Girls' Generation into design thievery

By Kim Jae-heun

Since 2010, the top Korean girl band Girls’ Generation have been flaunting imitations of luxury outfits on air, and they show no remorse about this habit.

Recently, they denied reports that they wore a copy of Dolce & Gabbana’s new design at the KBS Song Festival on Dec. 26, 2014.

Three weeks ago, Girls’ Generation came under fire for their stage costume for the Korean version of the Grammy Awards. The girl band put on what was clearly a replica of a piece from Dolce & Gabbana’s unreleased 2015 Spring Collection.

“Yes, Girls’ Generation refers to luxury brand for stage costumes,” said the former girl band stylist in condition of anonymity. “Many of their outfits are sponsored, but sometimes they just copy off the originals.

The white top shirt and embroidered high-waist shorts were the finale outfit of 2015 Spring Summer Dolce & Gabbana “Ready-to-Wear,” which was only shown to guests of the Milano Fashion Week held on Sept. 21, 2014. Domestic Italian brand importer Shinsegae International confirmed that no one from SM Entertainment attended the fashion show.

However, the aforementioned stylist said many in her profession tend to find inspiration from brands that are unfamiliar to non-experts and often work with designs that have yet to go public.

“They can imitate any unknown or unreleased design for idol group’s costume and say it was homage.”

Some fans have asked Girls’ Generation’ stylist, Suh Soo-koung on her Instagram, whether the costumes were copies or a homage. Suh confidently replied that they were homage, but said she has never met the Italian design before. Suh’s reaction immediately aroused questions.

Both Girls’ Generation and the luxury brands are keeping silent on the issue. Suh refused to talk to The Korea Times when contacted. Dolce & Gabbana expressed their position only through the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ITCCK).

“I have talked to the Italian headquarters, but they didn’t want to talk about it. They told me it needs better checking,” said ITCCK Secretary General Roberto Martorana. “Imitation happens everywhere, such as in China and the Italian government has set agencies around the world to deal with intellectual property problems.”

The Korean Copyright Commission was doubtful that the girl group will be subject to a lawsuit for copyright infringement.

“It is hard to tell whether certain patterns or matches are similar to each other or not because they are discussed in terms of ideas. If the design or patterns are not so famous that they could be recognized by anybody ― like Louis Vuitton or Channel ― it is hard to apply a law to it,” said a consultant at the Korean Copyright Commission.

This is not the first time that Girls’ Generation have worn costumes that were seemingly replicas of luxury brand designs.

In 2010, the girl band wore red, blue and yellow striped shirts, and a disc-shape hair band on SBS’s “Ingi Gayo” (Popular Song) that matched the concept of the Sonia Rykiel 2010 S/S Collection. In 2012, Girls copied Alexander Wang’s red stripe t-shirts and blue shorts for his S/S 2010 Collection for another TV music show. In the same year, the girl group took the whole concept of their “Paparazzi” music video from Beyonce’s “Run the World Girls” concert in 2011. They copied Katy Perry’s “2011 California Dreams Tour” stage costume for their World Tour in 2013.

The most recent imitation before the Dolce & Gabbana was their subgroup TaeTiSeo’s (Taeyeon, Tiffany, Seohyun) outfit on Mnet Countdown last year that looked exactly like designs from French brand Balmain’s 2015 “Resort” Collection.