The backroom bites back

I loved this story when I read it last week in the Guardian. Carmen Colle is a supplier of fabric and crochet to, among others, Chanel and is taking the company to the courts to sue for 2.5 million euro damages for copyright infringement on a crochet pattern. Chanel is counter-sueing and the case is in appeal at the moment.
Carmen Colle is not a woman to be messed with. The fashion houses depend on such people to produce the garments and materials that will best express the designer's vision. The 'petits mains' are the mainstay of any company and are overlooked and undervalued in many cases. Many of these people have years of experience and skill which cannot be easily replaced and to know that such talent goes into couture clothes makes them the valuable artifacts they are.
Colle is unique in that she began the business after a career as a social worker in order to employ deprived and immigrant workers and offer them opportunities not often found. The company, World Tricot Designs employing women from poor neighbourhoods, is on the brink of closure if the counter-claim from Chanel is upheld. Listen to the interesting and at time's depressingly familiar story of David and Goliath at World Vision . I wish Carmen all the luck with her fight for her company and her reputation.