Hasta La Ideas

Fashion design theft is an ongoing battle that has recently produced cases like Eddie Van Halen going after Nike and Trovata battling Forever 21, among countless others. It’s a fascinating topic and an interesting debate over how to protect fashion in some way similar to how music and films live under a banner of creator rights. So it was of particular interest to us to read this Reuters piece about the Design Piracy Prohibition Act, which is currently winding its way through the Senate. Essentially, the story pits designers Maria Cornejo and Isabel Toledo (who we were just recently talking about) against one another, the former being for the DPPA, the latter being against it. Cornejo aligns herself with the powerful, Tracey Ulman-loving, Council of Fashion Designers of America, saying our current system of copyrighting only labels and logos is essentially encouraging theft. Toledo, on the other hand, thinks the DPPA is a dangerous tool the higher-end fashion labels will use to monopolize the market, crying foul on any up-and-comer or smaller label who tries to cut in on their territory. It’s great reading/thinking, and in the end, both provide worthy arguments that we’ll leave up to you to decide on a side to pick for yourself.