Michael Weiss, president and CEO of Express, is forthright about borrowing fashion ideas, commonly called copying or knocking off.
”Somebody can invent something, but unless it`s copied, it`s not fashion,” he says. ”Really creative designers look to be copied. If they`re not, what they do isn`t fashion.”
And just who are the creators that Express, as Weiss puts it, ”watches closely”?
-Karl Lagerfeld, Claude Montana: ”For real creativity.”
-Jean Paul Gaultier: ”His whole package-everything together-is very difficult. Individual pieces are very telling. Very easy.”
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Stars in this country who ”don`t copy Europe, who are very unto themselves and that are watched in a different way”:
-Donna Karan: ”Very talented. One of our greatest designers. She understands that women want to feel a certain way. Her clothes never wear the woman and that`s talent.” (Karan says: ”It`s so scary. They (Express) have my DKNY (looks) in their windows before I get it out.”)
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-Isaac Mizrahi: ”He understands proportion very well. He also understands that the world comes to bear on clothing, that clothing doesn`t stand on its own.”