Thanks for this post Faran! Is there any way you could post the full WWD article on Mayle closing? So sad!

“Jane Mayle’s decision to close shop”
What? Noooo!

ILY too Faran. get that Nylon paycheck girl….also PLEASE post Barney’s warehouse sale buys, if any…always one of my fave posts.

Really is there any evidence to support knock-offs really take away from the profits of an original designer? The designers you mention in most circumstances will not share the same customer base as F21 and thus there is no correlation that the designer with or without F21 would have shown a higher profit margin. Also, companies of ALL price points are guilty of using cheap labor. See the article here on D&G and other Italian brands ripping off Chinese laborers http://www.mirror.co.uk/sunday-mirror/2007/12/02/designer-labels-sweatshop-scandal-98487-20191613/. Thirdly, people of all income levels buy disposable clothing and your idea of what’s disposable may differ from someone else’s idea of what’s disposable. I’ve had an F21 dress that I bought from the sale rack that has lasted years whereas a pair of Miu Miu flats had to have the soles replaced after a month of wear. Also, there’s really nothing remotely original about the design posted in this entry. And I like the F21 better.

i like this feature..keep it up.

I support you on this, even though I really only object to direct copies (not inspired clothing). Your points on the environment, disposable clothing and sweatshop conditions are completely on point. If a dress retails at $21, someone somewhere is being screwed over (F21 like most retailers wants to make a profit and has costs to cover so that dress had to be made for a pittance). It also won’t last–the one F21 item in my wardrobe fell apart the first day I wore it. To my knowledge, it wasn’t a copy, but it made it a reasonably expensive buy–price per wear (real gauge of value), $20. If I had bought a $100 dress and worn it 20 times, it would be so much cheaper. My more expensive clothes last forever and are true bargains, even if I had to save for them.It is a false economy to buy the cheapest of cheap clothes.
As to Mayle, I am shocked and upset that she’s closing. I saw a girl wearing the Florinda F21 knock off yesterday and the only nice thing was the original design, rendered in cheap, paper thin shiny fabric which ruined it (the fabric was so sheer it looked like a plastic carrier bag). I think this has to have been a factor in her closing shop–it both ruins any exclusivity she might have sought while losing business.And, yes, if that dress had been $150 (a more reasonable price for it IMHO), I’d have bought one and she’d have sold boat-loads. At $500, I can’t justify a cotton jersey dress, like her original.
And that reinforces your final point, Faran. If Mayle had reduced her price point back to where it was even three years ago, I would have bought more of her clothes even at full price. She went from selling $300-400 dresses (still very expensive for most of us) to $600-750 ones. Her blouses similarly went from $250 to $450. I know clothing inflation has been rampant but I imagine sales would have increased if her prices had stayed more affordable. I am sure people wouldn’t be sweeping her sales racks and sample sales exclusively if her retail prices had stayed sane.
Now I’m wondering which independent designers will fold next. I love Lyell too but have suspected they would close for a while now. With costly rents, I can’t see many of these firms surviving in a depressed economy which is too bad.

There is definitely evidence that knockoffs take away from the profits of the original designer. It may not seem so bad for the likes of DVF who have multi million dollar companies and corporate backing, but for young designers it is a HUGE problem. For instance, ButterByNadia’s Signature Wrap Dress (one size, countless ways to wear it) is being knocked off like crazy (in unflattering colors and fabrics) by companies like Victoria’s Secret and Two Birds Bridesmaid. Every time the knock-offs get press, it steals thunder from the brooklyn-based designer who came up with design in the first place. It’s awful when a young designer’s creativity is stolen by fashion vampires.

interesting that a couple of you are complaining that there are never new and fresh designers on the site and the designer studio interviews (http://fashionista.com/designer_studio/) never seem to get comments…

I totally respect this, but I agree that these up and coming designers are not often featured on the site. I’d love more pictures of their stuff, more reviews (I know we’ll get a flurry during fashion week but rtw is coming out all the time and you don’t cover it often enough), more, well, fashion! And I love the designers you cited, but would love even more to have designers I’ve never heard of featured here.

