Testimony of David Wolfe, Creative Director The ... - Public Knowledge

For example, movies are highly influential to the fashion industry. Faye Dunaway’s
costumes in Bonnie and Clyde influenced American women to wear longer “midi” skirts after the
miniskirt trends of the 1960’s. Kimono-inspired clothing began appearing on runways after the
release of Memoirs of a Geisha. The New York Times recently published a story discussing the
influence the television series Miami Vice had on fashion: “The extent to which the show played
a part in the sartorial recasting of the American man is difficult to overestimate.”
Originality in fashion design is questionable when designers are explicitly influenced by
so many sources. There was little originality in the “midi” skirts that became popular in the
1970’s because those designers were inspired by the costumes in Bonnie and Clyde, which were
in turn inspired by the fashion of the 1920’s. If a designer today can be influenced by Miami
Vice and produce a pastel suit reminiscent of Don Johnson’s 1980’s attire, much like kimonoinspired
fashion became ubiquitous on the runways after Memoirs of a Geisha, then it should be
readily apparent that assigning originality in fashion is a great challenge.
Because it is so difficult to determine what is “original” about a particular fashion design,
it would be equally difficult to enforce a copyright fairly. For example, bestowing copyright to a
designer for the “little black dress,” ubiquitous in the wardrobe of every woman who attends
cocktail parties or concerts, would be unfair because there is no originality in a design for the
little black dress. Designer Coco Chanel is credited with introducing the dress in 1926 as a
symbol of urban sophistication, and every designer for the past eighty years has copied,
reinterpreted, and reintroduced the dress.
The Fashion Industry Has Thrived and Continues to Thrive in the Absence of
Copyright
Fashion has always operated without copyright protection in the United States. The
absence of copyright in fashion frees designers to incorporate popular and reemerging styles into
their own lines without restricting themselves for fear of infringement, thus facilitating the
growth of new trends. The fashion industry benefits from the constant creation of new trends
because new trends are what induce consumers to continually buy. The result is an industry that
in 2005 had revenues of $19.5 billion.
Fashion designers influence each other and appropriate each others’ designs into their
own lines. Chanel created her influential Chanel Jacket that fashion designers at all levels have
copied and redesigned from its release in 1916 until today. Chanel’s influence for the jacket
came from men’s jacket designs of the time. The influence of Chanel’s jacket can be seen in
designs for the past 90 years from Karl Lagerfeld, Adolfo, St. John, BCBG and H&M. Designs
are copied, and they morph and change over time, and so-called “original” ideas often originate
in the designs of others.
Designs and ideas that become popular in fashion do not always come from the design
studios of haute couture (high fashion for a wealthy clientele), but trends can also work from the
bottom up. Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg once said, “Everything in fashion begins in
the street.” While this is something of an overstatement, it does illustrate the point that fashion
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