A fellow retailer told me about the story of Wildhagen and the Gap and coincidentally, it was mentioned in passing this weekend in the Style section of the Globe & Mail. It can be compared to the proverbial story of David and Goliath.
Wildhagen, a local milliner, seems to have had one of their hat designs knocked off by the retail giant and posted this information as a message to the Gap right on their website. Kudos to Sheri and David of Wildhagen!
Now I know this kind of thing happens all the time, believe me I know. It is an industry norm. I don't think the job description of "designer" is really a legitimate title anymore. If you are in the business of being in "product development", it is a euphemism for knock-off central. It is what is dictated by corporate culture.
For a company like the Gap, this one hat is a blip in their extensive product assortment for all of one short season. For a small family-run company like Wildhagen, this hat was probably a long process of many patterns, fit sessions, and careful fabric selections. But I guess no one at the Gap is losing sleep over it...just thought you might like to know...
And oh, by the way, copying is not nice, and it is not a form of flattery, I think the term is called...stealing.
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