A couple of days ago Stella McCartney launched a copyright lawsuit and sued Steve Madden over his BTotally bag, an alleged copy of her signature Falabella bag. The two bags look indeed rather similar and have very similar gunmetal frames and chains.
Yet, come the next Spring/Summer 2016 season, there will definitely be a rise in the number of lawsuits and copyright infringement claims. Why? Well, fashion is constantly recycling and revomiting itself. One recent example? The camera bag. 
Shaped like a classic photo camera, this bag is available in a wide range of models and at different prices.
You can go for the Kate Spade ones, or for Charlotte Olympia's and fashionistas who love the sort of glamour that sparkling crystals can give them, should opt instead for Judith Leiber's.
The high street was not immune to the trend and Accessorize also produced one of such purses – the Cara camera crossbody bag. But it looks like the curse of the camera bag is here to stay.
Charlotte Olympia included indeed a new version in her S/S 16 collection inspired by 20th century explorers (second image in this post, bag on the right) and, in Milan, models were swinging camera bags at the D&G show that promoted a collection celebrating Italy's tourist cities, including Capri, Amalfi, Rome and Portofino.
For fans of everything "Insta" there is instead Mua Mua's "Instagram" bag, or the cheaper and less cool imitation – the "Selfie Camera Bag" by Melie Bianco.
In between all these knockoffs and stolen ideas, you seriously wonder what will happen to fashion. If one idea gets copied and revomited at different levels and in various materials and with varying final results, consumers will feel at some point alienated by these silly and endless exercises in copying each other to start looking for something genuinely original and innovative, maybe produced by truly independent designers and craftspeople. Who knows, maybe the endless copying process so practiced in the fashion industry at the moment won't be that negative but it will even help destroying the system from within.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Related articles
