In a dispute as tightly laced as a Victorian corset, Belgian designer Benjamin Voortmans of Judassime found himself at the center of a tempest last week after calling out Blackpink’s Jisoo for unreturned loaned garments. The incident, which unfolded across social media, offers a rare glimpse into the delicate interplay between celebrity influence and the centuries-old tradition of fashion borrowing—a practice as old as the court of Marie Antoinette, where gowns were loaned to ladies-in-waiting as a sign of favor and status.
Voortmans, who launched his Antwerp-based label in 2020—a city long celebrated as a cradle of avant-garde design, from the Antwerp Six to Martin Margiela—initially named Jisoo in hopes of prompting a response from her team. The designer later backtracked in a video, insisting he “never intended to attack her” and that the situation was being resolved. But by then, the machinery of modern fandom had already been set in motion.
Jisoo, with over 80 million Instagram followers, commands a loyalty that echoes the fervor of 19th-century theatergoers who championed their favorite actresses by wearing their signature colors and styles. Susan Kresnicka of The Fandom Institute notes that fans today are acutely aware of their collective power, wielding it to defend their idols with the same ferocity that once drove the “corset riots” of the 1890s, when women protested restrictive undergarments by embracing more liberated silhouettes.
This parasocial devotion, as Emory’s Michael Lewis explains, transforms a simple loan dispute into a viral wave. Unlike major houses like Chanel—whose founder Coco Chanel liberated women from corsets in the 1920s—smaller designers lack the institutional armor to weather such storms. The lesson, as old as the lingerie trade itself: when you borrow someone’s creation, you borrow their story. And in the age of the fan, the story writes back.
Originally reported by WWD