One of my favourite games to play after fashion week is ‘Who Copied Whom?’… or Trend Watch, but that’s boring. I quickly saw similarities after seeing Frankie Morello show in Milan last week and I thought it would be fun to compare their show to some other designers. After four comparisons I stopped because I could have gone on a few more rounds and it suddenly wasn’t as funny, perhaps erring on the side of disrespectful. So here are four that I popped together.
Paul Smith was the obvious one for me because the coin print was a collection print that was featured on wallets, bags and even ladies-wear in 2011. Dolce & Gabbana, for their 2013 showing (for both mens and ladies wear) celebrated Sicily by using art as a print. Theirs was a nod to the more Catholic variety (as was the sweater by Mr Gugu & Miss Go) while Frankie Morello experimented with art from around the 18th century.
Tommy Hilfiger is a fan of the stripe, we know this already, but for their first showing in 2013 there was a particular horizontal stripe used on the blazer of one look that was, you guessed it, reminiscent of Frankie Morello’s June 2013 show. Delivered differently, but still similar. Then the yellow look below reminded me so much of Dsquared from 2005. This collection was my own personal watershed in that it guided me into fashion almost ten years ago. It’s not identical but the resemblance is there.
Even if I laid it out in front of you, I don’t think we should assume this was a copy collection, there are many designers and they over-lap which means many will come up with an idea that another was influenced to do as well. This is where trends come from… the fact that things like colour trends are most likely pre-determined should tell you. Copy or not? You tell me.
