The latest press release email from Red Hot PR, representing Goddiva
This type of email - and I get a lot of them - makes my blood boil. Bethan, Fashion Junior at Large, has even seen me pick up the phone to some PR companies to question them for the sending out of such emails. I know it sounds a bit batty, but really - they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. It especially annoys me when the copying involves ripping-off young British and international designers who don't have the funds to hire a lawyer to defend their Intellectual Property rights.
What you see above is a blatant example of how rampant the copying of fashion designers work at high street level has become. Crazier still the brands doing it actually promote the fact. Copying is against the law. Fashion designers and brands can - and do as we see from Gucci's case this week- successfully sue for this kind of thing. Elsewhere on the high street designers' original work is being tacitly raped and pillaged and passed off as the work of the retailer - and to my mind it is getting worse by the week.
I do understand that the high street takes inspiration from catwalk and street trends for their fashion offerings, its the nature of the beast; everyone from Marc Jacobs to Nicolas Ghesquiere at Balenciaga takes inspiration from something, but really it has gone too far. Which is why I am glad the young law American law student Julie Zerbo of the fashion blog Fashion Law, which was recently covered by the Wall Street Journal, is succeeding in highlighting the problem. A few weeks ago Zerbo brought to attention a Chanel bangle, which looked very similar to one already on the record as being by young NYC based jeweller Pamela Love. After her post was picked up by Fashionista.com, Chanel withdrew the bracelet with immediate effect. It was an elegant way around a problem senior designers at Chanel probably didn't even know they had. Chanel prides itself on originality.
Last week a friend of mine who is also an editor sent me a couple of Blackberry-Cam shots of items that looked very familiar...
Seen at Karen Millen
Have you met your twin? Erdem Resort 2012 on Net-a-Porter. In fact if you type "Erdem blue lace dress" into Google, the third thing that comes up is "Erdem blue lace dress copy" and the listing takes you to Kate Middleton related sites..
Seen at Marks and Spencer
Hmm..looks familiar. Jonathan Saunders SS12 collection (photo: Catwalking.com)
Posts
I keep seeing cheap shoe brands release shoes with the signature Christian Louboutin red soles and I can't figure out how they're getting away with it considering the high profile legal issues with YSL.
ReplyDeleteexample: http://www.soyoushoes.co.uk/Peep-Toe-High-Heel-Platform-Stiletto-Courts/
Alice
this culture is absolutely rife with High street retailers. I know as I have worked in many of their design studios. Designers are encouraged to trawl through the catwalk shows as soon as they are live and analyse which "trends" they should "interpret" (copy) for their customers. They seem to feel no shame in this blatant plaigersim and even the retailers that claim to champion young designers do it.
ReplyDeleteThis culture has contributed to the bland one style fits all look of many of our high street shops and means the consumer is encouraged to be "on trend" rather that stylish and individual.
If I were a catwalk designer I would do what Tom Ford does and have a small exclusive presentation of my collection.
High street shops need to foster their own creativity and employ designers to create clothes that suit their brand and their customer and stop chasing catwalk "trends". And quite frankly the copies are usually a very poor interpretation of the amazing originals anyway!!
I feel like the past few seasons have been far worse than any others - and not just in terms of blatant copies (hello, River Island's Gucci "inspiration" and Oasis's Katrantzou-esque mirror-image prints) but in terms of scale. It's literally everywhere, which, I would imagine, makes it much more difficult to police.
ReplyDeleteThere's also the argument that the catwalk always has - and always will - influence the high street. I've frequently found myself picking up pieces that bear more than a slight resemblance to catwalk versions because I refuse to buy very "trend-led" items that are expensive, when I know I won't love them enough to warrant their price in six months.
What's to be done? Highlighting it is always a positive, as is pulling companies up on it when it occurs - but in a way, high-street copies serve only to further the divide between those who can [afford it] and those who can [wear the copies]. It's an almost worse elitism than the class divide, because only those in the know will immediately recognise a knock-off.
Primark car print pleat skirt, need I say more?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think it has all gotten a bit out of hand and creativity out of the window. But I am sick of hearing how catwalk brands are being copied when we never really hear about how high street and other brands are blatantly stealing from the everyday users - bloggers, small businesses and creative fashion students.
ReplyDeletefar more interesting and worrying if you ask me :)
Nice article
xx
TFC
It's definitely got out of hand. I have interned for high street chains before, and it truly opened my eyes and turned me off ever working for one. I remember doing an internship and during fashion week(s), spent about 4 weeks making booklets of every item from every designer so they could copy the hottest items. I also had to do trend "research" and which left me feeling terrible when I realised that they weren't taking inspiration but simply knocking off a garment completely.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Campbell. I can't believe they get away with it, it's so maddening. Now they even have copied Simone Rocha who is a very new designer! So rude.
ReplyDeleteLove the color of the outfit.
ReplyDeleteAll outfits are amazing.
http://www.shopjessicabuurman.com/lookbook-street-fashion_c314