They say they love my ass in Seven Jeans, True Religion / I say no, but they keep givin’
Posted by Matt Zeitlin on September 3, 2007
The NYtimes details the work of a knock off fashion designer, Seema Anand, who literally takes pictures of items on runways and then has sowers in India make the clothes, getting them on the racks before the high end products hit their boutiques and high end clothing stores. Many of the designs are strikingly similiar, one might call them copies. But since only distinctive patterns (like Burberry’s) and logos are copyrighted - cuts, colors and designs are all fair game. The designers want to intervene and copyright their designs to fight the knocks offs. I’m unsympathetic — the purpose of copyright is to serve the public good, not the good of designers who want to sell dresses for 800 dollars. Are fewer high end clothes being made, are designs less adventurous and original? Also, how do you copyright a cut or design? What if a fashion innovation, like boot cut jeans, was copyrighted? Would the public be well served by one company making boot cut jeans for 100 years? One part of the article, however, illuminates the frustration for the high end designers and the opportunities for Anand:
“Some people don’t want to spend $300 on a pair of jeans just because of the name,” said Siovhan McGearey, 16, from London. “They may look nice, but why pay $300 when you can go down the street to Forever 21 and get jeans that are $30 that look exactly the same?”
In the case of jeans, I have to wonder, who’s getting screwed? Some jeans are largely popular because of logo they throw on the ass — Seven is the canonical example (Citizens works as an example too). These logos are already copyrighted, what makes these jeans “better” can’t be copied (stitching, fabrics etc). Even if the logo is stirkingly similar, the women wearing the real Citizens or Sevens will know exactly who’s trying to fool them. What about True Religions? Sure, they have the logo, but what makes them distinctive is the seam. They start like a normal seam, on the out side of the leg, and wind their way to the front. Should True Religion be able to copyright the direction of their seam, the red stitching they use in the seam? Should a judge have to decide whether Forever 21’s seams are too similar?
What it all comes down to is this - “They want to look fabulous,” she said. “It’s their right to look fabulous.”
Fashion designers, are you going to deny the right of young women everywhere to look fabulous?
