How designers are combating the counterfeit market

By: Anne Robinson

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It amazes me that some people can justify buying a fake or counterfeit designer item, by assuming that designers make enough money off their collections that the counterfeit market doesn't really hurt them.

Supporting this illegal market is the same as saying we have the right to determine when a wealthy person no longer deserves to make money off their work. Fashion is a business, not a hobby. It's about money.

High end fashion designers are very aware of the fact that their designs are being copied and sold around the world. There is a misconception that they don't care and ignore this fact. Designers are on top of this issue and have done a lot in attempt to end the counterfeit market.

Not only do designers lose millions of dollars each year because of the counterfeit market; they are now forced to employ people to fight against it and protect the company's trademark, which also costs millions of dollars.

Many counterfeit sales take place online, especially on online auction sites, such as ebay. Some designers have people employed whose only job is to monitor these sites. As soon as products go up for sale, the site or company is sued. In some cases, ebay has been sued for allowing the items to be posted.

Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Tiffany, L'Oreal, and Rolex are among the list of designers who have taken ebay to court over counterfeit items.

Some designers have gotten a little more face-to-face contact with the people selling counterfeit items. Thousands of raids have occurred. Most notably, Louis Vuitton is known for leading over 30,000 raids (mostly in China) of stores that are selling counterfeit items. In the case of a raid, store owners are arrested and sued, and the store is shut down.

Not surprisingly, technology is also used to combat the problem. The difficult part is making something that will be easy to detect but hard to replicate. Special chemically altered dyes are sometimes added to fabrics. Some designers are embedding devices to track what subcontractors do with the products. Tags with holograms are also becoming popular.

So, is the government cooperative in helping designers shut down counterfeit trade? In general, the answer is yes. This market costs the government millions of dollars. It also is bad for national security. The profits made from counterfeit sales often contribute to organized crime and terrorism.

In the end, remember what the Harpar Bazaar campaign against counterfeiting states, "Fakes are

never in fashion." If we could all live by this, we could quickly put the counterfeit market to shame.

Designers need you (really, they do!)

By: Anne Robinson

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The fashion industry has one main goal: "to provide a desirable and appealing product to satisfy customer needs, demands, or aspire to have."

You might ask yourself then, why is it harder to buy a designer item than it is to go to the mall and find a new outfit. Designer items can be hard to find at stores and may require months of saving up for the big buy.

Coco Chanel once said, "I like fashion to go down to the street, but I can't accept that it should originate there." High end designers don't want their collections to be easily accessible to every person on the street. An extremely high level of craftsmanship goes into the creation of every product.

Designers do need consumers though. They need us to be interested in them and their collections. Chanel also said, "Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger." Without any interest from consumers, designers would be out of luck (and work).

I have to insist that you follow this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGm8egzGiPY). It will bring you to a clip showing how Louis Vuitton shoes are made. It's really amazing, so go watch it...now!

Buying designer labels gives you the satisfaction of knowing how and where your clothes and accessories were made. These items are created through hours of human labor. Everytime you pick up a piece of clothing from the shelf of a retail shelf, you should wonder if it was made by a machine, operated by some poor child in China.

Buy from a designer and you will know, without a doubt, that the item was created by a skilled professional in excellent working conditions.

So, whether you are the type to run out and buy new collections as soon as they are available, or you just keep up to date on the new season's styles, you are doing your part to keep high end designers in business.

It's almost like designers work for us. (Well not really, but it's a nice thought.)

Creative or crazy?

By: Anne Robinson

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Recently, I've been branching out on my spectrum of designers I like to follow. It's a fact that my days are better when I'm wearing my Marc Jacob's Daisy perfume, but I realize it's time to explore new collections. So, in my attempt to learn more about unfamiliar fashion styles, I've come across some creative (or crazy, I haven't quite decided) designs.

Many designers have proven that you don't need a lot of fabric to create something fabulous. The WLIFW- Wills Lifestlye India Fashion Week- which highlighted upcoming Indian designer, Neeta Bhargava, showed a "botanic doodles" collection (shown here) that involved a lot of paint and artistry, but not much fabric.

If you are feeling really daring, give up your Jimmy Choo shoes and try a pair from German designer, Annejet Koster's artistic shoe collection. They are certainly one of a kind. And to give you a little insight into the mindset of her designs...her website is called 'Experiment' which explains..alot! I can't help but think that she got sidtracked and forgot to finish these shoes.

Now, here is one I like. Jeremy Scott (who joined the fashion world in 1997) works on collections that are said to be "more conceptual than wearable". He is best known for his clam-shaped dresses and one legged pants...so I guess that phrase about how everyone puts their pants on, one leg at a time, doesn't really apply here. If nothing else, he has shown the world that anyone with an old trash can in their yard can be a fashion designer.

And let's be honest, what woman would ever wear a skirt resembling a tape measure with the number 50 on it?

Borrowing designer clothes

By: Anne Robinson
amr8798@gmail.com

Celebrities have it made for them. I would love to have a red carpet event coming up and have designers calling me asking if I would like to borrow and wear one of their designs. Anyone who has seen any red carpet event knows that it's all about the names and labels. The first question any reporter asks is, "Who are you wearing?", and then the celebrity goes through their outfit, listing off all of the designers who have loaned them things for the night.

