Fighting for the Copyright

American Apparel versus Urban Outfitters

When I heard that Maria Cornejo tried her luck in Washington, DC along with Thakoon Panichgul, Narciso Rodriguez, and Jason Wu, lobbying for a copyright law on clothing designs, I couldn't help but think of Urban Outfitters brazen rip-off of American Apparel's designs this season.

But what's really at stake here? Well, I'll admit, I'm the first person to head to Forever 21 to look for a dress similar to that to-die-for Betsey Johnson dress I saw on the Spring runway. But let's be honest, I'll be paying $20 for a low quality dress that I could probably wear no more than twice. I am sacrificing quality, and that's okay with me as long as the price tag is SUBSTANTIALLY different.

But when another designer completely rips off your design and then charges MORE for it, that's when I get really confused. How could Urban Outfitters blatantly copy the interlock skirt, figure skater dress, pocket skirt, afrika print leggings, to name a FEW and then charge MORE?!

The United States and China are the only two countries which do not have copyright infringement laws when it comes to fashion design. In the UK, a designer has the right to sue anyone who copies his/her garment.

Stores such as Target, H&M, and Uniqlo gives us the chance to purchase low priced designer duds that are created by the actual designer thanks to a myriad of designer collaborations. A designer catering to celebrities and the upper crust such as Alexander Wang, Balenciaga, Balmain (...you get the point) is less threatened by a copy at Forever 21 because their customers would not dare step foot there. But as American Apparel are competitors, this is where I see the need for a copyright law in the world of fashion design.

Your thoughts?

Reason to Stop Mourning the Loss of Our Monday Night Addiction

For East Coast fans of MTV's "The Hills", Whitney Port's spin-off show "The City" was a huge hit. With talks of the Hill's final season in the works, we are expecting a return of the DVF crew on a second season of "The City". Even more exciting (or not?), Audrina Patridge, LC's faithful sidekick, will be filming a show with Mark Burnett featuring her life after the Hills.

Mark Burnett is credited with shows such as "Survivor" and "The Apprentice" and has certainly proven that we can only expect great things from him. The new show which is currently untitied will allegedly be edgier than The Hills. The new show will cover more of her life and the California lifestyle. Will this mean that we'll actually get to see the Paparazzi encounters and life outside of the Lauren Conrad bubble?

And what will happen to Justin Bobby? While Audrina can't dispel the ultimate outcome, she promises that the tumultuous relationship will ultimately be transcended and she promises new love and new romances. Audrina's relationship with Justin Bobby is similar to our relationship with The Hills: so utterly wrong but so completely addicting we can't help but come back.

Audrina is also pursuing a film career with a role in the straight-to-DVD sequel, "Into The Blue 2" and the gory remake of "Sorority Row" which will hit theaters later this year. Hey, you have to start somewhere.

And what about Spencer and Heidi? Actually...do we really care?

"Look It's A PBR Fountain!

So if you know me, you know that I'm obsessed with Hipster Runoff, the blog that sarcastically and brilliantly pokes fun at all of those pseudo hipsters and bizarre, "ironic" tendencies and stereotypes that we all know and love.


So when I came upon "Look at this f-ing hipster" recently, I was SO happy to add another blog to my reading list. The blog kind of reminds me of the Sartorialist only Scott Schuman doesn't add scathing comments to the bottom of his pictures.


We've all seen them. On the L train to Beacon's Closet in Williamsburg, outside Lit Lounge in the East Village, actually EVERYWHERE in the East Village. Those poor unfortunate souls that would do anything to make it onto the Cobrasnake. But when trying to seduce Mark into making them his new Cory Kennedy-esque muse doesn't work, they turn to other antics.


And Look At This Fucking Hipster is the perfect venue for making fun of those PBR sipping people in the ripped tights that make your head turn and make you utter obscenities under your breath. Amongst my favorite snarky remarks are “This is what a retarded chicken looks like.”:


I also appreciate the wit behind:


“If I didn’t already know I was listening to Animal Collective on these headphones, I would bet myself $100 that I was listening to Animal Collective on these headphones.”

