The founder of a New York clothing brand learned that he had something in common with the Duchess of Sussex this week: a business called As Ever.
Mark Kolski was sitting at his home in the Stuyvesant Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, drinking a cup of coffee by his sewing machine, when the messages started to pour in.
On Tuesday, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, had released the name for her new cooking and lifestyle brand, As Ever. But Mr. Kolski’s morning was thrown into tumult because the vintage-inspired workwear brand he started a decade ago is also named, as it happens, As Ever.
“I started getting messages from friends and family and people that know my brand,” Mr. Kolski, 58, said. “And they were saying, ‘Have you seen this?’ There was just a lot of confusion, and I didn’t really know what to do.”
Mr. Kolski’s life has been upended in the days since, his phone ringing incessantly, as he’s found himself thrown into a flurry of speculative tabloid coverage about Meghan’s use of his label’s name. In an interview this week, he said he had been reading up on trademark law and had consulted with a lawyer. His brand also has been discovered by new fans, his Instagram account netting thousands of followers.
For Meghan, the incident is the latest snarl in her efforts to create a lifestyle brand. Last year she announced that she was starting one called American Riviera Orchard, but her trademark application faced setbacks, including questions over the use of a geographic place name and the potential trademark’s similarity to Harry & David’s Royal Riviera products.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
