Uncomfortable Revelation: Forever21 makes a billion dollars a year (literally).

Even More Uncomfortable Revelation: They might do it by stealing designs from established designers.

We did a post on the unusually low-IP equilibrium of the fashion industry a while back.

See, this sort of thing happens all the time (see also: H&M, Zara, TopShop). Designers even do it to themselves (see also: Emporio Armani, D&G, DKNY, CK). The US doesn’t really have the legal structure in place to deal with infringements that aren’t logo or pictorially related. (Louis Vitton’s LV is easily trademarkable, for instance. An asymmetrical hemline…not so much.) Europe, however, does have a system in place to register clothing designs for copyright protection - but hardly any designers use it. Why?

The paper we pointed towards a couple weeks ago (which I have now read in full) illustrates how rampant copying actually helps to drive sales and fuel the vicious fashion cycle. The faster top-end designs are copied (and made available for cheaper prices) the faster the masses start wearing them. The faster the masses adopt a style, the faster it goes out of style, creating a new demand at the top for original designs. Rinse and repeat.

The fashion industry makes heads over tails more money than either the music or motion picture industries, yet manages to survive with a sort of “look the other way” attitude towards copying. Yet those other two industries cry foul constantly and are incessantly lobbying for stiffer IP legislation. Of course the nuances of each industry are very different and much more complex than this comment gives credit for, but it is an interesting dichotomy to consider nonetheless.