Kate Moss + Carine Roitfeld + Mario Testino

Fashion moves forward.
Carine is not longer at Vogue Paris and I can't wait to see her next fashion project.

Maria Cornejo Celebrates its Tenth Anniversary with A New Space in New York

I do ALWAYS carry my digital camera with me in case something exciting happens and needs to be snapped. But yesterday I decided I didn't want to carry it; after all I didn't plan to do anything special, just taking a walk. Thus I wanted to avoid extra weight on my shoulder... I wanted to feel light as a bird.

My friend Max called me during my walk inviting me to the opening party that Maria Cornejo was throwing in order to celebrate her tenth anniversary with Zero Maria Cornejo.
The venue was the new location purchased by the Chilean designer in Blecker street at Mott in Manhattan.

I asked; may I go home to change cloths and pick up my camera?... mais no!
Come here RIGHT NOW, this will finish in an hour...

So there I went, looking rather dull and with no camera to record the event.
The space was filled with super duper fashionable people, and it was a surprise that no one stopped me dead at the entrance (i swear, i was looking bad, bad): Victoria Bartlett, the people from Three as Four, Maria herself... I love Zero Maria Cornejo so it was a shame i wasn't ready to be introduced to her...

The space was big and very white, pictures of past collections and campaigns hanging on the walls and the most emblematic pieces of Zero on mannequins along the room.
Sorry I couldn't take any picture AT ALL.

Don't Come Knocking *

* thanks Wim Wenders for the tittle of this post

I met Shana Tabor (from NY vintage store In God We Trust) last Thanksgiving in a party we both attended.

At one point she started to tell me about some issue she had with Banana Republic. It seems that they knocked off a wool hat that Shana herself knitted for her store, and the copy was so perfect that now she was loosing money (how can she compete with Banana Republic's prices) and credibility (how can she prove that she designed the piece before? even if she does, how can anyone will buy the same piece in her store being the most expensive?).

is there any difference?

Weeks later my friend Zosen, a street-art artist from Barcelona, contacted me to tell me the knock off he was suffering from some random T-shirt company in Buenos Aires; it was copying not only Zosen's designs but also his own name!... (if you've been following my blog since the beginning you might remember Zosen from Amonstro Chocante).


The saddest part is that i've been a knocker myself when i worked for a big fashion company as a designer, so i know how the business work... to be hired by this companies you need to pass arduous interviews where they look and re-look your portfolio and they will only pick the best from the bests... to later ask you to trash all your creativity in order to copy someone else's ideas.
I guess they could save all this time and stress; you don't need to be a genius to knock off someone else's designs, do you?


Let me translate what Zosen sent me...

" ACID GUERRILLA copy-paste

I know it's no news that fashion designers copy one another, but it's unbelievable that the "new" ones, the "creative" and young are copying their peers as well... Viva the imagination!

Weeks ago some friends of mine went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to attend the Independent Art Festival Buen Dia.

They saw my designs printed in some T-shirts, the design was a poster I did for a solo show I had in Barcelona in June last year (2006).

My friends asked one of the guys wearing the T-shirt where he bought it, maybe in Barcelona?. The guy said, no, in Buenos Aires, then they asked if he knew Zosen; he had no idea...

My friends contacted me to tell me that there were T-shirts in this Art Fair in Buenos Aires announcing my solo show in Barcelona... with my name, the gallery's name and even the gallery address!. They copied DIRECTLY the design, changing only the dates and the website, writing theirs instead of the gallery's.

The knockers name is, take note, LOVERS&FUCKERS... really original!... After this i decided to take a look to their website to realize that they copied not only me but also designs from records from Sonic Youth, Sex Pistols, etc. I sent them an e-mail and the owner answered me; "he didn't know anything" about it, it was all the "designer's fault, he even said that such design wasn't even the idea he had of the look for his label... he asked me to please don't talk bad about them, he didn't want bad publicity for his label. But I wanted to share what it happened.

We ended up making a third-world deal and at least I got to get free t-shirts with the name of my solo show print on them.

COOL HUNTERS OF THE WORLD: UNITE!! "


----------


// El día de Acción de Gracias conocí a Shana Tabor dueña de la tienda de ropa vintage In God We Trust. Estuvimos hablando de mil cosas y entre ellas surgio en la conversacion el tema de las copias en el mundo de la moda, algo de lo que tanto diseñadores como tiendas estan muy al tanto hoy día.
Parece ser que Banana Republic habia calcado tal cual uno de los gorros que ella misma hace para vender en la tienda y que desde entonces habia estado teniendo muchisimos problemas para venderlos porque no podia competir con los precios de Banana Republic asi como con la "dignidad" de estar vendiendo algo que una gran compañia estaba vendiendo tambien; como pruebas que fuiste tu el primero que lo diseñó?

Semanas despues mi amigo Zosen, desde Barcelona me contactó para contarme lo que le habia pasado con una compañia de camisetas de Buenos Aires que habian fulminado tal cual el diseño de uno de los carteles anunciadores de una exhibicion que habia tenido hacia un año. Abajo os pongo el email que me mandó.

Lo peor de todo es que yo se de que va este tema porque yo misma he copiado. He sido diseñadora en una gran empresa por dos años y pocas empresas hay hoy dia que permitan a sus diseñadores crear en lugar de fulminar. Lo cual es gracioso porque para entrar en esas empresas uno tiene que pasar entrevistas maratonianas en las que se mira con lupa tu portfolio... para que luego toda tu creatividad te la tiren a la basura porque lo que quieren de ti es que copies, y ya está.


" GUERRILLA ACIDA copy-paste

Que en el mundo del textil se copie no es nada nuevo, pero lo que es ya el colmo es que tod@s es@s nuevos “diseñadores” copien también a sus congéneres. La imaginación al poder!

Hace unas semanas unos amigos asistieron a un festival al aire libre en Buenos Aires (Argentina) el Festival Buen Día. Allí descubrieron uno de mis diseños sobre t-shirts estampadas; el diseño en concreto era el poster de una expo que tuve en Barcelona en Junio del año pasado. A uno de los chicos que llevaban la camiseta le preguntaron: ¿dónde compraste la t-shirt en Barcelona? No, en Buenos Aires, ¿conoces a Zosen? No, quién es ese?. Así todo raro me lo hacen saber, que hay camisetas anunciando mi expo, con el nombre de la galería,el mío propio y hasta la calle de la galería!!

Habían copiado íntegramente el diseño, sólo cambiaron dónde aparecía las fechas de la expo y las websites por el nombre de la “marca”. Los artífices de la copia se llaman (atentos a la originalidad del nombre) LOVERS&FUCKERS, a qué no suena típico? Eh qué no?

Decido echar un vistazo a su web y descubro que no sólo me habían copiado a mí sino también tenían impresas t-shirts con diseños de discos de los Sonic Youth, Sex Pistols, etc.

Les escribí un email y el dueño me dijo que él no sabía nada que era culpa del “diseñador”,bla,bla y que LA COPIA no era su idea de diseño para la marca; menos mal porque sex pistols y sonic youth no son conocidos como para saber que el “diseñador” lo ha copiado de las portadas de sus discos!

Me dijo que no quería mala fama y que no hablara mal de ellos, por eso aquí les cuento mi experiencia. Llegamos a un acuerdo tercermundista y tengo algunas camisetas con el nombre de mi expo: GUERRILLA ACIDA!

Lo mejor las modelos luciéndolas que parecen que están con mucho calor del verano..

¡¡COOL HUNTERS DEL MUNDO UNÍOS!! "

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