A fashion designer with couture-level talent must exercise caution when posting their designs online, especially on social media. Copyright does not protect designers who become the inspiration for others. Now that a legal loophole is enough to scare talented people into hiding their ideas, how can you ever make a living or find an investor if you never show the world what you can do?
My career as a designer began before the Internet. I have observed the field evolve from multiple perspectives. In the late 1970s, fascination with the rich and famous — particularly socialite women — prevailed. These women lunched, attended galas, and dined in French couture. Couturiers and their clients were frequent subjects of conversation. Newspapers and magazines featured stories about wealthy women through marriage, inheritance, or divorce, such as the well-publicized lifestyle and divorce of Ivana Trump, which, according to Wikipedia, awarded her $14 million and several posh properties. These women attended exclusive couture shows, where designers feared that someone might secretly photograph a model before she walked the runway. Some fashion houses covered their models in smocks after dressing them to ensure privacy. The greatest concern for French couturiers was likely American knock-off companies. Though now archaic, "knock-off" originally described garments closely copied or inspired by originals. Some were replicated line-for-line; others simply drew inspiration.
When I left Chicago and my couture clients behind, I was accepted as a student in the fashion design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1987. It was during this time that I learned more about how companies actually steal from each other. I spent two semesters at FIT, but the garment center was filled with jobs for people like me with pattern making skills, and I couldn't stay away. A few weeks into my first design job, I learned that I was not hired to create a line — merely to copy clothing that the owners and merchandisers purchased on daily shopping trips through the local New York market. However, it was on trips to Europe that more time and money were spent buying clothing to copy.
The owners and merchandisers filled my to-do list with "knock-off garments," and sometimes they wanted samples almost immediately — even standing over me while I ate lunch. The companies I worked for in the 1980s made millions of dollars by copying clothing that was already selling well. The practice in New York was so pervasive that companies were copying three to four levels deep: copying something another company had already copied, which that second company had obtained from a retail buyer who purchased it at a low-level store in Paris, which had itself copied it from a major designer. Even big-name design companies were knocking off garments from other designers. Sheesh!
Then, in 1994, a major case arose when Yves Saint Laurent won a lawsuit against Ralph Lauren in a French court. Ralph Lauren allegedly copied a tuxedo dress by Yves Saint Laurent, renamed it a "tuxedo gown," and placed it in the Ralph Lauren Paris boutique. The court decided in favor of YSL because the Ralph Lauren gown was a line-for-line copy of the tuxedo dress featured in the press in 1992. The case ended with a large infringement fine for Ralph Lauren and the seizure of the tuxedo gowns. It was a step forward, but it did not set a legal standard for knock-offs that incorporate changes considered mere fashion inspiration. At Stacy Menswear Couture, every piece is an original — including our Men's Faux Persian Lamb Edwardian Abbreviated Tuxedo Jacket, a garment that could never be mistaken for a copy.
Thus, a designer making special couture-level garments considered originals may still be copied, as long as the copycat changes something. It appears lawful to steal another person's ideas because no company can claim a date of origin — or can they? Since the invention of the Internet, social media, and now artificial intelligence (AI), many new legal lines may be drawn. First, e-commerce has no geographic boundaries, and laws may soon be enacted to protect the rights of vendors regarding copyright. Second, a date of origin can be established for a completely new idea upon posting the concept online. Third, AI may, in the near future, play a role in solving these crimes — if it is not already doing so. For example, AI can be programmed to scour the Internet to determine where an idea first originated. Even here on Shopify, AI tools can identify copyright infringement if required by law. Finally, if these points were ever made admissible in lawsuits, they could enforce global copyright infringement claims against all companies that steal from others on the Internet. Browse our Tweed Collection and Hand Painted Shirt Collection — each piece a testament to what original design truly looks like.
Don't be a copycat; the world loves an original — especially Stacy Menswear Couture!
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This is a short well written article that showcases and draws from some of the extensive knowledge available to Stacy Menswear Couture in fashion.
Wolf
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April 14, 2026