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People Tree co-founders Orijit Sen and Gurpreet Sidhu accused Christian Dior of copying a yoga-pose block print in early 2018. The dispute centered on a red Dior dress worn by Sonam Kapoor on the January issue cover of Elle India. Reporting later described a confidential out-of-court settlement, but the sources reviewed do not show a court judgment establishing infringement or a Dior admission.
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What triggered the accusation?
On January 23, 2018, graphic designer Orijit Sen posted images on Facebook of what he identified as People Tree’s original yoga print and the wood block used to make it. The images drew attention after Sonam Kapoor appeared on Elle India‘s January cover wearing a red cotton Dior dress bearing a similar yoga-pose motif.
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Scroll, in a report originally published by Quartz, identified the garment as part of Dior’s Cruise/Resort 2018 collection. Maria Grazia Chiuri designed that collection, which had been shown in California the previous year.
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Who made the claim?
People Tree is a New Delhi design studio and store founded by Sen and his wife, Sidhu. The couple said Dior’s motif was very similar to their own block-print design. India Today reported Sen’s account that he created the motif in the 1990s and that People Tree had used it on shirts for years; that creation date is his account, not an independently established provenance finding.
“I couldn’t believe they copy-pasted my artwork and used it as part of an international collection,” Sen told the Washington Post, as quoted by The Fashion Law.
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Sidhu told Scroll that “The main part of why People Tree exists is to give voice to creativity within India.”
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Scroll reported that People Tree had produced the design for more than 15 years with Rajasthani block printers. The studio described its output as a small annual run, placing the dispute in the context of hand-carved blocks, artisan production and the unequal visibility of independent Indian designers compared with a global luxury house.
Those production and pricing details belonged to the 2018 reporting and should not be read as current People Tree product information. At the time, the studio said it was consulting a lawyer.
Was Dior legally found to have copied it?
Not in the material documented here. The available reports support describing the designs as similar and the couple’s claim as an allegation of copying or plagiarism. They do not document a public court ruling that Dior infringed copyright, nor do they report a Dior admission.
The legal question would have required more than visual resemblance: it could involve ownership of the artwork, access, protectable expression and the evidence available in a particular jurisdiction. The sources reviewed do not resolve those issues.
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The Fashion Law reported that Sen retained legal counsel and asserted copyright-infringement claims against the LVMH-owned brand. It said the parties reached an agreement within months and that Sen described the result as a settlement. The terms were confidential under a nondisclosure agreement.
Sen told The Fashion Law that the monetary aspect would help People Tree establish an equipped studio for himself and other artists in Goa. The same report said Dior did not respond when asked to confirm the settlement.
A 2019 commentary in the UC Irvine Law Review also described an out-of-court settlement in May 2018 and noted that the NDA prevented disclosure of the details. The amount, conditions and any non-monetary provisions remain undisclosed in these accounts.
What can be stated with confidence?
- Sen and Sidhu, People Tree’s co-founders, publicly accused Dior of using a similar yoga-pose block print.
- The comparison involved a Dior Resort/Cruise 2018 dress worn by Sonam Kapoor on Elle India’s January 2018 cover.
- Sen said he created the motif in the 1990s and that People Tree had used it for years; the sources do not independently verify that origin date.
- Later reporting described a confidential private settlement, including a May 2018 date in the UC Irvine Law Review account.
- No public judgment or Dior confirmation establishing copyright infringement appears in the cited reporting.
Why the episode had wider significance
The story was not only about two visually similar patterns. It highlighted how designers working with traditional printmaking and artisan networks can struggle to obtain recognition and bargaining power when a comparable motif appears in a major international collection. People Tree’s stated mission, as quoted by Sidhu, was to give creative work in India a platform; the reported settlement account connected the dispute to funding a better-equipped studio for artists in Goa.
A careful way to describe the case
The most accurate shorthand is: People Tree’s founders alleged that a Dior dress used a print copied from their yoga-pose design; later reports said the dispute ended in a confidential settlement that Dior did not publicly confirm. Calling it a proven court finding or an admitted act of infringement goes beyond the documented record.
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