Eons ago (10 years!) in blog world, I called out an early influencer's collaboration "collection" as being a pieced together mishmash of design elements lifted from well-known and established brands' pieces. And over the years I've tried to point out knock-offs in my "Imitation = Flattery?" series.
Sadly, this hasn't stopped even a decade on.
The latest, pretty egregious, set of products got me riled up enough to post.
I'm a big fan of Blair Eadie's style. I have no idea where she keeps it all and I'm sure the overwhelming majority is gifted to her but, I still like a lot of the same things she likes. I just wouldn't have the nerve to take a bunch of high end designer pieces from my closet and then work with a company to dumb them down and mass produce them.
If you can tell me these aren't nearly straight lifts, I'd be astonished.
Blair has said she loves a printed furry coat, especially from Shrimps, which is know for these bold styles -
Here's the coat from the A-P x Halogen collection.
Taking shoe inspiration from others really sets me off. Here's Blair wearing Prada patent, stacked-platform oxfords a while back and a close up of a pair from that same collection.
And then there's the styles from her "designs"...
I might have become the most mad about the triple-bow tops and dresses because she's making so much of them on her site. Well, here's the ASOS dress (top) the inspiration it came from. I bought this dress too. A bit miffed to see it knocked-off as if the A-P versions (bottom) are totally new.
And last, but certainly not the least example, is the Prince of Wales plaid blazer with faux fur cuffs. The collection version is cute with the pink for sure...
But I wonder how Fendi feels about being ripped off...
Pretty clear where the inspo came from, huh???
Her "collection" is filled with prints and tiered tulle skirts - very a la the pieces she wears from Red Valentino and Viktor and Rolf. I think its all very cute but I don't think intellectual property theft is a label I'd want to wear.
I know its been ages since I've posted but I had to come out of my semi-closed writing state to comment on what I think is pretty blatant shoe design theft going on over at Banana Republic.
Sure they are knocking off Stuart Weitzman's Nudist sandals like most other mid-tier brands but they are really not being subtle about these items. The top item in each pair is a current/recent Banana Republic shoe and the bottoms is the pretty obvious "inspiration" -
BR Honey vs Aquazzura Wild Things -
BR Jasmine vs Alexandre Birman Lolita
BR Jackie vs Prada 2008
To me this is the worst one - BR Cadi vs Carven's bow slingbacks
Knocking off is not cool. You can have a unique shoe at any price point. You won't have any cute shoes if we keep supporting intellectual property theft.
Yesterday I posted another in a very long series of "Imitation = Flattery?" where I expose what I feel to be shoes that have crossed over from the trend inspiration realm and go way more into the blatent ripping off of another company's designs.
I wanted to clarify why I detest this practice so much and what I feel is really so wrong about buying these shoes and supporting the companies who engage in this regularly (*cough cough Steve Madden cough cough*).
To me it comes right down to theft.
Many would argue that the practice of knocking-off is no where near as egregious as is the explosion of counterfeiting going on the shoe world today (BTW - check out Michelle's new resource site: ShoeFraud.com) but I saw that it is.
I work in an industry where we are hired to generate ideas and to create concepts, so to me intellectual property theft is a huge issue. Essentially, someone has the audacity to come in, take advantage of the hard work, creativity and innovation we have worked hard to create and just slightly tweak it to serve there ends. When this happens, customers become confused, the original message is diluted and the value we created is minimized.
This is true for large marketing campaigns, but it is true for fashion and shoes as well.
Yes, as a consumer, it is very tempting to see a designer shoe that you fall in love with and realize that it is out of your price range. It can be very tempting when you find a very similar copy to want to buy the less expensive piece to get the same look.
But if you love the original you shouldn't and I'll tell you why.
Because every time you do that, you are helping to put the original designer out of business.
The innovation and creativity is not coming from the company doing the "inspired by" piece. They are not investing time and money to create new looks, to do research and hire experienced talented individuals. How can the first company continue to do business when they outlay all the costs and then get undercut in the end?
Sadly, it is still very difficult, not to mention expensive, for companies to prosecute against the fakes although they are trying to fight back. It doesn't help that there are laws in some countries that do a poor job of protecting original designs. Our favorite Despotic Queen of Shoes, ImeldaMatt, worked on an expose into Australia's high street rip-offs (make sure to see the original post and the Camilla Skovgaard post that started it):
I have to agree with Wendy Brandes, a designer herself, who made the following comment on an earlier post:
"No one has an inalienable right to wear designer looks. There were no fast fashion runway knockoffs back in the '80s and '90s when I couldn't afford designer clothes (excluding ABS). We wore other things! Put together our own non-designer outfits! It would be nice if the H&Ms and Forever21s came up with their own looks, but then how would they churn out product at such a fast clip? The inspiration well runs dry pretty fast."
I think fashion and good design can come at all price points. I've said many times that I don't care what the pedigree or cost is for a particular shoe - if it's cute I'll get it. I also like to spend my money on unique original ideas. I want to support that no matter where it comes from. That's why I typically don't buy "plain" shoes. What I want is for these companies to spend their time thinking up ideas at price points all along the range.
But if consumers keep buying the fakes, they won't. And if we keep buying the fakes and knock-offs we are going to limit the amount of great designs put out there for us to get excited about.
