Quote -      I used to be a fashion designer in the garment industry.
Corporate would go to the haute couture fashion shows, make a purchase, bring back a garment and tell us to "knock it off". It was not only legal, but a huge part of their business.
  When it comes to fashion, there is very little that has not been done before. The originality comes from how the model "looks" in it, the accessories and composition of the image as artists that we create.
   I am not justifying or condoning this. I am simply pointing out how the fashion industry works and the legality of it that I have seen.
cheerio
lululee

I too spent many years in the rag trade and completely understand and agree with you. A big part of my work was dye matching and print design so we could replicate the fashions of others and produce cloth that had yet to be copied by the other houses. As long as they did not use our labels or we theirs there was no legal problem. It was only when "knock offs" were portrayed as originals that there was an issue.
pdg