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Guests of a pub in Great Britain (icon image)
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The owner of a rural English pub says he was asked by a fashion magazine to change the name of his bar because of the village it's in: Vogue.
The operator of the pub "The Star Inn at Vogue", Mark Graham, claims to have received a letter from British Vogue publisher Conde Nast.
The letters said the name could "cause problems" because the public might confuse the two companies.
According to Graham, in addition to the name change, Conde Nast UK managing director Sabine Vandenbroucke urged him in the letter to do the following: "Please respond within seven days or we will take corrective action." But Graham stood his ground.
"It's too often the case that the big boys try to stomp on the little boys and as soon as I realized what they were trying to do I thought, 'Don't do that to me, my pretty one,'" he told ITV .
Graham sent a reply, stating that the Cornish village, some 400 kilometers south-west of London, predates the magazine considerably, the British edition of which was founded in 1916.
He wrote, "I take it you didn't get the permission of the real Vogue villagers when you chose the name."
Graham said he has since received another letter from Conde Nast, saying the company is monitoring the use of the Vogue name on a regular basis.
But the company admitted that "we didn't have to send such a letter on this occasion."
jso/AP