After championing copyright rights for fashion designers under the proposed Design Piracy Prohibition Act, Diane von Furstenberg has done the unthinkable....she has ripped off a fellow designer's work. Her Garden Zaria jacket pictured left looks eerily similar to the label Mercy's floral silk jacket pictured on the right.
The irony of it is that the original jacket by Mercy costs $300 while the DVF knockoff version costs $1,000. Diane von Furstenberg has agreed to compensate the designers of Mercy for this. She says: "I am devastated. But this can be a lesson for everyone... I will do what is necessary to do, and if indeed there was an infringement, I will compensate and will use this example to make sure this doesn't happen again - not just for me, but for everybody."
The designer who copied the design on her staff has been fired. I wonder if this will serve as ammunition for groups lobbying for the proposed legislation? Will DVF recover from this fauz pas? It does seem hypocritical to lobby for design copyrights when you are ripping off small designers right?
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