Inspiration rationalization
June 22, 2006Today I was browsing through the online catalog of a store I wouldn’t shop at even if I hadn’t taken the pledge. I won’t mention its name; I’ll just say that I always want to mispronounce it as “Arthropodigie”, like something to do with insects. It really is a shame that this store (and that other store, you know the one) are owned by someone with such a reprehensible political agenda and unscrupulous business practices, because daaaaamn they have some cute clothes.
I used to love to browse in those stores, never spending any money there but getting ideas for things to make (or possibly to buy elsewhere). But every time I hear they’ve ripped off yet another independent designer’s work, copying it verbatim without permission and sweatshop-producing it without credit, I get more reluctant even to look at their products. Of course their stuff looks really cool, I tell myself. It’s because they plagiarize from every creative source they can find.
And therein lies my ethical dilemma. If I copy something I’ve seen in this store, not knowing the store stole the idea in the first place, does that make me a participant in the theft? My disdain for the store makes me want to say yes. But then I have to admit: If I saw the real designer’s original product and liked it but didn’t want to buy it, I’d probably have no qualm about making a similar item for myself. And following the same logic, isn’t that worse than if I believed I was just imitating something mass-produced?
So here is my rationalization. I’m only making the thing for my own use, not to sell. And I wouldn’t be copying it exactly, just getting the general idea and then using different materials and making modifications. And of course if anybody asked, I’d be sure to tell them where I got the inspiration for it: “So&So makes the neatest things that are kind of like this, and I thought it would be fun to try doing something similar.” I think all that is ethical and honest and fair, isn’t it? I’d be interested in getting some actual designers’ opinions.
Anyway, the Arthropod store does have some really really cute clothes, and my not shopping there is even more a moot point because they don’t carry my size anyway. I wrote down the names of a bunch of styles I liked, and I plan to have fun seeing if I can approximate those looks on my own. I need a new wardrobe for my new job, after all.
I believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. You should not feel guilty about making something for yourself that is inspired by what someone else makes! That person was inspired by someone else, who was inspired by someone else, and so on and so on. . . Go for it!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment on my post the other day. I’ve also thought that I must be the biggest refashionista!
Now about this post here, I read this soon after you posted & it has been sitting round my head since (I am quite a slow thinker). I’ve read quite a bit about this store in blogland, we don’t have it in OZ but we have some others that rip off the work of independent designers & turn it into mass produced product. While I think that big stores copying stuff without credit is generally reprehensible and the conditions under which they make the clothes even more so, I also think it’s a fair call to be influenced by what you see.
Most design is not totally original in the first place. It takes something from here & another element from over there and is mixed with the designers unique vision & the circumstances of their creation. Even if you tried to copy something pretty much pat, this would happen; you’d be thinking well, this is the colour I like & it would work a bit better for me if… And so what started as a Arthropod copy would become a Katrin original. Because this is what humans have been doing ever since we got fire & thought it might work better with some rocks around it & so on…
Sort of related, my sister was reading Wardrobe Refashion & saw your sassy pants. (We love the sassy pants & photo of said pants, very cool) & she reminded me of the pants she used to make back in the late 90’s which got copied all around subcultural Melbourne. Did she start the trend? Hard to know. Do we think it matters? Not a bit.
Her pants were a restyling of jeans that made them not only bigger but very, very flared (we were into the outdoor rave scene back then). Her comment was that it was interesting to see someone very removed in distance & time come up with a similar, but also different answer, to making small pants bigger & more stylish.
hi there, I was just wondering what information you have on this company and what the source is. I actually interviewed with the people responsible for many of their designs. They had racks and racks of vintage… and vintage inspired looks are, no surprise, often featured on the store’s racks. But vintage has inspired almost everyone. The company is now using some other designers, some girls I know of who have a reworked vintage shop. It doesn’t seem like their style to blatantly rip off another designer, so just curious on what you base your comments.
Also, please do tell me of the political agenda and business practices as i am woefully ignorant. I don’t shop in these stores, and pretty much don’t shop anymore aside from ebay, but I am curious nonetheless.