Fashion's Reverse Take on Counterfeiting!
For a long time, luxury brands looked with a certain contempt on street culture, which practiced notably the bootleg [the mixture of the authentic and the fake, and more generally the piracy], but it is today the most consumed culture on social networks.
Our Friends over at Le Monde France have written an in interesting article (originally in French) that discusses fashion's new codes and it's reverse take on counterfeiting.
The article, drawing from an extensive report conducted (by the Center for Economic Research and (CEBR)) on the counterfeit market notes that in France - for French businesses; ready-to-wear and accessories - counterfeiting represents 3.5 billion euros of missed sales per year. Against this background, the article then weighs in on the phenomena of trademark counterfeiting and how various brands are no longer hesitating to cash in on this through the producing of their own creations that parody the counterfeit. Using the brand Vetements and their capsule collection called "Official fake" showcased in Seoul - one of the epicentres of the fake, to highlight this shift.
Commenting on luxury's new found Alliance with "street culture. " It notes that: "until now, only the young brands sold (internet) parodies of logos, such as Brian Lichtenberg and his T-shirts Homiés and Féline or Conflict Of Interest with Chapel and Niu Niu. Today, it is the luxury brands themselves that hijack their logo and parody counterfeit," explains Emmanuelle Hoffman, a lawyer specialising in fashion law. With the clear objective of attracting the approval of generation Z that luxury tries to seduce at all costs. Highlighting the more sophisticated move of luxury brands toward the use of parody as a strategy.
On the changing dynamics of the fashion system, (and what designer Raf Simons see as the shift between the Bourgeoisie elite and the street) the article continues that:
"For a long time, luxury brands looked with a certain contempt on street culture, which practiced notably the bootleg [the mixture of the authentic and the fake, and more generally the piracy], but it is today the most consumed culture on social networks. There is significance in brands that hire artistic directors who have grown up with these references [like Central St Martins College of Art graduate and Louis Vuitton Head Artistic Director of Menswear Kim Jones]. Without Jones, Louis Vuitton would never have collaborated with Supreme," says Michael Dupouy, founder of Club 75, brand of streetwear.
The article, discussing fashion's young and connected clientele notes that: by breaking with the classic codes of luxury, fashion wants to show that it is part of reality. "This evolution is linked to the digital world in which there can be no vertical discourse. Therefore, brands must leave their ivory tower. And those who turn themselves into derision are those that work best today, " illicits Benjamin Simmenauer, professor at the French Fashion Institute.
The full version of this article, in French can be found here.
Why Established Brands Are Buying Back Their Cultural Heritage As A Way To Create Value
There’s a dawning realisation that if you want to be a so-called heritage brand, you have to be able to tell the story through objects…An archive can be useful for design inspiration, for lending to an exhibition, or for if you think you’d want to do your own retrospective.
Photographs credits: Guy Marineau | Image YSL 1977
The management of cultural heritage is big business for an iconic brand. In an insightful article written for the financial times, Lou Stoppard weighs in on why design houses are paying huge sums of money at auction to buy back missing pieces to safeguard cultural heritage.
Sonnet Stanfill, fashion curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum explains “there’s a dawning realisation that if you want to be a so-called heritage brand, you have to be able to tell the story through objects…An archive can be useful for design inspiration, for lending to an exhibition, or for if you think you’d want to do your own retrospective.”
Shonagh Marshall, a freelance curator who archived Alexander McQueen’s collection in preparation for the Met’s Savage Beauty exhibition in 2015, and who has also worked on the archive collections of Christian Louboutin and the late stylist Isabella Blow, agrees. “The motivation often lies in the sense of building a brand, which is now entwined with cultural heritage. Keeping those objects means keeping a sense of narrative — without them you have no assets.”
Kerry Taylor, who runs her own auction house, is considered a world leader in vintage fashion, antique costume and textiles, says “some of the more established brands, such as Dior, Balenciaga and Chanel, really see the value in buying back their heritage,” she explains. “The Chanel archive in Paris is like a glamorous high-security prison. Everything has black lacquered sliding cabinets. If Karl Lagerfeld wants to look at something from the 1920s or 1930s, there it is, beautifully stored and catalogued. Not only does it reinforce the importance of the brand itself, [but also] when new designers come along they can plunder it for ideas — and stay within the house.”
Lou Stoppard says "The fashion archive is becoming highly prized. Brands are pouring resources into building museums in which to house their collections, while canny young designers are buying back garments from clients, or bidding against collectors and museums to retrieve rare vintage pieces with which to build their own." Which has become an excercise where "many brands are now using their archives to produce exhibitions as a way of extending their brand message."
The full article can be read here
