We live in a very visual world: we constantly take pictures with smartphones and post all sorts of photographs on the social media, chronicling different moments from our lives - from something we may have seen in the street or in a museum to exotic locations we may be travelling to, from fancy foods to the latest purchase added to our wardrobes. Like the rest of us, fashion designers and their teams often take pictures that they may not share, but that they may be using as inspiration for their collections. Yet, if you fall into these categories, you'd better take into consideration what you're photographing and using for a commercial product as it may be copyrighted (think about graffiti).
You want a basic example? You will find it in a story published around ten days ago in some Scottish newspapers. Fashionistas may remember Alexander McQueen's S/S 17 womenswear collection that moved from a trip to the Shetland Islands. The actual runway of that catwalk show was covered with several carpets that showed an image of a cottage-shaped planter. Some of the carpets were eventually reused in the S/S 18 menswear collection, they were indeed reversed and turned into a coat or tufted to decorate a jacket.
Now, unfortunately for McQueen, the planter in that image is actually covered by copyright: the product was indeed designed by Luke and Kate Holt, founders and owners of Quarff-based firm Greencroft Shetland Ltd.
Consultants working for Alexander McQueen were in Shetland last summer and took a photograph of one of the red-doored crofthouse planters in someone's garden. The image then became an integral part of the collage rug design for the womenswear runway show.
The couple only recently found out about their planter ending up in two fashion collections when they saw a photograph in a publication promoting Shetland.
The Holts weren't happy about the discovery and got in touch with the fashion house that eventually answered and told them they weren't aware of the model crofthouse being theirs (mind you, they may have found out who made them; write down "cottage shaped planter Shetland", click images and you will get Greencroft's). The company also added they had done nothing wrong.
Now the problem with this case is that actually the crofthouse planter design is Greencroft Shetland's registered intellectual property (the planters are handmade by Kate and they feature a bespoke coloured door, handcut chimneys and locally recycled glass from Cunningsburgh; you can check them out and order them here) and it wasn't used in the background of a photoshoot, but as a decorative element on several carpets and later on in coats (you may argue the image couldn't be seen from the outside of the coats, but the lining revealed it) by a multi-million pound fashion house.
Technically you can't use an interior design element - imagine a lamp or a chair by a famous interior designer - for a commercial product such as a T-shirt (so, you can't print and sell a T-shirt with Ettore Sottsass' "Suvretta" library unless you get permission; and no you can't print it even if you own the rights of the photograph of that library). Therefore you can't use the cottage-shaped planter for a carpet.
The Holts stated on the Shetland News site that this case was similar to Fair Isle knitwear designer Mati Ventrillon's dispute with fashion giant Chanel. Yet while in that case Chanel apologised and added Ventrillon's name to the collection, McQueen's house doesn't seem interested in crediting the planter to the Holts.
The couple may not have the resources to pursue legal action, but, being a family-run business, they turned to social media (on their Facebook page they wrote: "Mr McQueen was wee bit Scottish and did a fashion show about the English exploitation of the Highlands! How ironic?") and asked for an apology, credit for the design and a goodwill payment.
So, if you're a fashion designer, the next time you go on holiday or on a research field trip you'd better pay attention to what you're photographing and maybe talk a bit with the locals: you may learn something interesting about them and their work and, who knows, even find some new collaborators.
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