Saturday, January 30, 2010

A Fashion Law Everyone Will Have To Follow

What do Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Christian Louboutin, Asics, and Adidas all have in common?
They all have sued Steve Madden for knocking off their shoe designs.

What do Gwen Stefani, Express, Trovota, DVF, Ana Sui, Anthropoligie, and BeBe (pronounced Bee-Bee, name comes from "To be or not to be") all have in common?
They all have sued Forever 21 for knocking off their clothing designs.

What do Steve Madden and Forever 21 have in common?
They've won every single one of those trials because under current law, only original prints or graphics on clothes can be copyrighted.


What do all of us have in common?
Are new found love for lawyers Jeannie Suk and Charles Schumer.


You see, these two Harvard grads are working on a legislation that would give American fashion designers copyright protection.


And it's about time!


You can read all the legal jargon here.









5 comments:

livin wide said...

wow, had no idea!

those are so ridiculously copied.

Shayna said...

I think DVF has also sued Forever 21 for a dress as well...

And given my high level of dislike for Forever 21 (and the obvious thievery going on) I hope they win :-)

Vicky said...

the look-a-like's are necessary for those whose budget is not extravagant. i can understand the bitterness though, the idea of having a thought taken is a very annoying one.

Shayna said...

Mental Head Slap - I just reread the theat you had DVF listed - sorry girls! Should have known you were on your game :-)

Victoriajeanne: Part of the reason why the knock offs are so cheap is that they don't hae to invest in good designers (or really, any), and part of the reason why the high end designers are so expensive are all of the litigation costs... as well as those designers (among other factors like materials, etc.)

Tabitha Wells said...

Although I am definitely not a fashionista (I can list off a few designer names, but goodness knows I would NEVER be able to tell what was theirs without a label attached), I definitely understand the copyright issues. Being a writer that currently publishes solely online, I have witnessed that same issue occur to friends (thankfully not yet to me, that I have noticed).

While I do understand the desire/need for similar fashions that are far more affordable, designers should be creative enough to come up with their own designs instead of identical knockoffs. And if they're not, then get the heck out of the industry.

Post a Comment