Abstract

"Co-Creation Without Consent: Design Piracy and Reputation Building Within Early 20th Century Fashion Networks"

Alice Janssens, Erasmus University Rotterdam / University of Southampton (a.g.janssens@soton.ac.uk)

This paper explores the dynamics of co-creation in the early 20th-century fashion industry, focusing on the contested relationship between Parisian haute couture designers and German ready-to-wear (Konfektion) manufacturers. Drawing on co-creation and reputation as analytical lenses, it examines how fashion products were created through unauthorized appropriation, imitation, and market-driven adaptation, and the impact of these choices. In doing so, it contributes to the historiography of international fashion networks, highlighting the role secondary fashion centres played in market formation and reputational development.
Many German Konfektion garments were co-created through a triangulated relationship: Parisian couture provided the aesthetic blueprint, German manufacturers translated these designs into high-quality, mass-produced products, and local and international consumers—motivated by aspirations for Parisian style—drove demand and influenced design choices. This process often occurred without formal permission, raising questions about design piracy, intellectual property protections, and the porous boundaries between inspiration and infringement within a trend-focused industry.
While the French industry’s formation of sectoral institutions and legal responses to design theft during the early 20th century has been explored, less attention has been paid to how these dynamics operated within global fashion networks. Secondary, often mimetic, fashion centres faced accusations of design piracy, yet paradoxically, their products also reinforced the reputation of Paris as the global fashion capital.
This paper reveals how friction fuelled reputation and market development within the historical fashion industry. It explores co-creation as contested ownership, strategic mimicry, and market responsiveness, and examines the impact of strategies taken to limit such co-creation. In doing so, it offers a more nuanced understanding of innovation, the history of intellectual property protection, and the formation of global fashion networks.