These days a latex fiend might feel like he or she is seeing double, what with all the cloned designs popping up on new latex designers’ sites, eBay auctions, and more!
Here’s one of the most egregious examples–a latex knock off of one of Pretty Pervy’s earliest signature pieces, produced and even promoted on YouTube by a Chinese firm. I’m a little puzzled, I have to say. With so many creatures real and imagined to create in latex, why not construct an original one to showcase your company’s capabilities?
Now, you’ll forgive me if I don’t turn this into a rant against Chinese latex companies, because truth be told, this sort of practice goes on a lot with latex–this is just one of the most flamboyant examples. Other more mundane English, American and European offenders can be found throughout eBay’s listings, new latex firms, or even from well-established latex houses who really should know better. What’s a latex lover to do?
My advice: reward the talented houses behind the originals, and avoid giving your hard-earned latex money to the copycats, until they stop it!
[First of I reckon many Separated at Birth posts, with a debt of gratitude to the originators of the concept.]
The thing is, the Chinese latex companies must have enough talent to produce a copy anyway, why can’t the produce original pieces? It’s cultural. A lot of far east cars are in some way a ‘homage’ to some European/American counterpart, some chinese companies have gone as far to buy original European designs off their original designers (Rover = Shanghai Automotive). So it’s entirely cultural.
The best idea as you’ve said is reward the originators of the designs, not the cloners.
screw them. i hate that i’m being used on their pages to sell their gear. they don’t pay me for that!
the one particular company you’re showing above have used a number of stolen images for their own purpose.
i need to send ebay that form in order to handle the violation reports i make easier and more quickly.
The issue of “ownership” of a design in clothing is a difficult one. Knock offs are how most people get their trendy fashions as few buy the designer originals. It’s really almost accepted practice and for the real deal it’s a kind of advertising for the “snobs” who want their designer label and will pay the price for it. The real deals are typically better made and detailed so their is some value there, but for practical “fashion” purposes it’s not there and hence the appeal of knock offs.
There are basically two markets out there – the mass and the high fashion / designer / higher priced one. They feed off each other to some extent and both depend on trend appeal to lure in customers.
Of course sticking a logo pattern belonging to another company is really stepping over the line. But I don’t see what all the concern is over mass marketing to for the “people”.
Maybe with some competition these designers and makers of fine fetish wear in Europe will lower their prices so that average people can afford some of this stuff. I mean, sure there are your high end fashion and then there is stuff that everyone wants but no one can afford.
As long as its clear its a knock off, yay for selection.
Guys, I really doubt Pretty Pervy’s raking in the dough on their prawn hoods, not when you factor in the number of man hours put into such a project.
Oh, it goes so much further! You should have a look at some of the Chinese companies’ wholesale catalogues – they are, literally, just page after page of designs pulled from other designers. HOH, followed by Libidex… etc. Often even using the actual website pictures!
And it’s IS sad, because a larger fashion industry could compensante. But the fetish scene has a relatively small economy, and the designers making more specialised pieces usually have relatively low number of sales, so their prices compensate them for their creativity, and the uniqueness of the design.
but, then some of these eastern firms come along, taking advantage of a fundamentally different economic climate and understanding of copyright. They steal designs, then peddle them back to the community they stole them from.
I find it quite upsetting. it feels viral. Especially with PP where you can see how much individual creative muscle has gone into the design of the pieces.
As I said this is a difficult issue. What portion of of the price are you paying for “design”? When someone “steals” a design… they don’t spend the time to produce that design, trial and errors and so forth. But I doubt whether that time is then figured into the selling price. Creativity is a rather intangible value to charge for. Top designers get more for their ideas than unknown designers, even if they new guys work hard and produce better and more creative designs.
The real problem here is that production costs in China are much lower than the west so even when they do or if the would pay a “licensing fee” the items would still be much less than those produced in the west… and would still be a “problem” for designers such as PP.
The fact that China can produce almost anything for less has closed many factories and taken many jobs away. Perhaps the only way to protect workers and designers is with trade barriers and tariffs.
And as far as original designs go, I see little “new” and almost everything is borrowed, influenced, inspired, copied from something which came before or from another culture. It’s just a re assembly of things already out there. Someone with skills is good at mixing these concepts up, extracting good idea and combining them. But I don’t know that there is much “new” there. I think this applies to almost all of the “design” in fetish fashion and even most fashion and why being copied is seen more as flattery than a cause for a lawsuit. Though I am sure there are lawsuits too.
I’d like to posit a third way: If you’re not the sort that has Ferrari money in the bank(like myself) learn from people like Latex Kitty and Kariwanz, make your own gear and wardrobe, and pass on what you know. Legitimize what you do with your skills. Get your not-quite kinked friends involved. Come on… how many cosplayers do you know?
This serves many positive ends. It removes unnecessary obstacles for the poor and curious beginner, reinforces the skills of the dedicated and the competent, and allows the truly talented to shine. I’ve been a skilled leathercrafter for years. I’ve made quite a bit of money making custom leathers, and when I shared my knowledge, I discovered that only the truly motivated were able to challenge the scope or quality of what I’d made. Far from being threatening, I found new comrades, new teachers, and greater heights of excellence. I also shared my journey with all its’ sacrifices and victories, inspiring others to do what I did… thereby perpetuating the cycle.
After all, why should we let these chronic human-rights violators use peasants to do what we could do– and do better– if we only learned how? Make a difference, make the effort, and viva la latex!