Big Brands Stealing from Indie Creators
It’s no big secret that the fashion industry is rife with copycats and stealing ideas. In fact, it actually thrives on it, with mimicry of big label designers and haute couture often being the foundations of success for high street brands. Researchers, Kal Raustiala and Christopher Jon Sprigman, coined this as the Piracy Paradox of the industry. Whilst the odd court case makes the headlines, high-end designers tend not to take action because this replication provides a benefit to them in promoting their original designs and status. But when these ideas are stolen from independent creatives in a bottom-up approach, it becomes far more harmful.
These creatives are often those underrepresented in the industry (such as BIPOC individuals). Unable to break through by traditional means, they craft their own unconventional route into the harsh climate instead. So, when their designs are stolen it creates greater negative effects. This is by no means a concept exclusive to the fashion industry but fashion is an area where this behaviour is less discouraged and rather maintained by insufficient laws, lacking public awareness and financial barriers.
The irony of writing this feels akin to copycatting in itself. The journalism world has covered this topic almost to death. With examples from Tuesday Bassen designs being copied by Zara, Telfar’s vegan leather bags pinched by Guess and even Puma seeming to garner inspiration from Sainsbury’s uniforms, there has been plenty in the press already. Granted, completely original ideas are hard to come by in a time when everything has been done before but when there’s blatant replication without credit given where it’s due, we see an issue. Whilst news coverage makes us aware that this is happening and the resultant public demand sometimes leads to knock-offs being pulled from production, you only need to wait a couple of months before it happens again. Even being called out in the public sphere doesn’t seem to act as a deterrent, so why do they do it and how do they get away with it?
The idea of stealing intellectual property may seem strange. After all, wouldn’t you rather be known for your creativity in standing out from the crowd, rather than the ability to create a replica? But it actually makes a lot of business sense in the fashion world. With trends dictated by seasons, staying consistently relevant is hard. And relevance is key to driving sales and meeting targets. So, if a design team were to see an idea (probably on Pinterest or Instagram) that already works and that people like, it’s likely to be more profitable to tap into that pre-existing demand than it is to take a creative risk without guaranteed success.
Not to defend this behaviour, but with these sorts of social inspiration platforms, it’s so easy to take an image at face value and pay little mind to the original creator. Fast fashion brands then benefit from capacities for mass-production, as well as familiarity as established and accessible household names. Meaning that they can replicate a design without a high price tag of the independent creator (who will need far more to breakeven, let alone make a profit).
The thing is, they get away with it because fashion is such a grey area when it comes to law. There are laws protecting intellectual property but they tend to favour the worlds of art and literature. Clothing is functional above artistic which means that these laws work more in theory than in practice. Design Right Infringement cases can be filed, however often the process is laborious and with financial implications, only for a design to be protected for a few years. For an unregistered design - which an indie brand is more likely to have - it’s very much a “my word against yours” situation whereby proof needs to be provided that the infringer has actually stolen the work.
You need only imagine running a business from the confines of your bedroom and going up against a multi-billion pound corporation who have lawyers and masses of money to protect themselves to understand the flaws of this law. Whoever can shout the loudest will ultimately triumph here, and at the cost of an independent designer's success, finances and morale.
But it may not all be doom and gloom. One of the multiple bright sides to the pandemic has been a shift in attitudes and behaviours that could hold hope for ending this cycle. Fast fashion has historically never really faced the risk of a boycott, because, let’s face it, we all need affordable clothes. Over the past year though, we have seen it exposed under the microscope and facing more scrutiny than ever before. From unethical working conditions, to the environmental impact of the waste it causes, the reasons to think twice about fast fashion are plentiful. With Google reporting that 55% of people now prioritise sustainability over value and quality, the shift in attitudes brought about by the pandemic may be here to stay.
On top of this, the pandemic’s effects on work have led to a rise in people pursuing creative ventures, whether as a way to fill time or subsidise incomes affected by furlough and redundancy. For some, what was initially a side hustle is now the main source of income. Aided by social media and online marketplaces like Etsy, showcasing your work and growing a following is made possible even on a small budget. It’s something that there’s been receptiveness towards, with a surge in individuals supporting local. It wouldn’t take scrolling on a social platform to see the posts tagged with #shopsmall or #supportlocalbusinesses. And it’s not just talk, with Etsy, as an example, seeing 59% growth in the number of active sellers in 2020 (totalling 4.3 million) compared to just the prior year. We are starting to consume in a way that is more community focused and ethical on a number of levels.
The line between homage culture and replication is always going to be blurry, and sometimes instances of copycatting will happen - it would be wishful thinking to believe otherwise. We know that call-out culture and cancelling can have effects once the event has occurred, but it may be possible to act more preventatively within the fashion space and let fast fashion know that this is not okay.
Growing trends of conscious consumption and supporting local over mass corporations has proven successful over the past year, and maintaining this is key as we return to normality. That’s not to say that you have to avoid fast fashion at all costs, but making small changes and choosing to shop local or second-hand will have effects if adopted en-masse. Fast fashion will probably not die out in the near future but we can all choose to shop in a way that fosters originality, as well as looking after the environment and promoting ethical working practices.
So perhaps next time you’re debating whether to buy a popular t-shirt from an indie business, or a really similar one that from the high-street that came out a couple of weeks later at a fraction of the price, remember that your purchase is an investment that could help to break this cycle and give independent creators the value they deserve.
Written by Yasmeen Frasso
Yasmeen is a Londoner working in digital marketing, trying to write in her free time. She studied Psychology at university with an interest in forensic and the psychology of religion. You'll usually find her with coffee in hand, pining over cute cat videos.
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