I have always been bored with & un-interested in doing any type of “knock-off”, but when I saw this original jacket, as a designer/techie, I saw a challenge.

As Kathleen said in her earlier post “the design was exemplary but the execution was not.”

The original jacket, unlined, poorly finished & marked a size medium, did not fit me, @ 5′1 and 95 pounds at the time, or a PF employee who was about an inch taller and 6 pounds lighter.
It could barely be zipped over any type of chest & you could not move your arms due to the shoulders being so narrow across the back and the sleeves were so tight you’d get stuck in it trying to get it off. No lining did not help either. It maybe would’ve fit a skinny 12 year old boy in 1975, not in 1995.

I saw that jacket and really wanted to do justice to what was an incredible design & concept by doing it right! Treating it the way it was crying out to be treated!

I made a completely new pattern (btw the curved seaming on the original was strictly decorative, it did nothing for fit- ditto the cb seam- good for cutting the skins- but no shaping at all!) I aimed to keep the original period look of the jacket intact while making it fit a body.

My version was full metallics, fully lined, faced and included the original’s stash pocket. (a very good reason why the collar was so big!)

We made 5 pieces for Patricia Field & one that I kept. (The appliquéd & inlay pattern pieces were completely graded for each of the 3 sizes.) Later on, 5 more pieces were made for a Victoria’s Secret Ad. 4 were completely re-cut into another concept at the last minute and the 5th, unchanged, was put in the stylist’s personal collection, and that was it.

That & I never claimed the original idea as my own, by omission or otherwise.

In Nicolas Ghesquière’s case, since he has such a long and ingrained habit of sending out 1) line-for-line copies of vintage pieces, always 2) without crediting the source and usually 3) without making any distinct improvement or change to the original…

This not only implies a distinct shortage of ideas on his part, but I feel by these 3 points, it definitely starts veering into plagiarism as opposed to “Homage”

…when you have the sort of resources that a house like Balenciaga has, you would think they could get the guy some help!

It’s too bad that some of these designers (not to mention politicians) don’t know how to get off the stage gracefully when they have nothing new to offer. They would then be remembered as creative successes rather than dismal has-beens.

At one of my first jobs in the fashion business the girl at the front desk was there more for ornament than brains. One day she came undulating back into my cubicle to show me the dress she was wearing and tell me that the boss had thought it looked so good on her that he wanted me to, “What’s the word you use? Bump it off?”