Er, an influencer is suing her rival for stealing her ‘cream aesthetic’ and ‘vibe’

So, the influencer Sydney Nicole Gifford is suing her rival Alyssa Sheil for copying her “vibe” and “neutral, beige, and cream aesthetic”. Sydney Nicole Gifford argues she’s owed between $30,000 (£23,600) and $150,000 (£118,000) as compensation for mental distress and for lost sales commission from Amazon.

Sydney Nicole Gifford is 24. She has 300,000 followers on Instagram, and 600,000 followers on TikTok.  Alyssa Sheil is 21, and has 138,000 followers on Insta. The two influencers used to live near each other in Austin and did a collab together.

Now, Sydney is suing her rival influencer for “willful, intentional, and purposeful” copyright infringement of her vibe. She claims Alyssa copied the style of her social media posts. Sydney and Alyssa both favour the minimalistic “clean girl” aesthetic – lots of white walls and beige clothes and grey sofas. Sydney’s lawyers have submitted 70 pages of screenshots of their social media posts, in which both influencers wear similar clothes and promote similar products. Sydney also accused Alyssa of deliberately altering her appearance to look more like Sydney.

Sydney told The Verge, “I think there aren’t enough clear boundaries in the influencer industry, and unfortunately, a lot of people don’t treat this as a business, which is why I’m having to file a lawsuit to protect my work and my brand.”

Alyssa’s lawyers are arguing that she didn’t deliberately steal Sydney’s ‘look’, but that both influencers are following the same ‘clean girl’ trend. They wrote in a response to the court, “[Gifford’s] ‘look’ is not original. For that matter, on that front, neither is Sheil’s.” Alyssa told The Verge, “There are hundreds of people with the exact same aesthetic.”

There are currently 620,000 TikToks tagged #cleangirl and 190,000 TikToks tagged #minimalism.

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Copyright laws generally protect the expression of ideas, but not the ideas themselves. So, you can’t copyright a style or a vibe. But it is possible for photos and videos to be so similar that they’re infringing the other.

Both women make money through the Amazon Influencer Programme. So, Amazon sends influencers products to test out, the influencers put this stuff on their social media, and then they earn a commission if their followers buy them. Sydney claims Alyssa copied her by promoting the same Amazon products, so fewer of Sydeny’s followers bought them through her, and she lost out on sales commission. Sydney wants Alyssa to pay money as compensation for this.

Alyssa’s lawyers are arguing that Amazon suggests products to influencers which match their style and audience. So, it’s likely that two influencers with a very similar aesthetic would end up picking some of the same products.

Featured images via Instagram