The Concerning Hayley Paige Controversy: Buy Or Not to Buy?
If you have watched Say Yes to the Dress, then you have probably seen the bubbly and talented wedding dress designer Hayley Paige helping brides during wedding gown shopping. Hayley Paige has been in the news lately regarding legal battles with her bridal company fashion house, JLM Couture.
Hayley Paige Gutman has become a well-known and household designer in the bridal industry for her trend setting and innovative gowns. She started her professional journey in 2011 as she officially signed her employment agreement with fashion house/bridal company JLM Couture. In December 2020, Hayley officially left JLM Couture as head designer of her brand Hayley Paige. Fans of Hayley Paige knew something was going on behind the scenes that we did not yet know about.
A few days before Gutman announced her resignation from JLM, a New York court granted JLM a temporary restraining order against Gutman over her use of Instagram. Gutman released a video claiming that JLM locked her out of using her @misshayleypaige accounts and blocked her from using her own name, Hayley Paige, after resigning from her role. When she signed her contract in 2011, Hayley agreed to give JLM “the exclusive world-wide right and license to use her name ‘Hayley’, ‘Paige’, ‘Hayley Paige Gutman’, ‘Hayley Gutman’, ‘Hayley Paige’, or any derivative thereof… in connection with the design, manufacture, marketing and/or sale of bridal clothing, bridal accessories, and related bridal and wedding items” according to a complaint filed by the company’s attorneys in December 2020.
After much back in forth between Hayley Paige Gutman and JLM, the New York courts granted JLM access of Hayley’s over-a-million followers Instagram account along with TikTok and Pinterest for their own purposes. Gutman disputed this claiming that her accounts were personal and not just business, but a federal court judge ruled that the @misshayleypaige Instagram account was truly a business account.
Gutman later let followers know that she was instigating changes to her contract over a year ago in 2019 before announcing her resignation over disputes with the @misshayleypaige account. Later, JLM sued Gutman for her use of the business Instagram account in a personal way by promoting unrelated products and removed bridal related links and post from the page. JLM even got Gutman’s fiancé, Conrad Louis Clevlen, into the disagreement, accusing him of helping facilitate Gutman in profiting from side deals and not using JLM’s official trademarks. In total, JLM sued both Clevlen and Gutman for $8.95 million on 18 counts of infractions.
In the meantime, Hayley Paige Gutman is not allowed to launch a new business in the bridal industry until August 2022. She is in the works of changing her name professionally for her future bridal design endeavors. JLM has hired a new designer, Francesca Pitera, to lead the Hayley Paige line.
So, if you are looking into purchasing a Hayley Page gown, you should be informed of what is going on behind-the-scenes with the production company. Lead designer Hayley Paige Gutman is no longer with the company, so even though her name is on the gowns, it is not truly her producing the gowns anymore. Learn from this lesson of a big bridal design house with a well known and loved designer. Be careful with the use and trademark of a personal name when signing a contract on a million dollar brand as you never know when the contract can come back to bite you in the butt by not reading it carefully or having a lawyer read it.