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The New York Fashion Week that started Wednesday has also kicked
off a debate on the rights and wrongs of copying designs and of
lawsuits by aggrieved parties. To particularise the imitations
phenomenon, The New York Times has sprung the name of Seema Anand
who runs Simonia Fashions, with annual sales of $20 million, from
her garment district studio in the city.
"If I see something on style.com, all I have to do is e-mail the
picture to my factory and say, 'I want something similar, or a
silhouette made just like this,'" Anand told the paper.
Her factory in Jaipur can deliver to US stores the imitation months
before the designer version. The factory is equipped with computer
programmes that approximate the design of a garment from a web
image without the need to pull apart the seams.
Anand created a gold sequined tunic nearly identical to one by the
designer Tory Burch. Bloomingdale's had asked her to make several
hundred of the dresses for its private label Aqua, she said. The
Tory Burch dress sells for $750; Anand's is for $260.
Simonia Fashions is one of many companies that make cheaper clothes
inspired by other designers' runway looks, for trendy stores like
Forever 21 and retail chains like Macy's and Bloomingdale's.
The increasing incidence of copying in the Internet era has made
Council of Fashion Designers of America lobby Congress to extend
copyright protection to clothing. Nine senators moved a bill in
August to support the designers. Imitations are estimated to
represent at least five percent of the $181 billion American
apparel market.
"The issue is also timing. These copies are hitting the market
before the original versions do," said Anna Sui, one of 20-odd
designers who have filed lawsuits against Forever 21, a
fast-growing clothing chain, for selling what designers claim are
copies of their garments. The designers fear that if design piracy
is allowed to go on unabated, it can put their business in
jeopardy.
Anand, however, maintains that they do not violate a designer's
intellectual property. "We don't copy anything. We tweak it. We
get inspired before we create it," she said.
She sees her work meeting the needs of the vast majority of
consumers who cannot afford designer prices. "The younger girls do
not have so much money but they want to wear fashionable clothes,"
Anand said.
Indo-Asian News Service
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