Don’t let them knock off your socks
Thief! You’ve stolen my socks! It was an Instagrammer who first alerted fashion designer Laduma Ngxokolo to the fact that retail giant Zara had copied one of his diamond-shaped patterns.
His knitwear brand, Maxhosa, is inspired by beadwork and shapes traditionally associated with Xhosa culture.
The Instagrammer posted a picture of the Zara socks next to those created by Maxhosa with the message: “We appreciate that Africa’s rich culture is now en vogue, but not at all costs.”
The Zara socks had been on runways globally but following successful court action the global retailer withdrew the copycat items from stores.
“We felt it was a direct loss because Zara is in the same space. They’re my competitor,” says Ngxokolo.
Not every litigant is as successful when trying to protect original designs, and the practice of African designs and aesthetics being appropriated by other cultures is not a recent transgression.
In the previous century artistic giants such as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso blended the highly stylised treatment of the human figure in African sculpture with their own creativity without much knowledge of their original meaning and function.
In general, any original work is eligible for copyright protection. The creator must have produced the work through his or her own creativity and labour. But Elroy Bell of the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation says cultural appropriation is a larger social issue of a dominant culture adopting designs from a minority culture without that minority culture benefiting.
“Inspiration is all around us. The important thing to do is to formally recognise that inspiration if it becomes the genesis of a derivative creative work,” says Bell.
Bell says social media has also opened up a new wave of copyright infringements and uncertainty.
“I’m reminded of a photographer who hosted an exhibition of other people’s Instagram posts, complete with Instagram border and comments, at the Frieze Art Fair in New York in 2015. He did this without permission and sold the prints for thousands of dollars without compensating the original photographers.”
Last year, Nkuli Mlangeni, a designer with a South African art and textile collective called The Ninevites, posted two images alongside each other on Instagram to show the similarities between her work and the work that served as a backdrop to the showcase of South African designers and their artisanal goods at luxury French department store Le BHV Marais.
Mlangeni was not expecting to lodge a case but called the copycat retailer out on social media. “I think creatives all over the world can relate to the story and so I would say there was a lot of empathy,” she says.
When she saw the work created by the luxury French department store she was disappointed and hurt. “It woke me up to the fact that it’s hardcore out there.”
Her Sankara rug with its bold geometric design won Most Beautiful Object in South Africa at the Design Indaba 2017 conference.
Thebe Ikalafeng, founder and chairman of the Brand Leadership Group, says: “We see many designs such as Louis Vuitton’s Basotho-blanket-inspired range. It’s clearly appreciation rather than appropriation as Louis Vuitton overtly stated the inspiration for the range.
“In the case of Zara and Maxhosa it’s clearly infringement rather than appropriation or appreciation as the design is exactly what Maxhosa put out to the marketplace.”
Ikalafeng says two international fashion houses used the iconic Shangaan bag in their designs. The large blue, red and white check plastic bags that many South Africans use to carry things around were used in Balenciaga’s 2017/18 bag collection. This was seen as appropriation because the original bag was not acknowledged in the design. Ironically the original bag is now made in China.
When Louis Vuitton paraded its
Shangaan bag on the catwalk it acknowledged the bag’s inspiration. “It is actually quite a clear difference — the key determinant is whether ‘permission’ was sourced or the source was referenced,” says Ikalafeng.