Country Road inspired by Dries Van Noten

Designer fakes

We all know about designer fakes.
Often sold on the streets, in closeted apartments next to foreign airports or on line - always at a fraction of the real cost of the IT bag or the IT shoe or the latest look.
Prado, Hermas, Louis Vuiton, Channel...the list goes on.

Basically, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.


Inspired by.......

But lets go to something more subtle.....stores know that the laws against copying are getting tougher and tougher. Also that since times are tougher, these laws are being enforced successfully more and more often that ever before.

So the solution from the retailer's perspective is to be "inspired" by a designer look.
Its not copying. Its inspiration. Just like a recent Facebook post about being inspired by the recent 2012 Golden Globes gowns worn by the likes of Angelina, Jessica etc.


Country Road


Today I was walking past the Country Road store in Sydney's QVB - the window looked at me & this is what I saw....


Its the spliced dress and its new stock.

Also the spliced top.......


.............inspired by..............Dries Van Noten...........


It was then that some Dries Van Noten memories came back to me.......this is AW 2011




and another - similar concept.....AW 2011......




And if thats not exciting enough, here are some other pieces from the same collection......I am sure we will see more high street retailers be inspired by Dries over the coming winter.....




& again......




Interestingly, Dries did this spliced concept a few years ago too - AW 2009....see this....



& this....


also this...




Spliced with neutrals


& look at how a spliced top works well with neutrals.....



Here's the beauty of this.......



Strictly the Southern Hemisphere follows the looks from the New York, London, Milan & Paris Fashion Weeks.

But due to the internet, we can see the looks from the northern hemisphere immediately. That means the copy/inspired artists can get the copied looks into the stores within weeks. In fact, the Zaras/Topshops of this world can have it on the floor within a couple of weeks of seeing it on the runway at fashion week.


This means that in the southern hemisphere the item can be on the floor of the high street store before the actual season has started. Sounds amazing, eh?

Hence how I saw the Country Road spliced stuff in the store in January 2012 when the Dries collection from which it was inspired AW 2012 (southern hemisphere) (which was available to viewing from northern hemisphere AW 2011)....make sense? Yep!

A couple of other notes.....


Paprika

& the last photo I have included is also Dries AW 2009 - not to show splicing, but to show what looks to me to be the most popular colour on the Australian high street ATM.....the colour of the below model's pants.......that deep cinnamon, aka spice, aka paprika, aka ginger, well, you get the idea......get something in that colour NOW. If the colour doesnt suit your complexion, then get a skirt or pants or shoes etc




Enjoy, til next time.

PS: A photo of the lovely Dries Van Noten (at the end of the AW2012 show) - one of the most amazing designers ever to come out of Melbourne.....