Dear Readers,
You may have noticed that I have come to a full stop posting my own designs. You probably are thinking I've stopped creating and have become a full on blogging nerd. Vain enough to post pictures of my ever "whacky" outfits, whilst posing on my mess of a fire escape on a semi-irregular basis. Goodbye Brandon Acton-Bond the designer, hello Brandon Acton-Bond the poseur!
Regretfully, I am still creating. Even more regretfully, I can't post about anything that I've done! Can't, or won't? I am well aware that their are actual departments, with a sole purpose to troll the internet searching out ideas to copy. I am no Rei, Hussein, Issey or Lee, but I am me. I don't have the financial or legal capabilities to own my ideas once I post them on the internet (please get in touch if you know how I'd be able to defend myself on these things though!). I'd dearly love to get feedback on my designs, be it footwear, bag, textile you name it. Simply put I'm afraid. I have friends who are incredible innovators and artists within their fields, who can't even wear their creations out of the door. In NY you have these people who like to take your photo if you're different. I'm not talking street style photographers, I'm talking trend forecasters. or as I like to call them: thieves. These people make a living by co-opting individuals notions of how to dress and selling them to the highest bidder. Once you release something out into the world, it's out there, you don't own it anymore. Sure better known people have fought for their intellectual rites but in terms of fashion, you change a few things and it's a different product. YES we can innovate our way through this but with limited budgets how can small fry compete with the LVMH's of this world?
[Jean-Michel Cazabat sandals I.E. The sandals that are making summer enjoyable]
So in the end it comes to a policy of learning to let go. I could keep my ideas boxed up, never letting them see the light of day, or lose ownership. I guess part of being a designer is about nurturing an idea into fruition and then letting it walk out into the world on its own. That's the thing about designs. They are ideas, and an idea is capable of being grasped by anyone.
With all that being said, I will share my ideas, my designs, my children. Once I'm ready to let them go. In the meantime, I'm just a ship floating around in your mindverse. Now here are some more photographs of me being vain on my fire escape! How fun! How innovative! How exotic! .... Yeah that is a tricorne hat, and yes I did make it. It falls apart a lot :/
[DIY tricorne hat, Vintage pocket shirt (closeup of the lovely print at the top of post), Thrifted soft jacket, Thrifted silk shirt dress, Random tank top, Traditional Mexican scarf, Orange Pleats Please trousers, Jean-Michel Cazabat sandals]
6 comments:
here, here, here!!
it's a tricky situation, you could always create a website with your proper stuff on and if it's ripped off you could probably claim for damages. you work in fashion, i'm sure someone can hook you up?
though red pants are immense, they suit you so much. it's a pirate vibe, reminds me of some of the viv westwood stuff in the 80s(minus the shoes)
I totally feel you -- I'm a jewelry designer. Being online is a deal with the devil. You get customers but also are exposed to the thieves.
Amber - I know I have your support lovely :D
Mat - That's the thing Mat the people who I work with and who work in the industry all have warned me to not post. It's a really tricky situation as you said. If anything I make turns into a product though I shall document the process and post it up on here :)
Glad you liked the pants, they're 100% poly (only way to permanently keep the pleats) which makes the colour super vivid! I think my photoshopping actually made them look much redder then they really are which is more a shade of orange...
WendyB - Thanks Wendy It's a tricky business indeed :( I figure I'll post my designs when I start making them and it's an actual product. Until then ideas are too defenseless to do so :-/
This talk might be relevant, if you haven't already seen it. I guess the openness of fashion is both a blessing and a curse to 'creatives', depending on how much effort one puts into originality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL2FOrx41N0
HY - Thanks for the TED talk. I hadn't seen that one before. Deffinitely something to think about. The major problem with such freedom is that it is the big players: well known fashion designers, fast fashion companies etc, that benefit from such freedoms.
I guess I feel that in the long term the idea that we can own an idea will be foreign. And this will be a good thing. People will be free to improve upon other ideas and we'll be a better society for that....
Post a Comment