On a return flight from spending a few weeks in the States, I was happily flipping through Elle’s September 2008 issue and came across a few pages advertising Banana Republic’s 30 year anniversary collection, celebrating 30 of classic looks, and as it turns out, one of the dresses featured in the spread is a dress shockingly similar to one which I designed for spring 2007, in my Las Niñas Collection! Shock!

I have included a scan of the advertisement along with some photos of my own July Tuxedo dress… Typically I would be flattered by someone having been slightly inspired by my own work, but to blatantly copy is another matter entirely. And the two design elements which makes my dress special are the two elements which they copied, the bow tie neck, though they moved the bow to the side of the neck and the cummerbund belt.

I pride myself on making beautifully and carefully hand-crafted dresses which are typically made in limited edition runs or simply one of a kind, so when a massive company such as Banana Republic sneaks in to steal ideas from any, not just myself, small designer it will truly damage business. Instead of stealing from independent designers the large companies should hire them to consult. They should hire true designers with original ideas, not people who simply call themselves designers and merely copy others hard work and livelihood.

If you do not know of the website fashionista.com, you should go and take a peek. It’s a great little site about fashion, which has the youthful glow of Teen Vogue and a kick of punk rock to it. My favorite part of site is a section called Adventures in Copyrights which calls out on all of companies which steal ideas from other designers, places like Forever 21s and Top Shops are constantly berated for their unscrupulous ways, especially when they steal from an impendent designer such as myself.