Adventures in Copyrights: Olsen Edition

Jun 06, 2007 @ 9:14am

olsen twin dresses.jpg
Teen Vogue's Kimball Hastings brings new meaning to the term "Olsen Twin":

In a recent blog post, he compares an Elizabeth & James dress with one worn by Mary Kate to a Zac Posen party.

The dresses are nearly identical, right down to their slight bell sleeve and the width of the sequin stripes. In fact, the only difference is that Mary Kate's dress looks violet in the light, and the E & J shift goes green. The story seems to indicate that the Olsen's latest line may have a Kate-for-TopShop strategy: copy every vintage Olsen dress that's ever been photographed.

Meanwhile, Ashley's tuxedo dress for The Row is slightly more credible in the design department, though it borrows heavily from the famous YSL tux dresses, and then from Phillip Lim... the interesting thing about this dress, though, is how tall and long Ashley looks in it, despite her famously tiny frame.

Either The Row's clothes run incredibly slender, or Ashley has the best tailor in America to do her alterations.

Comments

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posted by tim

Jun 06, 2007 9:26AM

that sequin dress is such a joke!! zac needs to have a long talk with mk&a. despicable!!

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posted by greta

Jun 06, 2007 9:44AM

uh oh. michelle tanner is a thief!!!!!!!!

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posted by Brittany

Jun 06, 2007 10:47AM

They do have incredible tailors. When they had the show "Two of a Kind" they used to alter adult sized clothing for themselves, which, as an eleven year old girl, made emulating their style that more difficult for myself.

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posted by guest

Jun 06, 2007 11:10AM

or...the dress is one-off pre prod made for her? the tux dress sucks, though...really unimaginative and to me she looks like she's swimming in it. not to mention that rolled up jacket sleeves just make me think of ross/chandler in 80's flashback Friends episodes...

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posted by Eli

Jun 06, 2007 11:34AM

The point about the sequin dress is very interesting. And it makes sense. I mean, at least it's not Imitation of Christ or Libertine who were actually putting vintage clothes on the runway as their own. Either way, it looks good on Mk, very blah on the model.

And of course they have great tailors, how could they afford not to?

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posted by Laia

Jun 06, 2007 11:39AM

Yeah, I thought that tuxedo dress looked very YSL, so I was surprised to see that it was from their line.

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posted by a8

Jun 06, 2007 5:20PM

Now this is interesting AiC stuff, truly examining "inspiration" and "theft" at the designer level ... not cheap knockoffs from F21.

Of course maybe Ashley "borrowed" the design after interning there!

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posted by ashleydc

Jun 06, 2007 5:48PM

Why are all these celebrity clothing lines simply copying/modifying clothes the starlets have already worn?

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posted by Anna

Jun 07, 2007 8:56PM

It's funny that this comes up, bc the white dress that Mary-Kate wore to the CFDA awards looks AWFULLY familiar, like something Ashley wore a few years ago at an event. I think it was even white too. I can't find a pic for the life of me, though.

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posted by joe

Aug 19, 2007 12:57AM

both looks are great, its very typical for the fashion snobs to critized. though i dont hear anyone critized mr. lim copying ysl. whether or not you like what the olsens wear, they both are true to there own personal style and dont have anyone dressing them. as for there clothing lines, and as well as fashion there is nothing 100% percent original, not even work from balenciaga. what is new is the innovations within the designs. the mix and the match of ideas. and the olsens have always been on the front line of what it means to be fashion and is probably precisely why Vogue and many fashion outlets have taken them seriously.

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posted by guest

Oct 31, 2007 3:34PM

I still don't get how Kate Moss copying her own clothes in her own closet for her TopShop line is not a form of copyright infringement. Her knockoffs are just as bad as buying knockoffs in general, methinks. I also don't know why anyone would want to buy / wear A/MK "designed" clothing.

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posted by s

Oct 31, 2007 6:05PM

she's wearing a dress from her own line. that's why they look the same...

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posted by guest

Nov 04, 2007 11:44AM

she is def wearing an elizabeth and james dress to the zac posen party...maybe that guy should do some research before he writes things like that, and i'm not even really a fan of their lines but ppl were also doing tuxedo dresses before the ysl version, the fact that it is slightly different is kind of a huge part of fashion, one look trend will always inspire more of "the same", as long as its not just some horrible rip off..and i'm sure it could be styled in ways that make it even more different from the ysl version

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posted by Ginge

Nov 04, 2007 3:35PM

To clarify, MK wore the sequin dress to a Zac Posen party, but it's not one of his creations - she said at the time that it was vintage.

It's my understanding that said party happened before the whole Elizabeth & James thing. In other words, she's not wearing one of her own creations there and it is indeed a matter of copying a vintage piece.

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