Fashion Simulacrum
(Left) Edward Weston, Study of Neil, 1926
(Right) Sherrie Levine, Untitiled, after Edward Weston, 1979
There is a word in the art world called “appropriation,” which means to use ready-made objects to express an idea. The best illustration is the ”Fountain” from Marcel Duchamp. In 1917, Duchamp bought one urinal, signed, dated, and renamed it. Then it became an art displayed in the museum. Similarly, Sherrie Levine did a replica of photograph of Edward Weston’s 1926 "Study of Neil." That’s called a “Simulacrum,” meaning: a copy without an original. It sent ripples of controversy in the art world. However, it holds an exceptional position in art history.
Fashion is an art, and it is doing appropriation all the time. As for the format, the constructions of dresses, pants, and shoes are stable; From an artistic aspect, we can see this both when Yves Saint Laurent launched his “Mondrian Dress” in 1965 and Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 1999 used “Jackson Pollock” style on a dress, they were not original ideas, but full of creativity coming from other sources.
However, fashion is not only an art form; It’s also a business.
That is why we see a lot of examples of luxury fashion accusing fast fashion like Zara and H&M. Luxury brands stand out and copyright their so- called “creativity”(even the creativity may come from the “appropriation” I mentioned before) to prevent others who copy gain more value and benefits than they do. But does accusing really work? According to Johanna Blakley’s Ted Talk on “Lessons from fashion's free culture,” she mentions, ”there's very little intellectual property protection...All they have, really, is trademark protection, and so it means that anybody could copy any garment...and sell it as their own design. ” The law doesn’t work, and this account for the success of fast fashion.
This makes me think of two stories that happened in the 1920's. Paul Poiret was one of the pioneer designers in Paris. When he came to the United States, he found that his most famous Minaret Style was reproduced everywhere. Since then, he devoted himself to protect his own rights till his death and financial downfall. However, Coco Chanel, his competitor at that moment, made her best seller, which is a navy color couture suit, into a cheap mass reproduced version (right, exactly what fast fashion do now), therefore gaining the reputation and wealth.
The role that fashion plays is converse, even incompatible sometimes. Designers should recognize that the commerce side wins out over the art side, especially since the law doesn’t protect them well. In the current fashion industry, brilliant designers have started collaborating with fast fashion. Copying has become perfectly justifiable and it’s a win-win strategy.
Another way is to find a new model.
Tom Ford is a designer with a very strong business mind. He doesn’t like his work being duplicated, but he knows there is no point fighting with fast fashion. He is one of the designers who advocates see-now-buy-now, breaking the traditional way to produce garments, which limits fast fashion from reproducing pieces over the course of six months.
