Keep your eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole
On the face of it people who make and sell knockoffs should be punished, but Louis attacked the hole rather than the doughnut when he went after the market operators instead of the three offending stall holders.
No doubt the logic was that the stall holders would turn out to be men of straw whereas the market operator would be able to pay a hefty fine. The case was based upon the allegation that the operators of Carrara Markets were jointly responsible for selling the fakes. However, the court found that not to be the case, especially since the operators had written and spoken to the stall holders to cease and desist their selling of the counterfeits.
Why are my feelings mixed? Simply because I suspect Louis has come down on the side of monetary compensation rather than dissuasive publicity.
In 2003 Louis failed to see the funny side of 24 T-shirts displaying the words 'Louis Kitton'. In return for not proceeding with a court case, Louis accepted five grand in compensation from the perpetrators.
Since these amounts of money are not big why, if you're trying to defend your label against copyists, would you go for the money? Surely it would be much better to sue the daylights out of offending retailers or stall holders and make a public spectacle of them. Without retailers, the counterfeits have virtually no access to the market.
The other interesting point is how much responsibility a managing landlord has for dodgy goods being sold on his patch? If the court had found the Carrara operator guilty, then the local council, the state, and the whole of Australia could have been sucked into the case because they all allowed it to happen. And why stop there? We could sue the world, the universe and then join Billy Connolly in suing God.
I've written previously about sunglasses being sold by misleading fakery in Westfield, Bondi Junction. I'll take a look when I'm down there next to see if Louis is in the line-up and let him know. Successfully suing Frank Lowey could be quite profitable for Louis, to say nothing of the entertainment value for the onlookers.
Made where? Really?
It is no longer cool to tell colleagues that you are importing from Asia and how clever you are to save all that money on making and fabrics. Importers are a dime a dozen and if you're in the volume end of the market you have no choice but to sharpen your chopsticks and fly to the treacherous east where you will experience financial pain while you learn the ropes.
The wheel, however, has come full circle, and now it is far cooler to tell how you've found a way to make in Australia, especially if you were previously making in China.
Such a case is David Smith, a menswear label from Queensland.
David the person is an old hand at the game, having done time with Stafford, Target and his own menswear retail chain for which he designed and manufactured. When he'd had enough of retail, which is easy to understand if you've ever been waist deep in it, he moved to wholesale, made in China of course. Then he encountered the Running of the Bulls as he joined the stampede of former home brewers trying to get clever in Asia - mostly China. He found shirt factories aplenty, but controlling short runs in exclusive fabrics was a nightmare.
Then 12 months ago he came across Sydney based Sphinx Australia, whose Bankstown factory had surplus capacity after losing the Marcs' work - plus a number of other shirties who scurried Chinawards. Sphinx is one of the last Australian factories left standing. Its owner, Hassan, makes his own exclusive Appana label. David Smith's needs, which are also for exclusive shirts, fitted in beautifully.
David's shirts are non-business and made from decidedly unusual fabrics like hand-printed batik. David has an inspiring mantra: "dependable but unpredictable". His shirts wholesale around the $50 mark and recommended retail prices allows for 120 per cent mark-up.
He supplies a limited number of menswear specialty stores only; no department stores or chains. And therein lies his secret. If you want to make in Australia you must remain small and exclusive. Woe betide those whose ego prompts them to grow beyond a certain size. For made in Australia the message is: bigness kills. The way to grow is in quality, fashion and price, not volume.
David Smith does three collections a year, doesn't muck around with stock, and imports bottoms (garments) from Nepal.