At what point does referencing and inspiration turn into blatant copying? It’s a question that is increasingly on the minds of designers — particularly young designers and small brands — who don’t have the legal muscle (read: cold hard cash) and time to defend the integrity of their designs.

In other creative disciplines like music, writing and visual art, it is much easier to defend copying. In fashion, referencing, inspiration, and trends form the backbone of our industry (just check out this long list of adventures in fashion copyright). So, where do we draw the line?

Case 1:  Steve Madden
Sometimes it’s quite straightforward to see what is going on.  A post on Manolo’s shoe blog alerted us to this blatant copy of the Balenciaga sportiletto shoe. Some may find it amazing that anyone would even wear these shoes, but I find it amazing that any company would be so brazen as to rip designs off in this way. 

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Image courtesy of Fashion156.com

LONDON, United Kingdom - While taking a whirl around the Internet these days you’re bound to bump into an online fashion magazine – or ten. Everyone from Richard Mortimer of Boombox fame to Net-a-Porter’s Natalie Massenet is getting in on the action – and looking for ways to monetise it.

For a long time, content developers had a hard time creating a distinction between simple websites and bonafide online magazines. But, in the past year, a plethora of online magazines have emerged with three common threads:

Multimedia:   The new magazines are a veritable multi-media festival. For some content consumers, particularly younger tech-savvy types, a multi-media experience is the only way to capture (and keep) their attention: lots of videos, blogs, and communities.

Integration: The trick here has been to create a truly integrated experience across different channels — for example,  how do you make an offline page really come alive on the Internet? Creating complementary content that can be consumed separately, and together, satisfies even the most demanding multi-tasker.

Convergence:   Style.com meets Neiman Marcus.com. Content companies are integrating commerce models into their sites while commerce companies are creating their own content, and thereby, becoming content destinations in and of themselves. 

To mark the surge of online magazines, we’ve compiled a list of ten of the most interesting concepts to watch:
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News flashes have been coming in today from investment analysts covering PPR, which reported its 1Q08 results earlier today. The news is not good for the Gucci brand, but Bottega Veneta has managed to beat market expectations, even in this downbeat economic environment.

Gucci sales only increased by 2.4% to €513m, versus market expectations in the neighbourhood of 7% growth. As a result, some analysts are considering posting downgrades to their ratings on the PPR stock. Given it’s self-stated positioning as an ‘Aspirational luxury’ brand, it may not seem surprising that Gucci would be one of the first brands to show signs of the economic slowdown.

But that’s not the whole story.

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It’s turning out to be fashion magazine week on the Business of Fashion.

A couple of months ago, Dominic Sohn, a newly appointed Fashion Editor at Vogue Korea, contacted me to get some thoughts on the revolving doors for designers at major fashion houses. This was before Lars Nilsson was turfed from Gianfranco Ferre (just days before his first runway show) only to be replaced by Tomasso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi of 6267 and before Paulo Melim Andersson was sent packing after three seasons at Chloe, making way for Hannah MacGibbon. Dominic’s questions were timely indeed.

Excerpts from the interview have just been published in an article in the May 2008 edition of Vogue Korea, along with the reflections of Sally Singer of American Vogue. It was such an interesting exchange that it’s posted here for BoF readers.

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The other day I nipped out to grab a coffee in London’s Hanover Square. As I was waiting, who should walk in but Alexandra Shulman, the Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue. There was no entourage or chauffeur or huge sunglasses. Rather, she very normally ordered her skinny cappuccino (without assistance and without attitude) and waited like the rest of us to be served.

It got me to thinking that (thankfully) some people in the fashion industry are completely normal (despite the caricatures that may be painted of them in the Press), and it also got me thinking about the business of magazines — fashion magazines in particular. It turns out Ms. Shulman has been quite the business woman during her respected editorship of the magazine.

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NEW YORK, United States – I’m sure you’ve all had one of those moments when a friend or colleague picked up your phone by accident, because it looked the exactly the same as theirs. I know it’s happened to me on more than one occasion. Today, Paul Taylor of the FT cleverly compared the uniform style and design of most mobile phones to the Ford Model T, when Henry Ford declared that “the customer can have any colour he wants, so long as it’s black”.

Just the other day, we dove into the marriage of fashion and technology for the first time, looking at the emergence of the fashion phone. But, the ideas, questions and suggestions have kept coming since then, begging the question: is now the right time not only for bringing a little fashion to technology, but also for bringing a little technology to fashion?

New York-based Angel Chang thinks so. She is one designer who is integrating new technologies into her designs.

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About a year ago,  I posted an article entitled, Fashion 2.0: What the Future Holds, laying out some thoughts (and questions) on the future of luxury and fashion online.  Since then, Fashion 2.0 has been one of  the most discussed topics on The Business of Fashion, and the ensuing debate has been thought-provoking, largely due to the high level of engagement from the BoF community. The latest example of this is from Annie Chang, who posted this delightful YouTube video response to our first Fashion 2.0 post, demonstrating the convenience of shopping from the comfort of one’s living room. Thanks Annie.

Over the past year, I’ve continued to argue for the potential to sell luxury online, and more controversially, to use the Internet as a tool for communicating and engaging customers. I spoke to JC Report and the South China Morning Post about the growing influence of fashion blogs and wrote an article in the Financial Times on Fashion 2.0, using the example of the wildly successful Mini Cooper online community as a compelling case study for where things may go.

But, has anything really changed in the meantime?

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Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism Phone

LONDON, United Kingdom – Something is in the air. Earlier this week, we received a mysterious package in the post from Nokia. Inside, we found a 7900 Crystal Prism phone, complete with a Sapphire crystal and engraved design by French graphic designer Frederique Daubal, who has previously collaborated with Paul Smith and Colette, the iconic Paris fashion concept boutique.

Not only this, the fashion and technology blogosphere has been abuzz about Tag Heuer’s branded mobile phone, priced to compete with the Vertu phones, at 3900 euros (or about $6000). Previously, other fashion brands including Prada, Armani, and Levis have launched mobile phones with much hype and fanfare.

To top it all off, I was recently invited to give a Keynote Speech at the ArcChart Handset Fashion and Style Congress in London later this month on, what else, The Business of Fashion.

So, is all this fashion phone buzz just PR hype, or is it something that fashion brands and mobile phone players should be seriously thinking about?

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Apax Partners, the London-based private equity firm, has abandoned its bid to take a stake in Escada AG, the embattled German fashion company.  Citing deteriorating market conditions, Apax stated that

“the recent evolution of the stock price and the weakness of the international financial market do not give a basis for pursuing the project.”

This is absolutely the right decision. Not only has Escada become somewhat of an industry basket-case in recent years, on Wednesday the company also revised its earnings projections for year ending October 31 downwards yet again. EBITDA margins are  expected to fall by about 25% compared to 2007. The company cited recessionary conditions in the USA and other key markets as the reason behind the revisions. Escada’s shares fell by 10.8% on Wednesday to 14.35 euros.

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We have always been big supporters of the Fashion 2.0 revolution that is sweeping across the Internet. But, it must be said that not all of the new sites are adding much value. There are plenty whose value propositions are unclear, whose technology is shoddy and whose business models are overly complex.  To add to this, with the flood of new online communities out there, there is growing consumer fatigue, so getting anyone to pay attention is tougher and tougher.

Meredeth Barnett and Cristina Miller have managed to overcome all of this with their new site, Store Adore, which provides its community with targeted user-generated shopping guides and detailed store reviews. Like the power A&A duo from Gilt Groupe, featured last year on the Business of Fashion, Meredith and Cristina are longtime friends and Harvard MBAs who have complementary skills sets.

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