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Dressed: The History of Fashion
Fashion History Mystery #14: "Copying: a Fancy Name for Stealing (Dressed Classic)
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- [00:01]
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- [01:55]
Cassidy Zachary
Please enjoy this episode from the Dressed Archive. We will be back with season eight and all new dress content in February 2025. Over seven billion people in the world. We all have one thing in common. Every day we all get dressed.
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April Callahan
Welcome to Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast where we explore the who, what, when of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts.
- [02:23]
Cassidy Zachary
April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary.
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April Callahan
Today's fashion history mystery comes to us from Luna, who wrote to us a very lovely listener direct message on Instagram and she said, quote My name is Luna and I've just binged the entire season one of Dressed. So thank you very much for that Luna. She says, I love the show and I'm not a very fashionable or stylish person so I put off listening and I was so surprised how much I love it. I introduced to my mom and now she asked for episodes when we're in the car together Aw, thank you so much, Luna.
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Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. And then she goes on to say, this weekend, my mom taught me how to reverse engineer a pattern from a favorite blouse of mine from a company that no longer exists, and we used wax paper and freezer paper to make a new pattern. I was wondering if either of you had insight on how paper patterns came to exist. And this is not the question we'll be addressing for today's fhm. But. But, April, you actually do have an answer to her question, right?
- [03:22]
April Callahan
Yeah. And we actually have an entire episode for later this season planned on discussing the history of the paper pattern industry. And this is a fascinating subject which has been written about in depth by the incredible Joy Emery, who very sadly passed away last year. And this episode will be both a tribute to patterning and Joy's legacy doing all this wonderful work that she did. So. So stay tuned for that.
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Cassidy Zachary
Yay. I can't wait. And then. So Luna actually goes on to say, my mother said as a teenager, she'd take wax paper into dressing rooms and copy patterns she liked. At 6 foot tall, she rarely found anything that fit well and always had to modify fashionable styles. I was wondering if you would talk about copying and how fashion houses copy designs as opposed to lay people like my mom. So, great, great question. And first of all, Luna, your mother was incredibly enterprising. I commend all the women and men, of course, throughout history and today, of course, who make their own clothes. I mean, this is such an incredible skill and talent.
- [04:23]
April Callahan
Yes. And, Luna, if Instagram accounts like Diet Prada are any indication, copying and fashion is not only rampant, it's a huge problem, and some might even argue an epidemic. But perhaps not problematic when undertaken by home dressmakers like your mom, of course, but something that is just not okay when, let's say you are an up and coming designer or an indigenous artisan whose work is being copied and quite frankly, stolen from right under you and sold at massive profits by these larger companies. Cass, this. This brand of intellectual property theft is nothing new in the fashion industry.
- [05:01]
Cassidy Zachary
No, it sure is not. And we should definitely note the huge difference between what we might call today a fashion knocko. A licensed copy. So in other words, we're talking about a copy that is illegal versus one that has been authorized by a fashion house or designer who has sold the rights to reproduce their designs. So, historically, these licensed copies could be sold to manufacturers and custom import houses, for instance, but also to department stores like Bergdorf Goodman, whose prestigious costume salon offered their clientele haute couture quality License designs of the most coveted Parisian fashion designers.
- [05:38]
April Callahan
Yeah, and Cass, you already know this, but we at FIT have the archive or portion of the archive of the Burgdorf Goodman custom salon, which dates all the way from hats that were produced by them in the 1920s all the way up to 1969. And it features stunning illustrations of the creme de la creme of haute couture fashion. And the salon itself began in 1923, which, when the company started sending representatives to the collections in Paris, where buyers would make their selections before basically hanging out and waiting. You know, get this, they just waited around for the houses to make their selected pieces before traveling back with them. And sometimes this took different incarnations too. Sometimes they were given toiles, sometimes they were given finished garments, sometimes they were given paper patterns. But basically. And it wasn't only Bergdorfs, but upper end department stores, I would say a lot of them had these custom salons. And this would allow their customers to choose from any number of designs and have their very own copy made to order to fit them. Custom in the salon and at Bergdorf's. The salon was located on the very top floor of the 5th Avenue NYC store, and it operated until 1969.
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Cassidy Zachary
So similar processes of visiting the Parisian shows were undertaken by any number of department stores, as April mentioned. But there were also manufacturers and custom import houses. And custom import houses were essentially businesses set up expressly to sell import made to order copied designs to clients. All of these custom houses sent buying representatives to Paris to see the latest collections for spring and fall. So not unlike today, but April, when exactly did this process begin?
- [07:18]
April Callahan
Ah, well, we do talk about this on our very first episode of Dressed, which was about Charles Frederick Worth. And I think it might be surprising to a lot of people to learn that ever since the birth of haute couture, there's been this kind of official licensing that happened. Charles Frederick Wirth is considered to be the father of haute couture. And even he himself was selling license designs to be reproduced and even selling custom patterns or paper patterns that were reproduced or you could order from magazines like Harper's Bazaar, which is pretty incredible.