Alright, well, getting back on the merry-go-around:
1. Yes, perhaps F21 and other designers should consider the ethics of ripping a small-time designer, but where do you draw the line and who will draw it? I could not afford Mayle, so if I get a version of a shirt at F21, how have I cost her business???
2. Well, so much of what we buy is “made in china”. Do you refuse to buy these basic household or electronics items, too? Target’s clothes are made in sweatshops, too–let’s not kid ourselves. Again, where do you draw the line?
3. Not always true. I am wearing an F21 shirt right now, which has made it through countless washing-machine cycles for the last 3 years. I’ve also bought shirts and jeans at Nordstrom which are being recycled as dish rags. Not to say I’ve also bought F21 shirts that became dish rags THE next day.
4. Sounds good.

i agree with everything you said but apparently that wasn’t the reason mayle closed.
The closure is not for financial reasons — the designer told WWD her business is healthier than ever — but rather due to the accelerating fashion calendar:
The customer gets tired before the collections even hit stores . . . That mystery and remoteness and insouciance have disappeared from fashion in order to accelerate the product. I feel I have just become another cog in that machinery.
from fashionologie

I also like adventures in copyrights post, simply because I think it’s interesting to see how high fashion trends translate into mainstream.
That being said it would be great to see up and coming designers featured.

o, ic.
so if shops stopped making knockoffs, people would stop using sweatshop labor? then everyone would use that extra twenty dollars to buy a pair of balenciagas!
and of course designers never use sweatshops, nor do their clothes ever rip or break.
wow fashionista, thanks for clearing that up for me.

Jane Mayle closing shop may also have to do with the fact that Phillip Lim does her production, and lately his clothes have been looking mighty similar to hers…Scandal?

Here’s why the tone of Adventures in Copyrights has always bothered me:
Some of us don’t have a lot of choices. I used to live in New York, but now I live in a college town in the Midwest, and my shopping choices are largely limited to the typical mall stores and a handful of small boutiques. There’s no sample sales, no Nordstrom’s Rack, no Tokio 7, no good thrift stores, no Woodbury Common (I wish!). There’s not even a Banana Republic. I know I can snag clothes online, but that’s more expensive and more difficult.
The other thing is that, while I follow fashion, I don’t have time to look at every slide of every collection on Style.com. (If I had my dream job in fashion, maybe …) I read Fashionista and a couple other blogs and I buy magazines, but unlike some readers, I don’t have an infinite memory for pieces I’ve seen. Which means that when copied things trickle down to F21, I may not have ever seen the original, or I may have forgotten I did.
And lastly: price. I’m a grad student; I’m not in the market for designer anything if I don’t find it on my yearly pilgrimage to Loehmann’s. I don’t think I’m taking away from anyone because the fact of the matter is, I’m not in the market for a $600 skirt. Maybe one day … but right now, I’m just not.
I would love to support small designers, but at the price points most of them have, I can’t. And I understand that they can’t lower their price points, either, that those high prices are necessary for survival.
In the meantime, I don’t seek out knockoffs, but if I accidentally wear one, I have a hard time feeling really guilty over it.

Faran, thanks for explaining you stance on Knock off’s in an objective and intelligent way (the more recent posts have been condescending and rude). However, if designers continue to price their clothing above and beyond what any college student can afford (most people generally interested in fashion are between the ages of 16-25), then people will continue to buy knock-offs. Its a 2 way street. You wouldn’t buy gas from a gas station charging $5.25 if the one across the street is selling for $3.69; even if its Premium. These are hard economic times!

#32–a lot of people over 25 are very interested in fashion. In most major cities like NYC, you’ll see people well into their 40s and older buying fashionable designers. That’s one reason why the price points are high. You’ll also see lots of rich people buying designer clothes for their teenagers. A little off topic, yes, but as an over 25 year old, I can attest that love for fashion/design/style doesn’t end in the college years. For many of us, it just accelerates.

