XXX for XXX: Designer Collaborations

Anna dello Russo in Lanvin

Lanvin for H&M

H&M has just partnered with design house Lanvin to create a capsule collection. Let’s just say calling it a frenzy would be an understatement. One blogger The Shoe Girl reported her friends that work in a mall camped out in their store to get in line at the crack of dawn. Talk about dedication to fashion.

Lanvin for H&M was only distributed to 24 stores across the country. The H&M on Fifth Avenue in New York drew a line of 300. Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz pulled up in his towncar to check if a line had even formed. Not wanting to cause any type of riot, Elbaz stayed in his car. "I can’t believe it. I was sure there would be no one. I was a bit panicked," he said.

I’ll admit it. I have been to target at 8am to get first dibs on the “Tucker for Target” collection a few months ago. Was it necessary? Probably not. Worth it? Definitely.

Designer lines for major retail chains have been all the rage for the past few years. If I recall correctly, it all began with Target and Fiorucci in 2005. I remember getting really interested in the Go International collections when Target partnered with Luella Bartley in January of 2006. I was amazed that so many of the designs in these collections were essentially knock offs of the originals but in cheaper fabrics. After Luella came Tara Jarmon, Behnaz Sarafpour, Proenza Schouler, Partick Robinson, Libertine, Alice Temperly, Erin Fetherston, Jovich-Hawk, Rogan, Richard Chai, Jonathan Saunders, Thakoon, Alexander McQueen, Anna Sui, Rodarte, Jean Paul Gaultier, Zac Posen, and this December William Rast. The list of collaborations reads like a who’s who of fashion’s up and comers as well as established members of the community.

So- designers come down from their expensive high horses and offer the public a little bit of their genius at affordable prices. But, while many of these garments look like the real thing, are styled like the real thing, and are lusted over like the real thing- they are not the real thing. Thus, they do not necessarily fit or feel like the $2,000 version of that dress. Often, the collaborations produce garments that are made as they are priced…cheap.

I’ve shopped for quite a few of these collaborations. So far, the only one that has exceed my expectations was Tucker for Target. While the fabric can be a little static-y at times, the cut of the shirt is exactly like the original Tucker shirts. The same cannot be said of the other lines I have bought from Target, most of which are no longer in my closet because of poor construction. Designer collaborations are about give and take. You give up on quality, and take the cheaper price. 

Social Networking Soulmate

After perusing del.icio.us, I have finally found her (or him? it?). For now, we will assume that camihere, my social networking soulmate, is a her.

I found her after looking through people who had tagged "The Sartorialist", which is one of my favorite street style blogs. Many people tag this particular blog and go on to have major interests in other things, like photography, art, etc. But camihere was one of the first users to have fashion as one of her top tags.

Camihere has 350 bookmarks, 165 of which are tagged fashion, which is also her top tag. Next on her top tags is “blog”, which constitutes 121 of her tags. Following after are design, art, illustration, photography, inspiration, culture, flikr, and magazine.

One of the things that initially attracted me to looking though camihere’s bookmarks were the most recent ones on Paris.  I am going abroad to London next semester but my brother and I are going to France for a week first. The blogs she has bookmarked on Paris are just what I wanted to look for, but didn’t know where to start…fate?

Camihere doesn’t comment on her most recently tagged pages, but from her first tags I can deduce she lives in Spain, Mexico, or somewhere where Spanish is spoken. I find this very interesting because only a few of her sites I have gone to have been in Spanish. , Camihere has been using this site for about 3 years, but still tends to tag almost everything the same few tags. She may not be using the site very efficiently, or often, but has created a really good library of fashion sites- including blogs, designer websites, and shopping websites.

One website I found from my social networking soul mate is lefashion.com. The author posts what she finds to be the most beautiful and inspirational fashion spreads from magazines all around the world. This site is great to see spreads from various magazines that I would never see otherwise.

Another website I found from camihere is thecherryblossomgirl.com. Alix is a personal style blogger who lives in France. Her shoe collection is unreal- after finding her blog I looked through it for hours and hours trying to see every post. I didn’t make it through to her first posts, but I found it really intriguing to see her personal style evolution over the past few years. I think that personal style blogs will be an integral tool for recording the history of fashion trends and how people all over the world interpreted them.

