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?

TOM FORD'S JAY Z 'KNOCK OFF’ AT LONDON FASHION WEEK; HIP-HOP CULTURE AND HIGH FASHION FINALLY MEET.

It’s not very often that Hip Hop culture inspires high fashion. During Tom Ford's Autumn Winter 2014 collection last night at London Fashion week. Tom Ford, unveiled a ‘knock off of a knock off’ of Jay Z‘s Tom Ford jersey.  The jersey had the designer’s name, the number 61 (year Ford was born) and the word MOLLY crossed out.

Jay Z declared ‘I don’t pop Molly/I rock Tom Ford,” on the single “Tom Ford” off his latest album, Magna Carter Holly Grail, and rocks the Tom Ford jersey during his performances. It seems that fashion designer, Tom Ford was flattered so much that he has made it part of his 2014 collection.

How did he do it? "I just took the knock off from online and knocked it off. The designer told The Associated Press.

Jay's jersey created by BBP (Black Boy Place), a French brand founded in 2010 sells for $65. Ford in response chuckled and told style.com "My knockoff will sell for $6,500."

So while most of us can’t help but snigger at Ford’s blatant and tongue in cheek homage to Jay-Z during London Fashion Week, the Goss-IPgirl wonders what the designers at BBP will make of this?

Let’s watch this space.

Former Alexander McQueen Intern Sues British Fashion House for Minimum Wage. Is The Culture of The Fashion Internship Changing?

Against the back drop of the glitz and glamour of London Fashion Week that kicked off last Friday. Former intern, Rachel Watson, filed a complaint against the British fashion house founded by the late designer Alexander McQueen, claiming that she worked unpaid for four months without being remunerated.

Rachel Watson, the name given to her by lawyers, is claiming up to £6,415 in "lost wages" as she states the company broke the law by not paying her the minimum wage.

Watson interned at the company in 2009 and 2010 which included drawing embroidery artwork, repairing embellishment pieces and dying large quantities of fabric. According to Watson's lawyer, Wessen Jazrawi, from Hausfeld & Co LLP, said interns are entitled to minimum wage while doing "real work under a contract". Watson, who said she accepted the internship because she saw "no other way into the fashion industry" realised she was being exploited early on. She added: "How could I confront my employer at a time when they held all the cards to my future in the industry?"

Mishcon de Reya has been drafted in by fashion house Alexander McQueen to defend the lost earnings claim. And a spokesperson at Alexander McQueen has commented on the pending proceedings, saying: “We understand this relates to an intern who was with us four years ago. We had no idea until now that she had any concern about the time she spent at Alexander McQueen. We’ve paid close attention to the debate in this area and we now pay all our interns.”

The legal complaint follows controversy that flared up last year, over the fashion houses internship policy, where the fashion house was forced publicly to apologise about an unpaid internship job listing, after University of the Arts London student union president Shelly Asquith brought attention to its advert for a “talented knitwear student” to work five days a week for up to 11 months, without a wage. McQueen said the advert was “issued in error and was not in accordance with [their] HR policy”. This prompted Shelly Asquith, to write a strongly-worded letter to the late designer’s head office accusing the label of “using and abusing” fashion students.

Alexander McQueen is not alone in the fashion world in attracting criticism. The Goss-IPgirl is aware that unpaid internships are touted as being endemic within the fashion industry. It seems that there is a culture of of taking on young unpaid interns and fashion and journalism are renowned for being the worst industries.

Associated with spoiled young women and critiqued for favouring the financially elite, internships have become comme il faut, the de rigueur for students wanting to break into the world of fashion. While the recent Alexander McQueen case shows the campaign against unpaid work is gaining ground, the Goss-IPgirl wonders what this case says for the future culture of the customary unpaid internship in fashion? 

Not only does the unpaid internship raise issues of 'exploitation.' It has also been argued that "failing to pay interns means that those from less affluent families cannot afford to enter the fashion industry, making the sector poorer and less diverse.” 

Various cases over unpaid internships have brought the issue to light over the last few years, including the announcement in October 2013 by Conde Nast – whose titles include Vogue and GQ – that the company would stop taking on interns, after two former interns sued the company claiming that they were paid below minimum wage. This has stirred mixed feelings about the unpaid internship, for some it has been hugely beneficial, for others it has brought with it feelings of exploitation. Whatever the case, the culture of the fashion internship seems to be changing, whether it be through interns taking a stand, or fashion houses refusing to take on interns, and the Goss-IPgirl is interested to see what kind of precedent this case sets for fashion houses and interns in the future.

Cultural Appropriation & Maori design: Lessons from London Fashion Week

We all seek inspiration from around us, but when does this become a problem? And where do we draw the line? And is it okay to make use of public domain designs?