2. Because knockoffs are made in poor conditions.
Plenty of brands that do not knock off are also made in shitty conditions. Increasingly, high end brands are being manufactured in Asia and the Middle East. Furthermore, a brand you recently championed, Zara, is made in the same environment as Forever 21.
3. Because fast fashion is shitty for the environment.
Fast Fashion/throwaway fashion is what you make it. There are plenty of millionaires who hoarde clothing or buy a tank for 200 and toss it. There are plenty of people who CANNOT AFFORD anything more expensive than Forever 21 who treat their pieces well and make them last as long as possible. This argument is extremely classist, but all your adventures in copyright arguments are.
4. Because we have hope.
This is the biggest load of bullshit. You constantly say things like “only $250″ and the like. To you, that is affordable. In the end, Forever 21 doesn’t directly affect your lives and stop imposing your values on others.

Great post Faran…seems like people don’t take the time to search in the site and read about the Designer Studio interviews that are great and support new Designers and not so new. Did you haters read the interviews with Anna Sui or Elise Overland or Henry Holland…as for the Adventures in Copyrights I just find them very funny because some of them are just ridiculous… if anyone want to buy them do it and the ones who don’t goot too. Both sides have their reasons to do it or not.

For me, as for many others, apparently, designer pieces are simply not an option; no amount of saving would make them a feasible purchase. And, like others, don’t seek out F21′s knockoffs, but I do buy from them. I have at least 6 shirts/sweaters from them that have held up about as well as a $5 garment can be expected to and since they are simple v-neck shirts, they’re not knocked off. That hardly matters though, buying from F21, no matter what it is, supports their knock-offs by supporting their brand. I wish I had the means to pursue other options, but my approach to fashion values a fair price over the authenticity that Fashionista seeks.
Further, though a designer/brand may support fair wage and low environmental impact, that doesn’t mean that they’re truly ethical or that their vision genuinely matches your own. I’d love to buy from American Apparel because their wage/environment ethics appear so fair; unfortunately, the way they present women in their advertisements and Dov Charney’s repeated sexual harassment episodes make me feel pretty yucky when I’m wearing AA. There are so many sides to consider when acting as a consumer, wage and environment are hardly the end-all be-all in an industry that supports treating women as objects/clothes hangers/mannequins, supports starvation and anorexia in young women, and generally cultivates an anti-feminist ideal.
Plus let’s face it, when you do an Adventures in Copyright, at least half the people who come across the article will use it to find affordable knock-offs. Everyone who suggested you stopped acknowledging the knock-offs and started acknowledging the designers is right.

So will you do a DIY of a Mayle piece still even though she is closing shop? This makes no sense if you are championing smaller designers or larger ones by teaching others how to knock things off, as opposed to creating something original for people to make. That is bad karma.

I completely agree guest 36, i love fashion i spent atleast 2 years plus countless time interning to get into fashion. I can not afford designer clothes maybe if i save the ocasional sunglasses.
250 for a shirt is affordable for me.
I have had stuff from f21 that has lasted a long time, and fell apart. The samething from higherend companies. Do not judge people on what they can afford and can’t afforf

Not to cause undue trouble, but I also notice the Richard Chai for Target banner ad at the top of Fashionista. Is that line certified as sweatshop-free? No? Well…isn’t there some hypocrisy going on here?

Thought you might find these interesting, I did wonder when I saw them what the legality is! For the record I have both the original pairs of these shoes and they are so far superior to the copies it’s ridiculous:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/draculesti/stevemaddentarget.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/draculesti/aldotarget.jpg

Right, #49, but then wouldn’t you just avoid buying BOTH f21 and designer versions, if you wanted to avoid a trend? Seriously buying into trends is the fast track to victimization.