With recent reports circulating about designers accusing other designers of copying their designs, one can only speculate, can something be considered purely original in this day and age?
In the past, design houses had cuts and fabrics that were exclusive to their respective brands, but over the years, as big corporations started to acquire controlling shares in popular fashion brands, much has changed.
Today, thanks to camera phones, the Internet and social media, fast-fashion brands can easily have their design team prototype clothes inspired by recent fashion collections, and have them available in the stores a few weeks after.
Several fast-fashion brands do this and get away with it. But where does one draw the line between inspiration and blatant copying?
In most courts of law, such “inspired-by” approaches are legal. US copyright law, for example, considers apparel as “useful articles,” which don’t have as much protection compared with novels, music and movies.
Interpretations
Claiming originality in fashion is a complicated matter, since most designers easily admit that their works are interpretations of previous eras and trends. Designers can only go so far in protecting their trade name or logo, but not the designs themselves or how such clothes are made.
Such a patent is difficult to obtain, since most apparel designs are reworked and are not new “inventions” in the way that patent law requires.
Of course, it’s entirely understandable why some designers get frustrated and want some protection. Their profits are being affected by so-called imitators.
Some amount of protection is ideal, but is there a point in crying foul and taking such a matter to court? Some do, but such litigation can drag on for years. By the time the case gets resolved, fashion has moved on to the next big thing.
Until more protective measures can be established, most designers have found other creative ways to cope with their imitators.
Some collaborate with fast-fashion brands to get design credit plus a share of profits, others introduce a more affordable “bridge” line, while some, like Tom Ford, simply ignore such imitators because to him, “The counterfeit customer is not my customer.”
When there is innovation, there is also imitation. Imitators come and go, but like Ford and other designers, they just stick to what they do best —keep creating designs so complicated that they will be difficult to copy on a mass-market level.
As Johanna Blakley said in one of her TED talks, “There is no rest for the fashionable. Every season, these designers have to struggle to come up with the new fabulous idea that everyone’s going to love.”
After all, where would fashion be without innovation?