Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs -> IPKat

Intellectual Property Law

: IPKat

Catsuit controversy

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

From the IPKat's friend Venya Wijegoonewardene, an LLM student at King's College London, comes the following offering:

"Photographs of a certain line of designer catsuits caused a bit of a stir recently. Susie Bubble, one of the UK?s trend-setting bloggers (and named in the Evening Standard?s 1000 London?s Most Influential List), was asked to take down some photographs of Pam Hogg?s coveted catsuits from the Style Bubble weblog entitled Hogg Roasted.

The response by Hogg?s team to the ?unauthorised photographs? reflects the ongoing debate as to the extent a designer can control his or her creations. The uncontrolled use of these particular images was deemed to be bad publicity by the designer?s management.

Susie Bubble?s blog has a dedicated following in the fashion industry, so one might have thought that such exposure would be good publicity for the designer (most young designers would view even a brief mention on Style Bubble as great publicity). Nonetheless, Hogg?s team stated that they did not allow unauthorised images to be taken in an uncontrolled environment "unless you have bought one, were lent one or it was for a shoot".

The approach of Pam Hogg?s team is interesting: were they simply trying to protect their high-fashion brand? Perhaps they considered the ?uncontrolled environment? potentially damaging to the high-fashion nature of the brand. Yet, considering the extent of Style Bubble?s following, this attempt to control the brand?s representation in the media has in effect resulted in somewhat negative publicity. Susie Bubble?s post in response to the catsuit controversy expresses disappointment that the brand views itself as elitist and suited only to the upper rungs of the fashion ladder. Yet she also recognises the reasons as to why some designers would jump at the opportunity to dress the likes of Lady Gaga, while others would not".

How to roast a hog here and here

Full post as published by IPKat on June 11, 2009 (boomark / email).