In the world of fashion there is said to be a thin line between rip off and inspiration, and there remains an interesting debate about whether fashion designers should be able to exploit and profit from the use of traditional cultural designs? For emerging fashion designers that are looking for inspiration for their designs, lessons from London fashion week, highlight that care needs to be taken, an issue which arose after Turkish designer Gul Agis's well-received collection at London Fashion Week, was accused of 'misappropriating’' traditional Maori designs.

Gul Agis’s collection ‘Tribal attitude,’ is said to have been inspired by Turkey's rich heritage; by the Gezi Park protests that took place in Istanbul earlier this year and by "the tribal attitudes in expressing anger within".

While some of the pieces from the Spring/Summer '14 collection of label Lug Von Siga did take clear inspiration from the plush textiles of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, the predominant style in the textile design was clearly Maori.

The issue in this case, is the lack of attribution to the tribe.  There was some outrage concerning the language that was used by fashion media to describe the garment: ‘lavish, luxury, decadent’ with no reference to the tribe. Among them, the Style Confessional blog said that “it was refreshing to see the cultural influences of the Turkish designer’s hometown through the rich prints and fabric manipulation.” The only person to make even a vague connection between the pieces and Maori design was said to be the show’s hair stylist, Efi Davies from Toni&Guy, who spoke to Fashion Scout’s beauty blogger Madeleine Ayers. "The inspiration basically comes from looking at the collection; there is a lot of tribal inspiration, a bit of Mari [sic].”

Mead, an academic & senior lecturer on Maori and indigenous cultural and intellectual property issues, commenting on Gul Agis’s collection, stated that, “for many fashion designers the appropriation without apparent understanding is troubling.”

Legal issues

But what are the legal issues for designers that are marrying culture with fashion. Whether opportunistic or unethical, or both, the fashion industry has a historical and an ongoing practice of taking designs from other fashion companies, and indigenous peoples and cultures. Many personalities have demonstrated a growing fascination with Māori culture. Celebrities such as Rihanna, Robbie Williams and boxer Mike Tyson have exhibited Māori-style tattoos, and both 'Thierry Mugler and Jean Paul Gaultier both used Moko to promote their clothing lines, on the catwalk and in advertisements.

Putting aside what some cultural enthusiasts would label as cultural imperialism. The unauthorised use raises a series of questions. When is borrowing from a traditional culture legitimate? Can use of designs with sacred and cultural significance, used outside of its traditional context cause offence? And is trademark protection available for cultural designs?

The designer, Gul Agis's Facebook comments, in response to the accusations, suggest she had no awareness that the use of the Maori designs would cause offence: "The last four seasons I always used Turkish culture as a reference...while searching I found Maori [imagery] and I loved everything: from woodcarvings to the masks, and for me it was amazing to know another culture. I then developed the prints and embroideries to give it a contemporary look."

Peter Shand writing on the subject of Maori cultural appropriation and practices in the fashion industry in ‘Scenes from the Colonial Catwalk: Cultural Appropriation, Intellectual Property Rights, and Fashion,’ suggests, that some would argue that the cultural appropriation and dislocation of the source form from its initial cultural context “is equivalent to colonial occupation of indigenous art and design.” Yet history shows that it is possible for fashion aesthetics to be brought together with ethics. In 1999, fashion company Moontide, made use of Maori design for their swimwear range. What is interesting here, however, is the politics of that use ‘the owner of the business, Tony Hart, and the firm’s designers developed the swimwear line with a Maori entrepreneur, standing in for the community, from predominantly rural area of New Zealand, negotiated the use of the Māori design. According to Hart, two concerns governed the design element’s use: commercial viability and cultural respect, underscoring the importance of an ethical approach when dealing with the use of a cultural design.

The Goss-IPgirl has written about the commercial use of cultural property, fashion ethics and the Maasai tribe, published on the Guardian sustainable business website here. Regarding the Maasai tribe’s, recent move to trademark their name and take back ownership over their cultural assets. The Goss-IPgirl suspects that there will be a growing trend of indigenous tribes using IP to claim back the rights to their creative output, culture and designs. But for many in the business of fashion, there is a lack of understanding concerning the problems, issues, and risks in relation to the appropriation of cultural designs. As was the case for Gul Agis, the message for many, as Professor Johanna Blakley has recently put forward, in an article as to whether it should be illegal for Western fashion designers to appropriate traditional cultural designs? Is that “just because you can appropriate designs from other cultures doesn’t always mean it’s a good idea. Especially in the age of social media, fashion brands and retailers [ought to think] twice about the cultural sensitivity of their appropriations [the risk of the ridicule] a PR firestorm online.”