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Doing Designer, When Everyone's a Designer

Over the course of the past year, American fashion has seen an explosion of high-low fashion collaborations, with a multitude of pairings between designers and mass merchants such as Target, Uniqlo and Gap.

It's given designers like Rodarte – their couture dresses can cost thousands, whereas their white shirtdress for Gap cost a mere $88 - a chance to reach a wider audience. Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the California-based sisters behind Rodarte, were up for the Swarovski womenswear award for emerging talent at this year's CFDA awards. The duo, runners-up for the 2006 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award, were also a part of Gap's latest initiative, Gap Design Editions, along with runner-up Thakoon Panichgul and Fund winner Doo-Ri Chung.

"If you think of really great moments in fashion, you have Levi's and t-shirts, you have a James Dean - people who really transformed the idea of a casual wardrobe into something that really means a lot to a lot of people," said Kate Mulleavy as she walked into the New York Public Library on Monday night for the CFDA awards with her sister Laura.

"There are so many voices for fashion, and whether what we do is a specific idea with the Gap - something that reaches a larger audience - people have joy when they dress themselves," Mulleavy continued. "So whether it's something you can buy for ten dollars or something that costs a lot of money, there's a feeling of transformation when you wear something."

While sanctioned partnerships with mass retailers have brought great design to millions and made household names of young designers like Doo.Ri and Philip Lim, "fast fashion" knockoffs of higher priced designer pieces by chains such as Forever 21 remains a hot issue. The practice is something the CFDA would like to see stopped via legislation – the Design Piracy Prohibition Act was presented in Congress in March 2006 – in order to protect designers' collections with copyrights spanning three years.

For Zac Posen, the issue of copies is simply part of the nature of the business.

"The American industry is built on copying European fashion," Posen said Monday night. "Seventh Avenue is built on that. But I like things that are rare and that are beautifully made. I value quality, imagination and confidence in life."

Pierre Cardin, who received the CFDA's International Award on Monday and is known for his cutting edge futuristic designs in the 1960s, along with the numerous products bearing his name, from fragrance to jewelry to shoes, said he was never concerned with his business being affected by people copying his designs.

"I follow my own way," said Cardin. "I was always a different way. I don't follow the fashions from yesterday, I make different conceptions."

The consumer desire for an exquisitely crafted, unique garment is precisely what keeps designers like Posen, whose dresses can costs upwards of thousands of dollars, in business. Not to mention all those celebrity clients concerned with looking different and special.

"I look for whatever anybody else isn't looking for," said Eva Mendes with Calvin Klein's Francisco Costa at her side on Monday. "If I go into a store and I'm looking at an article of clothing, and the salesperson tells me that it's their hottest number, that everybody wants it or has it, I usually let it go, because that's a turn off for me. I look for more one-of-a-kind things."

While mass market fashion gives selected designers a chance to become household names, what about household names – i.e. celebrities like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who presented the Swarovski award nominees – taking up design and/or launching their own labels?

"Fashion is a business, I don't see why celebrities can't be designers," said Zac Posen. "I'm happy that celebrity designers hire great young designers and design teams. I think the CFDA should link really talented young designers with great celebrities who can promote it. Not everybody's good at promoting themselves."

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