They got my attention. I'll be checking back daily and possibly even sending in a picture of my own.

Tres Rip-Off

For some reason, the "Chanel essential tote" doesn't seem so "essential" to me. Priced at $2265, the medium sized tote resembles Bloomingdale's "Brown Bags" which go for a reasonable $35.

I'm all for the reusable totes. I have my Whole Foods and Trader Joe Bags that I purchased for $1, my free topshop tote, an NYU green tote. I even save all my cute shopping bags (admit it, we all do it). In this recession, $1 for a tote bag is in my opinion, reasonable. $2265 is not.

I am always impressed with Karl Lagerfeld's designs and this time is no different. The adorable pink, black and white leater totes are fashion forward and functional. But unfortunately, the price tags are not.

The bag is modelled after the instantly recognizable shopping bags at the 31, Rue Cambon flagship store in Paris. And I'm sure that these bags will pop at 31, Canal Street as they are so simple and probably ridiculously easy to replicate.

While the bag itself is tres chic, for $2265 we can do better, no?

Sam Edelman Has Us Nostalgic for Balenciaga Knock-Offs

Do these Sam Edelman boots look familiar? When MK Olsen first stepped out in the real, Balenciaga version of these killer boots, everyone who voted for George Bush and over 25 were stunned at how anyone could possibly walk out in these. I for one couldn't get enough. I'd scour the internet looking for papparazi pics of her gallavanting around town in these babies. So admittedly, when killing time before an interview, I stopped into the Payless near Penn Station and was met with sheer bliss when I found a pair of Patricia Field for Payless boots which my friends call my "dominatrix boots", for $14 on sale, a steal:




Call them what you may, but these precious little things have never let me down. Without fail, everytime I step out in these I am asked where I found these gems and I respond with a smug "Payless". We all love a deal, which is why I was so thrilled to hear that these Sam Edelman boots that are hauntingly similar to the orginal Balenciaga's may come back with a bang in a limited quantity.

According to cigarettes & bribes, Sam Edelman is considering resurrecting these boots for a limited time. And no matter what your mother may say, grunge is here to stay, and we couldn't be more happy. You know I'll be on the lookout!

"The Hills" Is Back!

I couldn't let another day go by without talking about the season premiere of "The Hills". Can we just talk about Lauren Conrad's lipstick? I know Twilight is big now but really LC? I'm not sure that blood red lipstick was the best choice for the first episode of the last (tear) season. According to Lauren Conrad, she's throwing in the towel at the end of season 5 and moving on to bigger and better things.


This may include her clothing line which is on hiatus as of late, which according to her is due to a sluggish economy. But according to Page Six, her line hasn't been selling in Kitson or Bloomingdale's which doesn't seem surprising to the exorbitant price tags and mediocre designs. But according to Conrad's PR people, she is planning to revamp the line, utilizing more high end fabrics which will further increase her prices.

But she's not stopping here. Rumor has it, Conrad will be releasing her first book in June of this year entitled "L.A. Candy". The book is allegedly about a 19 year old girl named Jane Roberts and seems awfully autobiographical. Does "The Truth About Diamonds" by Nicole Richie ring a bell? Who knew this girl could write? Well...that remains to be seen.

Anyway, the premiere was filled with melodrama at it's finest with an uninvited Heidi showing up at LC's surprise birthday bash. The night falls apart as Lauren figures out that Stephanie must have invited Heidi because little angel Lo would never do such a thing. Sorry, but that girl is trouble. When Heidi finds out that Spencer is hitting on a sleazy bartender, the night completely descends even further into the abyss as Heidi and Lauren cry about their ruined relationship and Spencer beats up Stephanie's ex-boyfriend.

After Heidi gets confirmation from Stacie, the bartender, that Spencer was unfaithful, she runs home to her mother in Colorado. It's probably not the best idea to bad mouth Spencer to her mother who already despises him. At dinner, Heidi's mom invites Heidi's "first love", how romantic, to join them and continues to shower him with compliments which was totally awkward. It reminded me of my own mother and how she like to pull the old "hey, have you met the new neighbor? Heard he goes to Yale! And oh...he's a nice Jewish boy!". Well isn't that ironic? As Spencer is back in California seducing Stacie, we are left to reflect on this season's sartorial choices.

