Tal Maslevy, a young Israeli fashion designer, was one of the tens of thousands of spectators just waiting to watch the fashion show of the Fall/Winter 2023 collection of the famous brand Loewe during Paris Fashion Week. Contrary to the other viewers’ experiences, Maslabi was outraged and felt helpless when he noticed that several models presented on the runway reminded him of models he designed for his graduation collection at the fashion design department in Shankar last October.
Copying models and ideas from designers has long since become a familiar phenomenon. Mostly, it was the fast fashion chains that copied models of big fashion houses or small designers with special ideas and designs. The market came to Maslaby when he saw the models in the display of his favorite brand wearing stickers, something he also did in the last collection he designed.
Stealing an idea or inspiration? A model at the Loewe fashion show (Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Following the surprising discovery, Maslaby published a post calling for the brand’s attention. “Stop copying from young designers,” read the Israeli designer in the angry post, and presented a series of photos and videos from his graduation show, where he first introduced the idea of stickers.
As mentioned, in October 2022 Maslabi presented his graduation collection at the fashion design department in Shankar, and as part of it he designed the wearable stickers, an idea that he now claims was copied from his designs.
Maslabi is known to many of us as the Israeli designer who designed the edible cake shoes or the edible clothes, but in the same collection of works, he also presented the wearable stickers. In the same collection, he focused on the human need for contact, interaction and even grasping reality.
“The visual language of the collection draws inspiration from the visuals of internet content creators of ‘satisfying videos’ that have flooded social networks and offer the viewer an ASMR experience,” he said about the collection.
In his collection, familiar clothing details were transferred to a speculative realm, where materiality, the story of colors and their purpose were re-examined. “The result was an avant-garde men’s collection with a humorous and critical look that asks the wearer to feel the materials,” Maslevy explained.
To achieve his goal, the young designer used materials such as jeans and leather alongside silicone, chocolate and artificial acrylic nails, and even created wearable stickers, which – as mentioned – also made their way to the fashion week runway in France.
Stealing an idea or inspiration? A model at the Loewe fashion show (Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Many supported the young designer and protested the copying of the models, but others presented it as “taking inspiration” or claimed that this is the reality in the fashion world. Where is the line between inspiration and stealing an idea? Judge for yourself: here is the full fashion show at Paris Fashion Week.