This is what greeted London fashion press this morning when they opened their inboxes ....
“Dear all, The Marc Jacobs PR team is sorry to inform you that our press day tomorrow in the Marc Jacobs store is cancelled due to the theft of the Spring/Summer 2012 collections during its transfer for Paris.”
The Marc Jacobs Intl twitter page said: : See any chic truck drivers cruising around Europe dressed in #SS12 Collection? Get a pic & call 212-343-0222. Reward.
Such a major blow for any fashion house - firstly there's the huge costs involved in reproducing all the samples THEN there's the loss of exclusivity when the designs are stolen and reproduced for illegal sale - in short, every designer's worst nightmare...
I too, have been a victim of theft; at my graduation parade in 2010 I caught a girl leaving the backstage area of the show with four pairs of my shoes in her arms - she swiftly handed them over and performed a nifty disappearing act when she realised she'd been caught, but one of my skirts and a jacket of mine weren't so lucky and now presumably live in some little thief's closet.... :(
We're never going to be able to completely stop those with sticky fingers, but we can all be proactive against buying designer copies and rip-offs. Fashion houses work on very slim margins (yes, even the large companies like Marc Jacobs!) and the often heard excuse "but it's not like it's being stolen from a person, it's a company!" is not an excuse - it's really just pathetic self-justification. What is a company but a group of people working towards something? Every designer copy and rip-off that is bought steals the effort and work of people like you, gives money to thieves and forces the price of designer goods higher as they sell fewer items to recoup the same costs.
I know I'm probably preaching to the converted here, but if everyone is vigilant against design theft and misappropriation of trademarks and logos the fashion world will be a better, and ultimately cheaper place to be.
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