Fashion

This past weeks class has been dedicated to the thing that keeps our skin covered, but defies who we are; fashion. As a society, we have ignored the basic fact that no matter what the brand or product, we need to have the necessity of clothing. We have become peacocks, the more unique and beauty that we hold, the more attention we grab, whether it be a $250 Louis Vuitton belt, a $200 pair of Chanel sunglasses, we need to grab attention and be our own kind of unique. 

The documentary "The Secrets of the Superbrands" and the TED Talk "Fashion's Free Culture" both have similar standpoints when it comes to fashion. One way the films were similar is when it comes to the designing of products, such as the designing of glasses and jeans in "The Secrets of the Superbrands" and with the idea that in the TED Talk, designs are not copyright protected, just the brand name is protected. You are able to find the same design of glasses made by Chanel or Gucci at a fraction of the price made by some off-brand company, but because they are Chanel, they have to be $200 or more. You are typically paying for the brand name. The same goes for the "diesel" jeans. How many hip dads or "American Fighter" t-shirt wearing guys have you seen that wear jeans who look like they have survived a full out war, but the brand of the jeans may range from Levi, Rock Revivals, American Eagle. "Diesel" brands are not the only brand that do this kind of design. 

The second idea from both videos is the process of making something so difficult to copy. Like I said in the last paragraph, you can take the design of a product, but you can not take the trade mark. These fashion companies are spending millions of dollars to hire design teams to make their product as unique and original as possible. The easiest way to do this is by putting the brand logo all over the product. We saw this in "The Secrets of the Superbrands" when they were inside the glasses company with the huge conference room that the cameras were not allowed into, to keep the ideas of the company safe and out of easy reach for copying off-brand companies.

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