Today in AIC, we have usual suspects Miu Miu and Steve Madden. Lately everyone’s been stealing ideas from Ms. Prada, so we’re not surprised that the King of Creative Theft, Steve Madden, jumped on the bandwagon as well.

The items in question are Miu Miu’s wooden platform slingback sandals and Steve Madden’s Melrow platform.

The Miu Miu style came out for SS10 as a relative of its lucrative cat, flower, puppy, and other weird things prints. Made in a light brown suede, the Miu Miu platform slingbacks have two semicircles that meet in the center of the shoe, with a band crossing at the intersection. The Steve Madden slingback platforms have two bands crossing the shoe’s front, with a similar curved design at the top.

Sure, they look a lot alike, but what’s really unclear here is who’s copying whom. When I first saw the Miu Miu platforms I thought, “Wow those look a lot like a Steve Madden shoe.” High platform, chunky heel, strange crisscrossing straps, and metal studs running down the sides. It reminds me of every platform sandal I’ve seen in the Steve Madden shop at the mall.

The curvy design is signature Miu Miu, however, produced in their crazy prints for spring, so we’re sure Steve Madden tried to get in on that trend.

Whom do you think is to blame in the Miu Miu vs. Madden debacle?