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Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. And there's actually the fabulous book, and it's called Couture Culture. It's by Nancy Troy. And she really addresses how these haute couturiers expertly negotiated the exclusive nature of made to order haute couture with this really this need to sell to a broader market with copies intended for mass consumption. So this is where a lot of these people made a lot of their money. So despite catering to these very affluent individuals. So we're thinking princesses and presidents wives. Of course, the haute couture industry was largely dependent on selling these licensed copies that would reach this wider market. So Troy really delves into this idea that someone like Worth or Paul Pourret, for instance, are promoting themselves as artists, creating original works while at the same time profiting from the copying of their designs.
- [08:33]
April Callahan
Yeah, and that addresses the licensed copies, Cass. But what about the decidedly more problematic unlicensed copies? Oh yeah, there are a lot of them. And the licensed copies, to buy them, to purchase them was incredibly expensive. Not only are you paying thousands of dollars to the couture house for the rights to use them themselves, but on top of that, you're also then paying duty tax upon entering America. And we're talking tens of thousands of dollars here. So. So this idea of taxing imported French fashion is something that we did learn a little bit more about in our Smuggled in the Bustle episode, which was last season. So check that out. Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns Dressed listeners. The new year is upon us and with the annual refresh of our calendars, so too comes our personal list of New Year's resolutions. And if you're anything like me, every year that includes contributing more to my investment and savings accounts. But as the months go by and expenses arise and opportunities appear, I don't always meet my savings goals.
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April Callahan
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April Callahan
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Cassidy Zachary
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April Callahan
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- [12:03]
April Callahan
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- [12:07]
Cassidy Zachary
Paul Poiret actually traveled to America in 1913 and he did this to essentially advertise his avant garde minaret designs to the American market. Although he of course would never admit that he had anything to do with publicity or advertising. That was all part of his aura and mystique. But he was shocked when he turned over a hat at a department store April only to find his label in it. And it wasn't his. As the New York Times reported, he immediately placed the matters in the hand of his attorney who started an investigation which revealed the fact that not only were priori labels being imitated and sold throughout the country by any number of manufacturers, but the labels of other prominent couturiers were also being duplicated. In fact, it was discovered that quite a flourishing trade and these false labels had become well established in America.
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April Callahan
As an article in Ladies Home Journal published prior to Poiret's trip to the US that was entitled, quote the dishonest Paris label writes, this practice was nothing new. So not only were American manufacturers reproducing copies of French labels, real labels, were also being brought in from France. And the author of this article estimated that, quote, not fewer than 2 million and a half hats, gowns and cloaks are for sale under fraudulent labels to the American public. It is one of the most extensive swindles of modern business.
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Cassidy Zachary
But worse than the copying of labels was the copying of the designs themselves. Paris was the end all, be all of fashion at this time, as we know. Yeah.
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April Callahan
I mean, the French legend, which we've discussed many times before, that all beautiful clothes are made in the houses of French couture and all women want the clothes.
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Cassidy Zachary
Right. Said so eloquently by one of our favorite fashion rebels, Elizabeth Hawes. Also an episode on season one, and we actually have her to thank for a great deal of insight into the copying business. I had the pleasure of reading her book this weekend, Fashion Is Spinach, one of many books, of course, that she published.
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April Callahan
Nine.
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Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. I highly recommend reading it. But in this book, she discusses the practice of copying as it existed in the 1920s. And she knows so much about it because she herself worked for a copy house. So she says copying is a fancy name for stealing. In hindsight, as this successful fashion designer herself, Elizabeth was actually quite disgusted with the practice. But at the time, she was this young woman infatuated with all things French fashion. And this was really her opportunity to be exposed to it directly. And she writes, it wasn't considered stealing. It was just business. Lots of people wanted Chanel clothes, and we filled in the gaps.
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April Callahan
Lindsay tells us that she worked at a very good copy house. She says, quote, our boast was that we never made a copy of any dress of which we hadn't had the original actually in our hands. And this copy house that she worked at actually had a front. It actually made their own original designs that weren't copies. So it was only the most trusted customers that were in the know that they would take into this other room to, like, do the copies for them, which is. Which is interesting.
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Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. And I mean, this really makes me think of, like, Prohibition in the 1920s. It's like these similar tactics.
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April Callahan
You gotta get your speakeasy. Fashion.
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Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. So it was in these back rooms where customers found designs by Lanvin, Chanel, Petu, you name it. And in the early part of her job, Elizabeth was surprised to learn that the copy house actually did buy models from the haute couturiers. And this was a practice she was initiated into because she was expected to be the client. So a young, impressionable 20 something. Elizabeth has to become an haute couture client in Paris. It's a hard job, but somebody has to do it.
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April Callahan
April, I volunteer.
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Cassidy Zachary
Right. So she would. Her employer would describe a dress to her in detail, and then she would head to the couturiers with the intention of purchasing it. And she writes that if the dress was for an older woman, I bought for my mother, whose measurements I had and to whom I was taking the dress, and if it was young enough, I had it made and fitted on me.
