M.I.A. x Versus Versace Knocked Off Knockoffs
image via Vogue Paris
A few days ago the noise on the blogosphere went up a decibal when it was announced that Donatella Versace tapped M.I.A. to design a capsule collection for youth brand Versus Versace. There was a collective agreement that M.I.A.'s frenetic style, evident in her music, clothing and cover art, would make this a good mashup. But when she announced the collection was based on Versace knockoffs, it was hard to reconcile in my mind what to think about the concept. Is it brilliant? Is it lazy? Does it validate knockoffs? Does it take back fashion from counterfeiters? Maybe I'm overthinking it. But depending on how popular this capsule collection becomes, which may also be dependent on the success of M.I.A.'s next album, these questions might very well come up. So I'm bringing it up now.
image via Paper Magazine
As far as lazy goes, wellll, I'd give a not so confident, not quite yes, Yes. It's common practice for designers to dig into the archives of their brand for inspiration. They usually call it pulling from the brand's DNA. But when half the work is done for you already and all you're doing is making a few tweaks here and there to bring it up to date, if you really think about it, there is something that seems less, shall we say, hardworking about the process. But marketing is everything. And we'll eat up anything when told it references a brand's heritage. In a way, knockoffs are part of brand's heritage too, if not their DNA. The more popular a brand is, the more knockoffs are produced. And while knocking off the knockoffs is brilliant and buzzworthy, it is kind of lazy. Granted, I have not seen the original knocked off knockoffs (this is so weird) but the whole point of knocking something off is to duplicate the original. So how much work could possibly have gone into it.
Does it validate knockoffs? In a way it does. We always like to say fashion always comes full circle. What was out, comes back in. What's in, goes out. And the space in between is getting smaller and smaller. It used to take decades for a style to come back in, now it only takes a few years...think metallics. Would this be the beginning of knockoffs being brought into the circle. Let's go back to that infamous Chanel tote. Would the popularity of a knockoff be an indicator on whether it will be revived as a legitimate item by the design house itself? This might be a stretch but it's still something to think about.
Image via Paper Magazine
This leads directly into the last question. Will this take back fashion from counterfeiters? No. While it is a nice idea. It's not likely. Many of us loathe counterfeit merchandise. Outwardly. But the majority of people will always want high fashion for cheap. And where there is demand, there will always be a supply. So if Chanel knocked off it's knockoff tote in all of it's imperfect iterations. This could lead to the counterfeiters knocking off, the knocked off, knockoffs with a knockoff. And with that my friends, I have firmly put myself in the Matrix. But this is probably what M.I.A. intended. Clever girl.
The 19 piece M.I.A x Versus Versace capsule collection will hit stores October 16th. M.I.A.'s album "Matangi" drops on November 9th. What do you think? If this takes off, will it have an impact on how you feel about counterfeit products? More importantly, will you buy it or wait until the lower priced knockoff hits streets (sorry couldn't resist).
