People Keep Saying Fashion Is Dead
They don’t know what they’re talking about.
The fashion industry has a reputation for mystery, which I think it lives up to. The longer you’re in it, the more information you access because it is, after all, an industry that functions around an intricate web of relationships. It wasn’t until I spent almost a decade in the industry that I began to finally understand how this industry really works, so it’s always interesting to me when I see people outside of it, chime in with their commentary.
It’s not that the public isn’t entitled to an opinion, but often times they don’t have the full picture. The comments sections of social platforms are bursting with cheap shots - “This is not couture”, “It looks like a graduate collection”. Meaningful critique requires thought, something most of these comments don’t posses.
But now I’ve started to see this narrative coming from the craft community, a recent video from a creator on YouTube that touts luxury as dead, whilst also duping the designs of the fashion houses they criticise. You can’t meaningfully claim an industry is dying while using its most recognisable symbols to legitimise your own work.
The reason you want to recreate it is because you value the design. No matter whether your intention is to critique or show people how to make it for less, duping still quietly borrows the cultural authority of a designer label, even when the stated intention is critique.
If you think that the luxury fashion industry is dead, you’re missing more context.
The criticism I hear most frequently is that luxury used to be synonymous with quality. However, luxury fashion is, above all else, about a designers point of view. Alexander McQueen was famously poor to begin with, and used his dole money to buy bits of fabric, but also used scraps and materials such as plastic and PVC. He used both the right and wrong sides of the fabric interchangeably to save money but create texture and tension.
It’s not purely about quality. After all you want dupe it because you'e attracted to the design. In fashion a handbag or a jacket, is the material result of something which began as a creative idea. By buying luxury you are paying for a design team which create narratives, worlds and ultimately collections based on a creative vision.
I know a lot of people equate designer fashion with conglomerates, and some are, but many aren’t. Many are young / independent designers are making a living from their creativity.
There are many scandals related to quality in the industry, and this is not an excuse piece, we need to hold corporate companies accountable when they need to be (often). As with everything there are good actors, and bad ones. Calling luxury ‘dead’ flattens an industry that’s far more complex than a singular touch point.
However as much as a brand can be a corporate company, the design team in these situations has little control over the financial decision being made at the top. But imagine being given complete creative freedom with endless access, and any idea you had was ready to be brought to life by a team of skilled designers, seamstresses etc…
If you worked even briefly in a studio, or had any access to what goes on in making a collection you would understand that a large part of what we’re paying for is creativity.
However If you worked even briefly in a studio, or had any access to what goes on in making a collection you would have more context for the price point of many of these products.
There is also quantity to consider. The majority of brands only release 4 collections a year, less for brands that will include menswear in their womenswear collections (something more popular in smaller brands who can’t afford to create 4 shows). Some houses will add couture or resort collections. Many independent designers will only show once a year because of the cost. Thats nowhere near the amount of product produced by fast fashion. Cheap clothing is in the end expensive, you just don’t pay the price.
There is a waiting period, as we see collections twice a year in February for Autumn / Winter, which will release in September, and the September collections Spring / Summer which are found in stores from around February. These collections linger, they are not quickly replaced, because they take time, thought and effort to create.
Buying luxury is not a scam, it’s a piece of somebody’s creativity, a combination of vision and labour which will never be created in that iteration again. Which is why archival pieces are so valuable. It’s not a piece of mass produced repetition.
I release a lot of content on how to recreate luxury patterns because I love to celebrate design, and I have skill to do so, but mostly because I understand that having something made to measure for myself is the ultimate luxury. I might see a particular design which is limited to a few colours that are not flattering to me, or the sleeves might be too long because of standardised sizing. Duping is admiration and engagement with that uniqueness.
You don’t have to agree with me, criticism and disagreement are healthy, but you can’t have it both ways. You can’t call an industry dead while using its design language and someone else’s authorship to validate your own work. Duping is a form of engagement, and engagement, whether admitted or not, implies respect. If you don’t respect the design, don’t duplicate it. If you do, then at least acknowledge what you’re responding to.