image via stoparttheft.com
It was in the news again recently that an indie designer had their designs blatantly copied by fast fashion. This time it involved Tuesday Bassen and Zara. When looking at the work side by side, there can be no doubt that it is a rip off, but that doesn't stop Zara from denying it.
Fashion is a series of rip offs in one way or another. Our low rise is the 70's hip huggers. Nineties flares were the 70's bell-bottoms and today's wide-legs. Fashion copies itself all the time, but fast fashion doesn't borrow from time to time. It's model is based on literal copies.
Elizabeth Cline writes about this in her book, Overdressed. While other brands have in-house designers who may be influenced by trends and runways, fast fashion brands like Forever 21 commission replicas based on magazine photos and samples. The pressure to produce at such great volume makes it almost understandable that copies will be made. The model is just unsustainable in ethical practice.
Bassen is taking legal action against Zara, which is not a new phenomenon for the company and others like it. They have a history of settling in these types of cases. Cline quotes Susan Scafidi, the founder of the Fashion Law Institute, as saying, "paying designers a settlement is 'probably cheaper' than licensing the design in the first place."
Every purchase is a vote telling the company to keep doing what they are doing.
Fashion is a series of rip offs in one way or another. Our low rise is the 70's hip huggers. Nineties flares were the 70's bell-bottoms and today's wide-legs. Fashion copies itself all the time, but fast fashion doesn't borrow from time to time. It's model is based on literal copies.
Elizabeth Cline writes about this in her book, Overdressed. While other brands have in-house designers who may be influenced by trends and runways, fast fashion brands like Forever 21 commission replicas based on magazine photos and samples. The pressure to produce at such great volume makes it almost understandable that copies will be made. The model is just unsustainable in ethical practice.
Bassen is taking legal action against Zara, which is not a new phenomenon for the company and others like it. They have a history of settling in these types of cases. Cline quotes Susan Scafidi, the founder of the Fashion Law Institute, as saying, "paying designers a settlement is 'probably cheaper' than licensing the design in the first place."
Every purchase is a vote telling the company to keep doing what they are doing.
