• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• Comment
• Facebook
• Digg
• Delicious
• Print

When I was 15, I went to New York City for the first time since I was a little girl. I fell in love with the city’s energy, people, history and most of all, shopping. But I never went into a single store on Fifth Avenue or any SoHo boutique. I did all my shopping in back rooms and out of trunks on Canal Street.

In the heart of Chinatown are little garages and shacks run by vendors selling postcards, “I heart NY” T-shirts and other cheap souvenirs. But the stacks of Chinese slippers and Hello Kitty toys are only there to hide closets full of knock-off designer hand bags, shoes and jewelry.

When I was in high school I was desperate to own anything Louis Vuitton, Coach or Chanel, but could barely afford to dream about buying the real thing. After doing some research, I learned about the “deals” Canal Street had to offer. The shopping experience was glorious. I bought bags for $25 and $40 that elsewhere cost thousands.

To me, this was the next best thing to owning couture. But to the fashion industry, I was aiding the design piracy business. Much like pirating music or movies, design piracy is the reproduction and distribution of apparel without any credit or compensation to the original designer. This is applicable to anything from gowns to luggage.

“Fashion has always been about inspiration,” states StopFashionPiracy.com, a Web site dedicated to raising fashion piracy awareness. “Designers are inspired by nature, by culture, by events, by other designers, but there is a difference between inspiration and plagiarism.”

Unlike other art producing industries, fashion is not protected by copyright laws in America. However, in 2007 a bill was presented to change that.

Passing the Design Piracy Prohibition Act will extend “copyright protection to fashion designs,” according to OpenCongress.org.

Unfortunately, as of the recent subcommittee hearing in May, the bill is still not passed.

Some see clothing as the first clean pair of jeans and T-shirt they come across in the morning. But for the people, who after years of school and hard work, finally create something innovative enough to make them designers, each unique piece they compose is an original work of art. The people who sell reproductions of designers’ works are stealing and destroying everything designers work for.

France, Italy and other fashion capitals of the world enforce laws against design piracy, and it’s time for America to support its branch of this billion-dollar industry.

For high school graduation my cousin gave me a Coach hipster, my first real designer bag. Last summer I carried the purse around the New York City, but after seeing all the fakes, my bag seemed less special.

I support the Design Piracy Prohibition Act because plagiarizing a fashion design is more than copying a product; it’s stealing someone’s unique creation, devaluing it and diminishing what it means to be a designer. Although I like the idea of making couture accessible to everyone, supporting fashion piracy diminishes the value of the couture I’d love to own.

— Esposito is a Overland Park sophomore in journalism and film.

• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• Comment
• Facebook
• Digg
• Delicious
• Print