Heidi's dress was cute, if it were 2 seasons ago. We love sequins but I'm pretty sure I almost wore a similar dress to my high school prom. You already know how I feel about LC's lipstick. I understand that she was trying go for the old school Hollywood glamour with the pearls, but it just didn't suit her. I definitely think Audrina could pull of the messy side ponytail but Heidi just looks so much better with her usual overdone hair. I actually really liked Stephanie's shirt that she wore with LC when they went to the fabric store. I'm really into colorful, geometric 80's prints even though I'm usually not a huge fan of Stephanie's fashion choices. I'm still definitely a fan of LC's classic braid. I almost hate to admit it...but I kind of miss Whitney. After season 1 of "The City" and seeing her stick out like a sore thumb in New York, I'm just waiting for her to get back to LA where she belongs. And even with all the drama and horrible acting, you know I'll be back next week.

Haute or Homeless?

First, I want to just say that I just got back from Tina Parol's set for her upcoming video "Who's Got Your Money" in Long Island City and she's just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. Check out her myspace: www.myspace.com/tinaparol. She's so awesome, and she went to NYU for a year :) The set was so fun, the dancers were great and the makeup artist was off the hook. I'll be posting the interview to http://www.andspeakingofpink.com/ later on today. The interview was to go along with the Ultimate Prom (http://www.mypromstyle.com/ -a CosmoGirl affiliate under Hearst) The designers are great and I'm going to be blogging about it on andspeakingofpink as well so check
it out!

Anyway, after my girl Lizzie asked me my thoughts on the whole ripped tights trend(?) I decided it was worth
'blog-worthy':

"So maybe you can tell me what the deal is with people wearing ripped tights? Is this the new trend or are people just too lazy to buy new ones?"

I guess if we trace the idea of ripped stockings back through fashion history, we'd probably be left circa 1990 with grunge, flannel shirts...Nirvana. I'd say laddered tights fit right about there. With the 80's being the decade of choice right now, chronologically, the 90's are next.
In 2008, Alexander McQueen showed ripped tights on the runway and the trend really took off from there. As the father of neo-grunge, McQueen's novel look found it's way into the mainstream through street fashion websites of NYC's finest hipsters parading around in granny boots and leather jackets.

As an NYU student, I see many a pair of ripped tights everyday and while purposely trying to look homeless is not necessarily akin to making a fashion statement, there's something slightly intriguing about the trend. The badass vibe is kind of cool if you could pull it off. Just please... don't pair laddered tights with uggs and a denim skirt. And don't make it look accidental. If someone has to tell you that you have a run in your stocking, you're probably not edgy enough to be wearing these. In which case, go back to Abercrombie and buy a pair of ripped jeans...I'm sure you can pull those off.

So what do you think guys...yay or nay?

K-Fed...Really?

Now that's a role model if I've ever saw one...

I'm not sure what made Kevin Federline think he was qualified to design a children's clothing line. Honestly, would you let your little 8 year old wear a tshirt designed by the man causing Britney to go commando, shaver her head and go on a purple drank diet? I think I'd let my child spend the night in bed with Michael Jackson before I went out to purchase a t-shirt from Federline's "affordable" line.

I can deal with every has-been celebrity creating a "signature scent" in an effort to revamp their image. But really...what credibility could Kevin Federline possibly have as a designer? Maybe Brit-Brit finally cut the gold-digging ex-rapper off and he's looking for a way to earn a few extra bucks.

Well, I guess it's nice that he's offering an economic option for parents who can't afford to dress their children in True Religion...on second thought...when was there anything wrong with Old Navy? Or even American Apparel for god's sake at least they're verticalaly integrated and don't have poor little kid's in Vietnam working in sweatshops...I'm thinking that's a little more child friendly.

You know what they say...if you don't make it in the music industry, you might as well try your luck in the fashion industry.

Poor guy...he's going to be eaten alive.