Hailey Bieber no longer has competition for the "Rhode" brand name trademark and its head-to-toe product potential. Already, signs are pointing to her business empire striking back with clothing to match its sold-out phone cases and lip tints.
Last week, the original Rhode clothing brand announced it's closing after a decade in business. Co-founders Purna Khatau and Phoebe Vickers had opened their Rhode's doors in 2014 to offer cheerfully printed vacation dresses and matching sets, a lineup that eventually landed in Beyoncé, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Rihanna's closets, as well as on Target's shelves in a sought-after 2023 collaboration. It also landed them in a two-year trademark dispute in 2022, when Hailey Bieber's skincare label launched—and the designers asked her to change its name. Court filings argued the two brands "could not coexist without confusion" and accused Bieber's of infringing on the ready-to-wear company's trademark rights. They also said that Bieber had previously reached out to buy their brand's name several years prior.
The Rhodes reached a settlement in July 2024, according to legal outlet The Fashion Law, in which they agreed to drop their claims. Cut to December: The original Rhode's co-founders shared in a statement that their label was winding down after all. "This wasn’t an easy decision for us, but ultimately, new and exciting dreams are calling us forward," they wrote in a joint statement. Days later, Bieber fans caught that skincare Rhode's trademarks had been updated to include new categories.
A quick search for "Rhode" on United States Patent and Trademark Office's website reveals that the formerly skincare-only brand now holds registered trademarks for several new product categories. Anyone following Bieber's outfits will be most excited to note the filing for women's clothing—including "dresses, pajamas, pants, tops as clothing, shorts, track pants, sweatshirts, T-shirts, shorts, sweaters, and jackets"—as well as children's clothing in the same arenas. Rhode's fresh legal documents also note trademarks for hair accessories ("namely, hair scrunchies"), blankets and textile towels, and Christmas ornaments. There are also signs of pop-ups or permanent stores beyond the Pocket Blush activation Mrs. Bieber brought to New York City this summer. A separate registered trademark application covers "retail store services" inclusive of selling clothing, accessories, shoes, and home decor.
Rhode did not respond to Marie Claire's request for a comment on whether and when Hailey Bieber will turn her fresh trademark filings into actual products. That leaves the door open to at least imagine what, if anything, a wearable complement to Rhode's barrier butter and cleansing milk will look like in the meantime. Given Hailey Bieber's penchant for boxy jackets and tiny athletic shorts, Pilates Princess uniforms feel like a strong place to start. Of course, her aspirational beauty mogul wardrobe of Phoebe Philo dresses and Saint Laurent suits also lend themselves to the mood board of a cool-girl Aritzia or Everlane workwear competitor.
When and if Rhode clothing does arrive, it will be productive. In two short years since its launch, Bieber's label has already debuted ten products with several shade and flavor variations—all that tend to sell out immediately upon release. In an interview with WWD, Bieber confirmed her label is likely to exceed $100 million in revenue in 2024. While running a clothing business isn't much like running a beauty business (from how raw materials are sourced to how they're shipped and sold), Bieber's track record in influential taste will no doubt translate to pieces flying off hangers in droves.
Some trademark filings languish for years in bureaucratic purgatory before seeing the light of day. Reputation (Taylor's Version) has been on the books for a hot minute without any meaningful movement toward a re-released album. Others are created just to reserve the right for a celebrity to try a new product, and then they expire.
But as the most dedicated fans know, trademarks are usually the first breadcrumb in a trail leading to a big business venture. Fragrance hounds caught on to Bella Hadid's Ôrebella fragrance line after some .gov trademark snooping into her nascent beauty brand earlier this year, for example. So, Hailey Bieber could just be holding space for an eventual clothing line without actually designing anything—but it's not a stretch to predict we'll be wearing head-to-toe Rhode (Bieber's Version) before we know it.
That said, given just how many thousands of fashion brands co-exist on the market in the same categories—and how many independent labels addressing the middle-class fashion market have shut down in 2024—it's too bad the Rhode name wasn't big enough for two of them after all.
