Living In A Material World

When I was a younger, less famous M, I asked my father, a garmento, about a restaurant called "Tickets". The garment company he worked for, had a Broadway theme, so the divisions had their names derived from relevant ideas - Tickets being one of them. I wondered how there could be a restaurant with the same name without there being a conflict, and because they were basically two completely different enterprises, there was no conflict with the name. Not so much the case with Madonna's entry into the fashion business.

Just two weeks after the the singer / actress / walking dead launched her "Material Girl" line for teenagers at Macy's, she was hit with a lawsuit by L.A Triumph, a clothing company that says it has been using the name since 1997. The company said in its suit that it has been "continually selling similar clothes in similar retail outlets at similar price points under their Material Girl brand since at least 1997, and Madonna and her newfound company do not have the right to trade in the same space under this brand." Yep, that sounds about right to me.

Madonna teamed up with her 13 year-old yeti daughter Lourdes to design the 1980s inspired clothing line, borrowing from the pop singer's punk-girl style when she rose to fame in the 1980s and earned her the "Material Girl" nicknake, also dervied from her song. L.A. Triumph wants the judge to rule that Madonna's use of "Material Girl" creates "deception" in the marketplace. It is also asking for Madonna and her company to turn over all the profits from their line.