I thought it sounded like the totally ridiculous thing Ebay would do but was curious if it was actually the case or whether it was somebody just saying so. Apparently shabby chic is actually trademarked by somebody called Rachel Ashwell. There is an Ebay page set up explaining all the ins and outs of it.
I don't know about you but I was totally unaware of it. I thought it was just a term used to describe that particular style. Lots of websites certainly seem to think so. A simple google search brings up thousands if not millions of results.
It got me thinking about some of the shops and how they can use the term without this lady taking their ass to court and suing them for breach of trademark. This one for example - Shabbychicshop.co.uk or Laura Ashley or Cath Kidston. Even Prima had a range of flowers called Shabby Chic and I definitely used the term when I was selling them because that was their name.
The photo I've chosen for this post comes from here.
I want that mini tin bath type thing for my own yarn.
Then there is this blog. I'm presuming that since she isn't selling anything then it is OK.
Before I leave it at that I also did an amazon search and it came up with over 27,000 results. Surely not all those are made by Rachel Ashwell's company?
