Some of Omaha’s most committed fashion enthusiasts braved icy streets on January 23rd for a stimulating conversation with Couture x Convo. We were graciously hosted by Culxr House, an environment that offered ample inspiration for our selected topic of the creative process. One of the first things that was made clear in our discussion was that there are two strategies of beginning the creative process; starting with a larger idea or starting with a small piece of direction/inspiration. Local singer songwriter MJ Peters shared her experience with creating her most recent music video. She walked the group through the process of taking a single mood board and growing it into a glittering, highly styled performative project complete with choreography shaped around that concept. Local business leader Roland Massow shared how open-structured brainstorming and passion-driven development has better suited his creative projects through an organic sifting of ideas.
“The ideas you forget aren’t worth remembering.”
Local fashion designer Zachary Roland discussed his experience creating his first sustainable fashion collection. He started with a mood board and created a collection of upcycled denim and naturally-dyed garments. After showing his debut collection at Omaha Fashion Week, he was able to have a conversation with the co-founder of an influential sustainable fashion brand out of the UK about finding inspiration and strategies employed by modern brands as they try to safeguard their work from theft and replication by larger brands.
This led to a larger group conversation about how small independent designers, particularly women and people of color, often find their designs being lifted and replicated by major brands. Smaller designers often have no realistic means of recovering lost profits or rights to their own work. This has been discussed heavily with a few infamous copyright infringement suits involving various “fast-fashion” brands like Fashion Nova and Forever21.
There is only one major organization dedicated to pursuing justice in the many copyright lawsuits against large companies. Bayani Seldera, who is considering the field as an area of postgraduate study, shared some insight into the lack of fashion law programs in the United States. The Fashion Law, a new resource for legal analysis in the industry, is bringing attention to some higher-profile cases of infringement. However, a common fear among the creatives present at our talk was the inaccessibility of such resources in the event that their work is stolen.
Culxr House, the location of the most recent Couture x Convo discussion.
While fashion brands often get called out for appropriating smaller designers, it’s also no secret in the fashion industry that the major fashion houses get a fair amount of inspiration from vintage pieces. Where is the line between inspiration and theft? Participants shared a variety of perspectives on this. C. Allen Jenkins articulated that one significant factor is the power dynamic involved in the situation.
The major take away from the second part of our group’s discussion is that it comes down to power dynamics, intention, and the harm caused by appropriation. It is important to be aware of these issues. However, it is also important that creatives not be too intimidated by the ongoing conversations, in the fashion industry especially, to begin the process of realizing their vision.
You might be wondering where the topic of cultural appropriation came into the conversation. Though we did not have time for an in-depth discussion on this topic, we look forward to covering cultural appropriation more in-depth at our February session.
The team behind Couture and Convo consists of Zachary Roland, Bayani Seldera, and Lindsay Wilson.
Zachary was introduced to the fashion industry through sales at retailers big and small. He is a fashion design student at Metropolitan Community College and is the manager of Vincent Outfitting. Zachary showed his debut collection at Omaha Fashion Week in Fall 2019, is an advocate for sustainability in fashion, and aims to bring environmental issues to the forefront of fashion design.
Bayani has been involved with the local fashion industry since 2014, primarily in fine men’s clothing and most recently as a buyer for a small men’s boutique. He earned his Associate’s Degree in Fashion Design from Metropolitan Community College. He is passionate about including others in the vision of a more accessible fashion future.
With a background in American history, Lindsay sees fashion as a means of cultural and self-expression and also a means of exclusion. Her Bachelor’s Degrees are in History and Creative Nonfiction from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. As CxC’s creative strategist, she uses her publishing experience to steer the project’s growth and develop its goals.
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