The topic of intellectual property within the fashion industry has always been a tricky one; high fashion is always referencing the past for their new collections, whether it be looking at a certain era, or looking at a McQueen collection from 2006. The question of whether fashion needs to look back in order to create 'new' designs is always prominent, or has the 2010s become one big blur of appropriation? With the rise of social media and being able to share different styles, and have so much information at your disposal, subcultures have become less restricted. Although this is a good thing, it's also difficult to pin point what this era will be remembered for. The 20s was the flapper look, the 60s the mods, and the 90s was the rise of grunge. Is it good we can't be precisely documented for one style? Socially, what you choose to wear is more playful and less confined than those past eras. Or is this the future of the industry; fast fashion and the high street copying both high end powerhouses, as they always have done, as well as small designers, such as Zara's well publicised copying of independent artist Tuesday Bassen. Perhaps we need stricter laws on copyrighting to protect smaller designers, as a way to assure the industry is always creating fresh and innovative content. On the other hand, the circle of design has always been that it trickles down from high end to high street, so those who can't afford designer can still feel involved in the industry, supporting it through social media.

In a recent example of high street copying high end, Forever 21 has come under fire for almost identical designs featuring the same font, text positioning, and phrase for their men's and women's t- shirts. However, not only have they copied directly from Kanye, they have also copied a designer who took 'inspiration' from 'I feel like Pablo', in her 'I feel like pizza' designs which also use the same font. Although this designer, Marta Freedman, could also be accused of stealing Kanye's idea, Freedman is not happy that Forever 21 copied her copy. Defending herself, Freedman said she's "not the first to parody Kanye's shirts", believing that her's are still respectful to Kanye's work, whereas Forever 21 made theirs "to make money". By law, a 'parody' has to create social benefit, or make light of the existing product. Kanye has not trademarked his designs, and has never called any artists out for copying his work. LA based brand sdc has also made t-shirts that could be accused of taking direct inspiration from Kanye, due to the font and text layout. However, the brand has defended itself saying Kanye has just made the font popular, but it's "hardly the original".