The President's War on Copying
To kick off New York Fashion Week, Wall Street Journal reporter Teri Agins asked fashion icon and CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg a few questions about the state of the industry. Here's what DVF had to day about the counterfeit question:
WSJ: What are the biggest challenges facing the industry today?
Ms. von Furstenberg: .... Another problem is counterfeiting and how quickly they just replicate designs from fashion shows. They copy you, and it gets into the market before you even ship.
WSJ: Why is the American fashion industry pushing for copyright protection for apparel makers in the U.S.?
Ms. von Furstenberg: At first, my attitude was, "Oh well, my clothes are copied everywhere. There's nothing you can do." And then I started to see how they pull it from fashion shows and copy it. You can see it on eBay. I started to say you have got to have some rules. You have to do something.
Laws are created to intimidate people [with the threat of litigation], to tell them no, you don't do that. The more I talked about it, the more I realized this is good for everybody. Even if you can't stop everything, they wouldn't be boasting about it. By passing a law and protecting design, you elevate the whole industry.
WSJ: People argue that copying propels the fashion cycle because it creates trends.
Ms. von Furstenberg: You will still have trends. Why all of a sudden is everything yellow? Why all of a sudden do young girls wear combat boots? It starts from the street. That's the mystery of fashion.
