Adventures in Copyright
Adventures in Copyrights: The Art of The Ripoff
By Faran Krentcil
Confession:
We are smitten with the Forever 21 dress at right, inspired by two things at once:
The first, of course, is the famous Composition series by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian.
The second is a YSL sheath dress from 1965, currently housed in the Met Museum’s archives.
“But it’s a copy!” you say, and we’re like, yeah, we know, but it’s a copy 43 years in the making, or 80-something years, since Mondrian began painting his most famous series in 1922. (We still don’t plan on actually purchasing it.)
Is it wrong to hope next, Forever 21 makes a sheath with giant soup cans all over it?
(Yes, yes, we know, very wrong…)
Tags: Costume Institute, Forever 21, Mondrian, Vintage, YSL
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I know it is a copy but for someone
like me who can not purchase the YSL it is perfect !!!!
ugh I could never ever afford designer but I would neverbuy something that looks so cheap. Its like a long screen printed tee shirt. It would never drape as nicely as the ysl. The ysl shift is stunning. The F21 is … not.
Ok, I want it, and I can’t find it online. Can anyone get it on the F21 website?
I remember when Limited Express (or was it just The Limited) copied this back in the late ’80s/early ’90s as a dress and possibly sweater.
actually back in the days of the ‘paper dress,’ there was a warhol soup can dress…
Right, we know about the paper soup can dress, the point is that – like this YSL dress – it’s not available for the masses anymore!
if it isn’t in a stiff fabric that will keep the geometry of the print (like the ysl seems to be), the point is sort of lost, and it would be pretty unflattering…but that wouldn’t be the case with the soup can dress, I guess, if they ever make one @ F21.
don’t have to be snippy about it.. but btw they are on ebay pretty frequently.
http://cgi.ebay.com/CAMPBELLS-PAPER-SOUP-SOUPER-DRESS-NEAR-PRISTINE-WARHOL_W0QQitemZ370057051453QQihZ024QQcategoryZ554QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Maybe the F21 dress was inspired by the much more recent (FW 2007) Christian Louboutin “mondriana” platform? Which of course was a riff on Piet AND Ysl.
DvF did a Mondrian dress this spring and even called it the “Mondrian Dress.”
It is now on sale at net-a-porter.
http://www.net-a-porter.com/product/28163
guest at 12:15pm: it’s under the “fashion tops” section, ’cause it’s described as a tunic
guest @ 2:16 — much obliged.
Almost every dress firm at one time or another has used “Mondrian inspired” prints at one time or another. There was a time during the early 90s when Andrea Gayle kept pushing two piece “Mondrian inspired” sets on the public.
Whoopie doopie.
i actually really love this, and it reminds me of the outfits mary kate and ashley wear in their australia movie, which makes me love it even more.
I can’t believe DVF made such a copy after suing F21 for copying them.
DVF’s dress is not a direct copy like F21. they changed the fabric (to a cheaper material) and the sizes of the squares (just slightly). DVF changed the color and print; it’s “inspired”. this is not inspired, this is a knock-off. i was extremely jealous after going shopping with 3 friends and 1 of them purchased this dress @ F21; i LOVED it. i daydreamed about it. i wished i wasnt there on the shopping trip so i could go and buy it and pretend i didnt know she had it. but once i saw this, i was outraged. now i’m estatic that i never bought this. i would not be able to keep it without defying my own no-knockoff policy
I’m sure this has been mentioned on here before, but F21 uses American sweatshops (those that exploit undocumented workers). Plus, the clothes I do admit to owning…one shirt fell apart before I even got to wear it. Avoid!
i have that dress! i’m so happy i bought it when i did!