Harry Potter costume designer accused of stealing Alexander McQueen design

BY Belinda White | 26 October 2010

As promotion heats up in preparation for the November 19th release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One , costume designer Jany Temime has given an interview to the Los Angeles Times talking about the inspiration behind her magical designs. Unfortunately it appears that the only magic that went into the design for Fleur Delacour's wedding dress was the dark art of forgery.

The elaborate, layered tulle dress with over-laid lace design which Fleur (played by Clémence Poésy), wears for her marriage to Bill Weasley is - how can we put this delicately - a blatant rip-off of an iconic Alexander McQueen dress from his autumn/winter 2008 collection, a blunder which didn't go unnoticed by hawk-eyed blogger Lela London.

When asked about her design, Temime told the LATimes "For the wedding dress, I wanted it to be a witch wedding dress but not a Halloween dress. The dress is white but it needed to have something fantastic to it. So there is the phoenix [motif], the bird, which is a symbol of love in a way because there is rebirth, love never dies, it is born again."

The birds on McQueen's dress were actually peacocks, and although Temime did manage to change the crest on the bird's heads to make them more 'phoenixy', she neglected to alter any other detail of the birds, including their rather obvious peacock feathers.

The team at Alexander McQueen declined to comment on the accusations but with such a high profile blunder, it's a safe bet Temime is wishing she could make like Potter and 'apparate' herself and the dress.

Shop Alexander McQueen clothing and accessories at the Telegraph Fashion Shop