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April Callahan
Of course, the copy house purchased haute couture only if the dress could not be obtained by other shadier means. First, as we mentioned, there were of course, honest customers who purchased their designs, returned to their respective countries to recreate them for the market across all price points. But you also had this whole other bevy of dishonest customers and even couture house employees who were up to no good. The latter smuggled designs, patterns and materials out of the couture houses cast, which is kind of shocking. And fabric suppliers to the haute couture industry even sold the exact fabrics used in the production to these copyists. So a lot of these designers are basically being undermined at every turn because there was so much money to be made.
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Cassidy Zachary
Right. And that's really even what you just mentioned is the tip of the iceberg, because not only were haute couture individual clients apparently selling access to their designs to copyists, you had foreign buyers doing the exact same thing. And Elizabeth writes, I really felt like a thief the day I discovered how that works. She writes that over half of the models obtained at the copy house came from foreign buyers, the representatives of department stores and manufacturers that ascended on Paris for the collection multiple times per year. So because of this, these foreign buyers established reputations as purchasing customers. These people were granted direct access to haute couture showings and fittings. I mean, these were trusted individuals.
- [17:39]
April Callahan
Yeah. And Elizabeth recalls one particular incident with a resident buyer for an American manufacturer whose name was Madam Ellis. And Lizzie had a very large fur coat. And that particular day, she was requested to wear it for a trip to this buyer's office. And when she arrived, she found Ellis alone in her office with a large pile of Chanel boxes. And she writes, quote, the boxes are hastily opened, dresses pulled out and shaken from their tissue paper covers. Madame says, put them under your coat and get them back here as fast as you can. And Lizzie goes on to say that upon her return to her office, the fitters took the clothes, made the patterns, and Lizzie made accurate Sketches. So that's kind of how it worked.
- [18:22]
Cassidy Zachary
Right. And I'm glad you mentioned sketching, actually, because that is exactly how Elizabeth ended up making the most money during her time in Paris. She writes that as a buyer of expensive French models for American mass production, you stole what you could and bought what you had to. Almost every important buyer took to the first showing of every couturier, a sketcher. The sketcher was ostensibly an assistant buyer. Her real job, however, was to remember as many of the models as possible and subsequently sketch them for the buyer to copy in New York later. And so Elizabeth did. She would make notes on the program if she had the opportunity, or she would quite literally commit the garments to memory before sketching them later on.
- [19:02]
April Callahan
That's. That's no small feat.
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Cassidy Zachary
No.
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April Callahan
We would be remiss not to mention the 1934 musical comedy, Fashions of 1934, which starred Bette Davis as a fashion designer working at a shop selling discounted copies of Parisian couture. And clips of this can be found online, of course, if you would like to see them. And the practice of copy and cast was really just rampant. It was. It was institutionalized simply, and it was an acknowledged part of the industry, so much so that Hollywood even made a.
- [19:35]
Cassidy Zachary
Movie about it, as they do. And we should, of course, say that O couture did their part in battling this practice to battle unlicensed designs. Carlos Sueur, for instance, printed full page ads in American papers listing the stores selling licensed designs. And after his fortuitous visit to America in 1913, Par helped to create the Syndicate of the Defense of the Haute Couture Industry, which was an organization that he created expressly to combat these unlicensed reproductions of couture designs. And many couturiers even took people to court.
- [20:08]
April Callahan
Yeah, and if there's a will, there's going to be a way, Cass. And as we all know, today, counterfeit copying is still very much with us. And thanks to the Internet, though, fashion shows have really been democratized in a way that they never were before. And while now everyone gets a front seat, so to speak, to the ready to wear and haute couture runways, it also means that everyone has an opportunity to copy it. And while you can certainly be sued for copying today thanks to accounts like Diet Prada, who you mentioned at the beginning of the episode, they basically expose these people for copying and the companies for. For everyone to see. But it would appear that the harshest consequences of copying really are now playing out in the court of public opinion.
- [20:52]
Cassidy Zachary
And that does it for us today. Dressed listeners. Dressed will be back with season eight and all brand new episodes in February of next year.
- [20:59]
April Callahan
But until then, remember, we love hearing from you, so if you would like to write to us, you can do so@hellodressedhistory.com dressedhistory.com is also where of course you can register for our tours, our trips, our new class, anything else that we have up our finely tailored sleeves.
- [21:17]
Cassidy Zachary
That includes April's twice weekly in person fashion History tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as our brand new dress, the School of Fashion Live online course, the 1950s Golden Age Haute Couture which is now open for registration. And we do have gift cards available for both April's tours and the class. So just send us an email@hellodressedhistory.com and also send us an email if you want to get on the first to Know list for our New York City Day tours coming your way in April 2025 and our Paris Fashion History tours coming your way in June. Registration for both of these tours will open in January and we do expect them to sell out, so send us an email to get on those lists.
- [21:56]
April Callahan
Thank you as always for your continued support. Dressed will be coming back your way for Season 8 in early February. The History of Fashion is a production of Dressed Media.
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