Independent Designers Are The Victims Of Plagiarism?

　　 Art Creative plagiarism in the field is hard to define. It is even more difficult to decide who will copy in fashion design. In the view of local footwear designer Kim Kiroic, legislation for the protection of designer's intellectual property rights will be difficult to implement. This means that some independent designers with original ideas are becoming the victims of big brands plagiarism.

B= the Bund pictorial K.K=Kim Kiroic

B: you have others by yourself. Designer Or the experience of brand plagiarism?

K.K: Yes. In a shopping mall, I saw a pair of sports sandals designed for Korean brand Juun.J in spring and summer series in a popular local menswear store in 2010. At that time, I bought those shoes and took photos after I went home, and I put them on micro-blog. The speed of communication was very fast. There was a phone call from the brand side, and promised me that they would withdraw, but then there was no news. On the other hand, in the fashion week of Beijing a few months ago, there were models on micro-blog who broadcast some background of a brand. They took the shoes on show, and my friends forwarded them to me. There is also a Hongkong brand that has been copied. Now the wholesale market in Guangzhou can see this section everywhere.

B: did you expect it to be so popular when designing that shoe?

K.K: not at all. The original creation was in 2008, when it was done, it was purely fun, and did not know how to sell it. Later, Juun.J saw, invited me to cooperate, I made a slight change to the original, only now you see the version. Before my works are all sneakers, so I want to do a design to break the space structure of shoes, combined with the concept of sports shoes and sandals. It is the first time to make sandals into sandals. The popular Rome shoes are all improved on leather shoes.

B: since you found someone plagiarism, why didn't you pursue it again?

K.K: small designers have no way to deal with big companies. This industry is like this. Small designers try new ones. Design It will gradually affect the big brands and spread to the mass market.

B: in fact, a few years ago, Balenciaga also had a "plagiarism" incident. The splicing vest of their spring and summer series in 2002 was copied from the design of a late Chinese designer Kaisik Wong 1973, and Nicholas Ghesquiere also openly confessed it. So in fact, small designers still have the chance of recognition.

K.K: but we need the help of the media. Most of the time, we can not even live on our own. The most basic problem of survival has not yet been solved. Where do we get money and time to file a lawsuit with a large company?

B: have you ever considered going to a big domestic brand to be a shoe designer?

K.K: No. As far as I know, many brands are investigating me and taking me as their competitive brand. Maybe I seem to be a threat to them.

B: so, did you copy those of your brands at last?

K.K: Yes. The first brand's public relations phone called that micro-blog was passing too fast and their boss was very angry. I was later explained to me that their footwear designer was a deaf mute, so there was a problem with communication. I said nothing.

B: that's just an excuse.

K.K: I think they have been copying all kinds of things. brand It used to be copied from foreign designers, for example, in the past few quarters, it was copied from Kris Van Assche. But it's too easy to identify my shoes this time. Also, because their product development models are all procurement oriented, they can go to factories to find shoes and OEM. They will not invest in their own funds. They may not know who the original is.

B: designers always refer to a lot of materials before they begin to create works, but their works are not regarded as plagiarism. The general term is "inspiration", which is obviously different from the meaning of plagiarism. In your opinion, what is the boundary between them?

K.K: This is hard to define. To be sure, design is never out of nothing. It must be a combination and reconstruction of many old elements. The space of footwear design is not very large, but if the shoes, structures and materials are the same, that is the naked copy, but the curve design of my shoes is very special, and the works they plagiarized may not be able to do this.

B: in your opinion, how many brands do you copy?

K.K: not like that. Maybe the picture looks almost the same, but as long as the object is put together, it will be found that there are differences between the last type and the sole. The shoes are not properly made and the height is bad.

B: do you think you are a victim?

K.K: I don't think I will just tell myself that I should keep improving. I can't keep up with this design. I believe I can design the same fashion again. Now I see the wholesale market is my design, I think it is my affirmation, at least works quickly popular.

B: the American fashion designers association is pushing the legislation to protect the intellectual property rights of fashion design, but the design is unique and should be protected, and the so-called standards can not be found. Do you think such a law is likely to happen in the future?

K.K: it's very difficult. Even if there is one day's legislation, it is hard to say it. Effect Whether it will be satisfactory, because designers will feel constrained by law, bind hands and bind feet, but not as free as before. Imitation and creativity always coexist.

B: what else can we do to protect the rights and interests of designers? In order to put an end to the new series of imitation of high street brand, Tom Ford's women's wear conference this year only invited a few media, and did not release pictures until the new clothes were listed. What do you think of this method?

K.K: I always thought, was it because I announced in Paris that the time of announces the product was too early, which caused many other companies to imitate for a lot of time. But now I think it should be announced at the first time, and we can not hide away because we are afraid of being copied, but we should try to make everyone know that the first person designed like this is me. Many of the styles and styles of shoes and clothes we wear nowadays have been handed down for a long time. Any brand is being done. Who is the original designer, probably no one will remember.

B: this idea is more positive. What do you think of fast food chains like Zara and H&M?

K.K: the mode they live on is actually "borrowing the big cards", but when they use some marketing skills, such as collaborate with large brand designers, they can skilfully avoid this problem. Domestic brands will not do that. They are still in the stage of learning H&M and Zara.

B: is the situation of local designers very difficult?

K.K: This is actually a problem brought by China as a world production base. The production base and the consumer market are in the same place, which creates a rather difficult living environment for designer brands. Designers do not have enough resources, and the things they produce are not necessarily good enough, while other foreign trade orders can be much cheaper. Nowadays, the price of many products is not in normal proportion. Sale For example, why do we sell back shoes, why foreign countries sell 500 yuan a pair, we sell 50? In fact, 500 is the normal price, plus a lot of operating costs in it; 50 is basically the price of stock shoes, not the normal price. But the people are used to it. So, finally, designers and brands do not spell the design of a product. The real competition lies in the level of values and brand spirit. The key is how to make consumers loyal to you. Later, they were all lifestyle competition.