Designer Logos in the Age of DIY

Recently the case brought against Naco Paris by the powerful Chanel corporation was overturned.  He was using the likeness of their logo to produce this and many other memorable fakes.



In an age of DIY can designer branding really prevent fakes?

Some crafty fakers to take note of are The Counterfeit Crochet Project folks.  It's an organization fighting the "contemporary capitalist factory production and distribution channels" (counterfeitcrochet.org) one counterfeit designer bag at a time.  Basically they find pictures of the new "it" bag and reproduce a pattern for the bag.  They crochet the bag and send the pattern out onto the gentle waves of the internet like a digital moses in a basket.  

Now these friends aren't just poking fun at designer goods, they are also admiring them.  "Fashion is fun fun fun! But at the same time, most of us ordinary people can't afford such things, and some even knowingly buy knock-off products to sublimate our desires.  If you take the logic one step further, and actually make the item yourself, you are in a sense taking the situation into your own hands without giving a single penny to the company brand.  They have excluded you anyway, by keeping their prices astronomically high" (counterfeitcrochet.org).

I caught them red-handed (so to speak) at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts last year.  I participated in their project by crocheting a little circle & pinning it to their wall for a traveling exhibition.

Not only do Barton & I, Naco Paris and the Counterfeit Crochet Project fake it til they make it -  Celebrities do it too!

There was much hubbub when miss Lily Allen dawned a do-it-herself Chanel t-shirt.  And really, can celebrities really do any wrong?

For now, Naco Paris lives on to make another fake.  Even Karl says it's okay.

L.Y.L.A.S Karl.  L.Y.L.A.S.

Love you, mean it

Emily

photos taken from the counterfeit crochet project, pixplosion, a shaded view of fashion, and pursepage.

read a brilliant article about fakers here.