It can be a hard job for designers, making it nearly impossible for an unknown designer to win over a celebrity client. At a moment's notice, the designer must come up with different dresses for the celebrity to choose from. Many times it is the designer who has to fly across the country for fittings, etc. But, designers make out well too, gaining a lot of attention for their designs. Curious as to how much a trip down the red carpet can be worth for a designer? Well, Julia Roberts wore a vintage Valentino gown when she won her Academy Award in 2001, and it was estimated to be worth 10 million in publicity for Valentino!!

Don't think this is a relaxed stress-free situation. Early the next morning, personal assistants are usually rushing to get everything returned to the designers on time. However, occasionally celebrities ask to keep the clothes, in which case agents work out deals with designers. Usually, the celebrity would have to mention the designer's name a certain number of times on camera and then pay a huge amount (probably in the six figures) for the item.

This whole lending for red carpet business was started in 1944 when Harry Winston lent his friend, Jennifer Jones, jewels to wear to the Oscars. In the 1980s it became a more standard practice. It has proven to be a good way for designers to meet consumers in the "middle market".

There is always that special occasion that we wish we could be like a celebrity. You want a designer dress to wear to an event, but don't want to pay the high price and only wear it once, right? If only Caroline Herrara would call you to ask if you'd like to wear one of her designs. As it turns out, people thinking this way actually led to the creation of a website that enables people to "borrow" designer clothes, through the mail, wear and return them. It's called 'Wear Today Gone Tomorrow' (check it out at www.weartodaygonetomorrow.com). The program was founded by Madeline Muney Passarelli, the previous fashion editor of Lucky Magazine and daughter of a high end fashion designer. It is described as being like a Netflix program for clothes. You sign up online, pick out the clothes you want (you do have to pay a small amount, usually 90% off the regular price). The item is then mailed to you, you wear it, and then return it. Just don't expect everyone to be calling out to you saying, "who are you wearing, who are you wearing?"

Of course, there is always a little controversy. There is a continual debate about whether or not celebrities should be allowed to simply borrow these clothes. Some feel, in these harsh economic times, that designers would benefit more if celebrities were buying not borrowing. The other question that remains, in regards to the Wear Today Gone Tomorrow site, do designers mind that their clothes are on sites being borrowed by women across the globe? What do you think?

The process of producing quality: the beginning stages of creating a design

By: Anne Robinson

amr8798@gmail.com

As I'm sure you've picked up on, quality is an important aspect of designer items. The entire design process is about producing a high quality item. To better help you understand the level of quality in designer labels, I'm going to do a few brief posts on the process a designer goes through, from the idea to the finished product. For now, we'll focus on the sketching process.

In general, the entire design process takes about a year or two. Designers do a lot of research about current and upcoming fashion trends. Some do this research themselves, while others rely on trend reports that are published by fashion industry groups. In order to create a design, the designer has to know what colors, fabrics, patterns, and stlyes will be in demand when the item is completed.

At this early stage, designers sketch out many possible designs. They play around with different fabrics and how they will look with certain patterns, keeping in mind the styles of the upcoming season. Along with hand-drawn sketches, some designers use images from CAD (computer aided device) to generate what their designs will look like on a model. After a sketch is made, fabrics are draped over a model so that the design can start to take shape.

The truth about haute couture

By: Anne Robinson

amr8798@gmail.com

What do Chanel, Dior, and Valentino all have in common? Well for starters, I'd like to be wearing their haute couture designs on my trip down the Red Carpet....which I'm convinced could happen at any moment, so I better start planning my fittings.

To clear up any confusion, here I only refer to couture in its true meaning, which means that really cute half-off sweater I bought last weekend at Juicy Couture doesn't mean I can now say, "of course I have couture in my closet, what fashion-friendly girl doesn't?"

So, let's back up and have a quick history lesson on haute couture. Get your phones ready because you'll be booking a trip to Paris by the end of this.

In order for a courtier to be considered haute couture they must make their designs at their own premises. They must also take their collections to the press in Paris twice a year.

Haute Couture is a French phrase that comes from 'high fashion' and 'dressmaking, sewing, or needlework'. Couture items are made in Couture houses in Paris. Today, there only a handful of authentic couture houses. It means that a design is made and fitted exactly for you. The first step in the creation process is a sketch. Then, the design is sewn in toile- canvas material that can be adjusted and marked to fit the actual model. (Toiles are useful because they save designers from using expensive fabrics for the initial model) Next, the garment makes it's way down the runway. Then, clients can choose to buy the garment, in which case the client would have at least two fittings, so that the garment could be made to fit their exact measurements.

Expect to pay an exuberant amount...only the best fabrics are used and the manual labor is somewhere between 150 hours (for a suit) and 1,000 hours (for a wedding gown or embellished dress). Prices vary depending on the client's measurements, personal tastes, fabrics used, the amount of hours it takes to complete the design, etc. Some couture gowns can be bought for around $25,000 but don't be surprised if the price reaches into the millions. Samantha Mumba (picture here) wore a $9 million Scott Henshall couture dress to the Spiderman 2 premiere.

Often times today the term 'couture' is used out of context and refers to ready-to-wear high fashion clothing. In reality only a select number of couture houses meet all of the standards required to be considered haute couture.

But in the end, if you are fortunate enough to be one of the roughly 3,000 women worldwide who can afford to buy haute couture, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that your garment was made just for you, and that besides your closet, is can be found no where else in the world.