Fashion: Art or Craft?

[mcroft]

According to ParticleMan (a nice guy I haven't ever met), there's a move afoot to change the status of "Fashion" from a craft to an art, which really means there's an attempt by the fashion industry to secure for themselves the benefits of copyright protection for the design of clothing.

It's an interesting argument, and there is certainly deceptive trade going on in copies of clothing and there's also clearly a lot of borrowing between designers. But copyright? I'm not convinced. ParticleMan is a law student who wants to go into copyright law, and he is.

P-Man says "The creator is entitled to protection of the unique expression of an idea (though not the idea itself)."

Anyone here have any thoughts (on this. Opinions on the Battle of Balaclava are not relevant...)?

Comments

[drelmo.livejournal.com]

Copyright exists as an incentivizer for the creation of useful arts and sciences. Fashion does not appear to lack incentive to create. Indeed, since the imposition of copyright would be used to stifle competitors in the market in which fashion is a commodity, it's quite arguably not in the public interest.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get the idea that this is a non-problem in search of a cash payout option.

I'm still trying to differentiate fashion from upholstery for purposes of protection here.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Gluing ugly shit to a sheathe dress, ripping some holes in the parts that don't have ugly shit on them, and sewing the resulting abortion onto an anorexic teenager in heavy eye makeup is totally art.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

I was going for "covering an overstuffed body with decorative cloth to smooth out the lumps and make it look more appealing", but your example works, too.

It occurred to me that if they do get copyright protection, they may drive the Singer corporation out of business as a manufacturer of a device for circumventing copyright.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

I believe sewing machines would still have substantial non-infringing uses.

If you outlaw sewing machines, only outlaws (and my Mom) will have sewing machines!