Christina's bird skull necklaces, that went into production for her jewelry line, Arms and Armory, three years ago. For those of you who think it looks familiar, you probably have seen the copy (I won't name the designer here, but props if you can figure it out yourself) that has been floating around for the past year.This is a very difficult subject for me to write about. A couple of months ago, one of my favorite bloggers, and fellow DIY aficionados, Outi from OutsaPop, wrote about copying versus inspiration in design. Outi, like us, has worked has a professional designer in the fashion industry for years, and anyone within the business will let you know that copying runs rampant in design. And while I can't say that I haven't ever bought a pair of knockoff shoes at Forever 21, I certainly can't help but get a little aggravated over the subject matter.
As any of you who regularly read this blog knows, we ourselves often are inspired directly by looks from the runways when we are creating our outfits for Six Six Sick. At the same time, we are making these outfits as DIYs for ourselves for non-commercial purposes, with no intent to actually sell or profit from them, and when we blog about the outfits we make, we cite all of the sources of inspiration. I am a huge believer in DIY whenever this is possible (often it is not), and I don't believe that this ultimately cuts into a designer's sales since the end result never hits the market.
When we design commercially for our own lines, or design for other companies, we also are inspired by multiple sources, but always make sure that the designs are not directly lifted from another designer. Being inspired is obviously vital to constant creation, but sometimes designers take the easy way out and find themselves copying something exactly from someone else.
Most often, the people who get in trouble for this are the mass retailers, like Forever 21, who are completely unafraid of the negative publicity, and undeterred by potential lawsuits. The only thing that they have changed is that recently, it seems like they've been looking to copy smaller designers, who have less means with which to fight back. I've recently seen their knock offs from Obesity and Speed, Bless, and Rick Owens, to name a few of the surprising choices. One of my friends told me that at a tradeshow, a Forever 21 designer came up, introduced herself, and asked if she could buy a single piece from one of the lines she was representing. The purpose of the garment she wanted to order was obvious, and my friend politely declined.
While we can shake our heads at these large companies, ultimately I feel like they are business corporations without any creative heart or soul, and certainly without moral center. On the other hand, when a small company or designer copies another small designer and sells that idea as their own, it actually makes me much angrier. This designer MUST take accountability for their creative actions and decisions, and if they chose to blatantly plagiarize someone else's work, the moral onus is on themselves, rather than being masked by the cover of a larger, faceless organization. Both Christina and I have had our work copied before, and most disappointingly, we find that it hasn't come from H&M or another megastore, but at the hands of other young designers in similar positions as ourselves.
There are many faults with the fashion industry, too many to even begin mentioning here. And when you work in it, there is little that you can control outside of your own actions. As a designer, I feel like you have a responsibility to others and yourself to maintain your integrity. What goes around comes around. And at the end of the day, the designers who will be remembered aren't the ones who blindly imitate other people, but the ones who have a true individual voice of their own. What do you think?
-Tiffany
No comments:
Post a Comment