The fall season marks an exciting time of year for fashion enthusiasts. As the elite in the industry travel to New York, London, Milan and Paris for the spring 2008 ready-to-wear designer collections presented on the runways, others receive up-to-the-minute news from Style.com, the online mecca of Vogue and W magazines.
Anyone with a computer can immediately view next season’s sharply tailored dresses and miniskirts by Derek Lam, military-chic ensembles by Proenza Schouler and dramatically feminine eveningwear by Zac Posen.
But as soon as the models hit the catwalks, another industry begins to buzz: fast fashion.
Chunky heels, another season of looks inspired by the 1940s and ’60s, dramatic waist lines and tailoring and luminous colors allure buyers for mega retailers.
In a New York Times article that ran the morning New York Fashion Week started, Eric Wilson reported on the predicament facing high-end designers posed by fast-fashion buyers. Fast fashion is the styles available at mass-market, affordable retailers – essentially stores such as Forever 21, Target and mid-level department stores (not Neiman Marcus or Bergdorf Goodman) – that copy the trends, silhouettes and color patterns that they like on the catwalks.
Fast-fashion retailers have the ability to e-mail favorite looks to a factory across the world, have the piece in production within days and offer the style to customers in months, cutting the time it takes luxury design houses by a few months and for the cost of a sandwich without the extra trimmings.
How can designers control this?
There are no copyright laws on a particular dress’s neckline or trousers’ hems. The only laws that currently protect luxury retailers are their monograms, such as Louis Vuitton’s signature initials. But what about blatantly copied fashion?
Well, that’s what many people wear without even realizing it. The only way average consumers can stay trendy is for more affordable stores to offer fashion-forward looks; that’s how most stores stay in business.
If copyright laws were created, no one except those who have access to a $1,700 Versace dress would have the resources to stay in vogue.
So the next time you discover an amazing find at Forever 21 or Urban Outfitters, remember that someone probably created the garment months before as a masterpiece, a genuine innovation for the fashion industry.
Today, true innovation seems to translate to the fastest production rate and a designer’s gem becomes a polyester disgrace.
[email protected]