I thought it was interesting that New York Times fashion writer, Guy Trebay’s column on fashion forgery, “Imitation Is the Mother of Invention”, showed up – not in the ‘Style’ section – but was somewhat buried in ‘Ideas & Trends’ in ‘The Week in Review’. Of course, this is not the first time that the paper’s style scribes have dealt with the subject of fashion designers copying other fashion designers. We all know that almost everything can be traced back to something else…especially if you dig deep enough. The best quote was made by the photographer Pavesi, who described how Miuccia Prada loved a vintage Balenciaga coat she found at Didier Ludot in Paris so much, that she “took it and copied it. But I mean copied it exactly. And this is Miuccia’s genius – to copy exactly.”
Miuccia is not the only designer who has raised copying to an ‘art’ (which is why seeing pictures of Yohji Yamamoto’s always inventive ready to wear collection, shown during Paris couture week, is so refreshing). Perhaps the CFDA should add ‘perfect copying’ to their list of annual awards.
