Emerging Australian fashion designers are being run out of business by cheap overseas knock-offs and industry experts say the laws protecting them are in urgent need of updating.

The ABC has spoken to designers whose clothing designs and even their photos featuring children are being ripped off from their Instagram accounts and turning up on other websites.

The knock-offs are being sold for a fraction of the price of the originals.

It comes after clothing retailers Zara and Gorman were accused of copying Australian designers.

Experts in Australia’s design industry say laws and regulations aimed at protecting designers from being copied are too expensive and are out of date in the digital age, where people are increasingly turning to social media to promote products.

‘People questioned if I was the real designer’

The original Howi design on the left ended up on Aliexpress for a fraction of the cost. Photo: ABC

Designer Angelique Woodburn runs the children’s clothing label Howi and markets her clothes almost exclusively on Instagram.

Her “boss” t-shirt is made in Melbourne and was one of her best-selling products.

She had it up for sale for $25 but within months, exact copies were turning up on other websites.

Angelique Woodburn’s “boss” design was stolen and sold for a quarter of the price. Photo: ABC

“The sacrifices that I’ve made with this business with the kids, spending all night on my computer answering emails. To think someone else is just importing it and making a profit from my design is just heartbreaking,” Ms Woodburn said.

Some of the rip-offs are even being sold wholesale to Australian retailers.

The situation became so bad that Ms Woodburn decided to take the t-shirt off the market because she could no longer compete with the fake versions.

“It got to the point where people were even questioning whether I was the designer, whether I was the original one,” she said.

Melbourne designer Sophie Taaffe started her children’s label Whitefilly two years ago, sewing her own samples from home and having her collections made locally.

She said when her brand started taking off, customers were getting in touch with her to alert her to the knock-offs.

“I’m losing customers because I think noticeably people are now commenting that they’re seeing copies being sold and I think there’s a lot of people out there who would buy the cheaper option,” she said.

An exact copy of Sophie Taaffe’s design up for sale. Photo: Supplied/ABC

Alex Perry, one of Australia’s best known fashion designers, is no stranger to having his designs replicated.

“The first time it happened [to me] blatantly, I just had steam coming out of my ears,” he said.

But even he admits, under the current system, the cost of pursuing copy cats can be crippling.

“You go to the lawyers and say ‘what can I do about this?’ And the reality is not very much, and how much it’s going to cost you, it’s sobering.”

Leading Australian designer Alex Perry was furious the first time he realised he had been ripped off. Photo: ABC

Laws to protect designers costly, out-dated: lawyers

Australian Fashion Chamber director Justin Cudmore said social media had made it easier for “pirates” to rip off designs and quickly get them to market.

He said Australian laws aimed at protecting young designers had fallen “behind the eight ball”.

“If I create a design a dress right now, I could design a dress on a piece of paper, I own copyright on that design. As soon as I mass produce that garment, copyright no longer exists and I have no protection from someone stealing my design,” he said.

To think someone else is just importing it and making a profit from my design is just heartbreaking.”
Designer Angelique Woodburn

“The regime we have in Australia at the moment requires you to register you design to have any protection.”

Registering a single design can cost anywhere between $600 to $800, according to design law expert Sara Delpopolo, and it must be in place before garments hit the market.

That is a huge expense for a young designer struggling to make a start in the industry, Ms Delpopolo said.

“A small designer’s going to come up with 10 designs, 15, 20 designs every season, that’s a hell of a lot of money and you may not even continue to manufacture all of those designs, so it’s just completely unrealistic,” she said.

So what could change?

Ms Delpopolo said urgent changes to Australia’s design registration process were needed.

“I just don’t think that anyone’s really turned their mind and said ‘we actually need to do something and do it really fast before we lose our creative industry’,” she said.

She suggested a number of ideas to better protect Australia’s designers including:

• Cutting the cost of the design registration process;
• Allowing designers to test products in the market before getting them registered;
• Establish an online tribunal to resolve disputes over stolen designs rather than forcing people into costly court action

Mr Cudmore said countries in the European Union were generally afforded three years’ protection on their designs without the need to register them.

Perry said what young designers really needed was support to grow their businesses into successful brands.

He issued a dire warning about the future of Australia fashion industry unless governments stepped in to provide more support to the industry.

“The fear is that we won’t have a local industry, that’s the fear,” he said.

“Because if it is so difficult and so competitive and there’s no support from government to help young designers, then what’s the point in going to college and learning how to be a fashion designer?”

-ABC