Trademarks, Copyright and Pop Culture Appropriation During London, Paris and Milan Fashion Week

The Zeitgeist this year, across London, Milan and Paris Fashion week has certainly been pop culture, and if fashion enthusiast were hungry for something different, they got just that this season, with a super-size portion of mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture in a similar way to Andy Warhol’s Campbell's Soup Cans.

Each fashion week was inspired by the supermarket and based, at least in part on the concept of consumerism. In particular, designer Anya Hindmarch’s ‘Counter Culture,’ collection during London Fashion week made use of some familiar household names. Jeremy Scott’s collection for Moschino during Milan fashion week mixed fast food with ‘Fast Fashion,’ and Karl Lagerfeld's collection for Chanel, during Paris Fashion Week, took us to the 'Chanel Supermarket,’ through the Mise-en-scène and set of his fashion show.

Pop art culture, famous for doing away with the traditions of fine art by including imagery from mass culture such as advertising, film and comics; is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and later in the United States, so the Goss-IPgirl finds it fitting that British bag designer Anya Hindmarch kicked off London Fashion week, with her interpretation of the supermarket, through her collection ‘counter culture.’ Couture.

She explains 'I wanted to treat the everyday ordinary in an extraordinary way.' But she did a little more than just that...

A variety familiar trademarks and images protected by copyright strutted their stuff down the runway, during the bag designers 1970s supermarket sweep. Daz, Frosties, Kellogs, and custard creams, vintage cereal boxes, icon symbols such as Ship matches, to bourbon biscuits were all used. In many cases the fashion designers products were identical to that of products from the original brand owner. For example, the package designs of Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger appeared on a blue background on a tote; Bourbon cookies were transformed into small metallic bags, while Ariel/Daz laundry detergent boxes were turned into clutches. In some cases the starting point for the bags was the shape of the packaging and a tube of McVitie's digestive biscuits was turned into a pencil case-like bag to imitate the shape and packaging of the biscuits; in others cases the logos, colours and symbols on the packaging were employed.

Pop artists are renowned for absorbing and borrowing from popular culture, but is any of this legal? Anya’s designs makes use of the brand names, trademarks and logos of well-known brands in all of her designs, leaving the Goss-IPgirl wondering about trademark and copyright infringement. The Goss-IPgirl is surprised that no one has picked up on this. It may be the case that Anya has a license to do this. But the Goss-IPgirl, does think that this is unlikely, or rather would be extremely pricey.

Trademark, licensing and product placement is big business for companies, one that many guard fiercely. So we wonder what the legal ramifications are of these designs? To mention briefly, there is the issue of trademark infringement and dilution by tarnishment or blurring. There are several criteria which must be reached before one can bring a successful claim for dilution. For example if a trademark's owner can demonstrate that use of the protected Trademark on the designs is going to cause the trademark owners’ mark to lose its distinctiveness as a source indicator, then a dilution claim may kick in.  As with the issue of copyright infringement for the images used and incorporated into the presentation of her designs.

In Milan, the theme of consumption continued also as Jeremy Scott at Moschino opened his first collection as Creative Director of Moschino with references to McDonald's signature logo, the legal implications of which have been addressed here. 

Kyle’s Pop culture for "consumer couture" was celebrated through haute couture gowns made with a fabric inspired by food packaging - from Budweiser to crisps, cereals, jelly bears, baked beans, cheesy bits and other assorted criminal delicacies in Tutti Frutti flavours.  And wedding gowns with prints of nutritional facts labels complete with additives and artificial flavourings, a sort of variation of Schiaparelli's signature newspaper prints. 

Whilst, Chanel over at Paris Fashion Week, built a Fake Supermarket Just to Host his Fashion Show with a ‘set’ that comprised of aisles and tables of every conceivable supermarket good, stamped with interlocking C’s.

Pop Art and fashion are starting to go hand in hand, designers today are generally criticised for stealing from native culture, but rarely criticised for borrowing from popular culture.  This leaves the Goss-IPgirl marinating on a few questions, for which there is no easy answers. Is this type of use free advertising for a company? Is economic or reputational harm caused to a brand through this type of activity? And is borrowing from popular culture legal? From a cultural standpoint, the Goss-IPgirl feels these popular culture references are to be celebrated. Even though there is the need for companies to police and protect their intellectual property perhaps more fitting than suing designers for IP infringement, is the notion that these pop culture references make for good advertising? Which from a brand management perspective may be more important to the profile of these companies than litigating for the unauthorised use of their IP.

Thoughts anyone?