to me to offer their support and friendship since the launch of the other "The Coveted" and I am exploring my options. Right now I am focusing on continuing to develop my brands—The Coveted and IFB—and am very much looking forward to the Independent Fashion Bloggers Evolving Influence Conference, the largest gathering of fashion bloggers in its fifth installment, on the first day of New York Fashion Week, Thursday, February 10th at Milk Studios. I strongly value the relationships that I have built and I am very excited to see what the future holds for both The Coveted and IFB.
· The Coveted (original) [Official Site]
· The Coveted (new) [Official Site]
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