While some of the blog’s camihere has tagged are not useful at all, she has really hit all the major points when it comes to fashion blogs and has tagged many more that will be useful to check out. 

Fashion Piracy- Annotated Bibliography

Image via curiocollective.wordpress.com. FOREVER21 KNOCKOFFS ON TOP, TROVATA ORIGINALS ON BOTTOM

Hedrick, L. “Tearing Fashion Design Protection Apart at the Seams[dagger].” Washington and Lee Law Review 65.1 (2008): 215. Print.

             

Fashion copyright has been pushed through Congress many times, but according to Hedrick, a successful bill has yet to come through, and therefore why no adequate laws have been passed. Congress must be careful with enacting laws about fashion design protection because it could become the model for expansion of the current intellectual property laws. Under the current intellectual property (IP) mechanisms, patents, trade dress, trademark, and copyright are incapable of providing protections for fashion design. Clothing is seen as a “useful article” and is treated as purely functional; therefore making fashion designs categorically excluded copyright registration and protection. There is now proposed protection under the Design Piracy Bills, backed by the CFDA (Council for Fashion Designers of America) that would give a designers the rights to make, sell, import, and trade the fashion design. Hendricks does not support this bill because of its drawbacks and makes the argument that a law such as this under the American legal system would bring about a number of senseless lawsuits. Also pointed out are the numerous expenses that would burden designers from lawsuits to protect clothing with a limited shelf life.

Hendrick’s article is useful for history given on the subject as well as information on current fashion copyright laws in Japan and European Union. While comparing the laws of these two systems with the American legal system doesn’t necessarily correlate, having background on the subject in other countries could strengthen an argument for the need for fashion copyright laws. While there is a clear argument in this article, the information seems to be on the objective side in the way the facts are presented. This source will be useful for the layout of the current proposed law, background of fashion copyright, and arguments for faults in the Design Piracy Bills.

ADR

Anna dello Russo is what you could call the Lady Gaga of the fashion industry. A self-identified “pasionista fashionista”, dello Russo has dedicated her life to the art of fashion. ADR, born in 1962 in Southern Italy, she wasn’t necessarily in the epicenter of the fashion world. But, according to ADR herself she has always known “I want to be fashion”.

  

Anna first began her work in fashion at Vogue Italia and worked her way up to Fashion Director. She now works at Creative Director and Editor at Large of Nippon Vogue (Japan). The funny thing about ADR is that I have only just begun to look through her spreads in the past few weeks after researching her. But, I have been salivating over he style for months- she is on every fashion blog during every fashion week for her outlandish style.

  

With the increasing popularity of street style blogs, ADR has become an Internet sensation. I feel like the general public sees the fashion world as nonsense- and in some ways it is. They are not curing cancer, or solving world hunger- but they are adding a flair of fun to people lives through magazine spreads, clothes, and accessories. No other editor enjoys taking fashion full on as dello Russo.

  

Unlike other editors, Anna wears full runway looks. She takes the vision of the designers, and puts it on. Of course, runways looks are meant to be mixed and matched, and styling pieces from each designer is part of what makes a great editor. But, I think part of what makes her such a designer darling is that she respects their vision.

But ADR is far braver than other editors by taking on the riskier looks that flank the runways. Tommy Ton of jakandjil has snapped Anna multiple times en route to shows in see through lace looks from Dolce and Gabbana. I only hope that when I am Anna’s age, I can pull off such a daring ensemble.

She does not mix and match, and she does not re-wear. While her clothing practices may perpetuate the ideal that the fashion industry is ‘ridiculous’ and ‘frivolous’, but Anna lives and breathes fashion. So much so, that she has a separate apartment for her clothing collection and accessories- that is kept at around 15 degrees Celsius, the ideal temperature.

Her dedication to fashion permeates her love life as well. Anna dello Russo does have a boyfriend, but doesn’t live with her because, well, there is no space with all of her clothes.

I find Anna dello Russo a living reincarnation of Grace Coddington- American Vogue’s creative director. Grace is the real genius behind the styling of Vogue’s fashion spreads. She doesn’t worry about sales, celebrity, or what is current. Grace just lives for fashion that is beautiful. And ADR? She lives to wear fashion that is just beautiful. 

All Photos via jakandjil.com/blog and annadellorusso.com