Design Piracy in the United States Women's Ready-To-Wear Apparel Industry: 1910-1941 " (2005)

Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2005 Design piracy in the United States women's ready- to-wear apparel industry: 1910-1941 Sara Beth Marcketti Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Art and Design Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Marcketti, Sara Beth, "Design piracy in the United States women's ready-to-wear apparel industry: 1910-1941 " (2005). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 1756. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/1756 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Design piracy in the United States women's ready-to-wear apparel industry: 1910-1941 by Sara Beth Marcketti A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Textiles and Clothing Program of Study Committee: Jean L. Parsons, Major Professor Amy S. Bix Larry Ebbers Jane Farrell-Beck Linda S. Niehm Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2005 Copyright © Sara Beth Marcketti, 2005. All rights reserved. UMI Number: 3200443 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3200443 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ii Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation of Sara Beth Marcketti has met the dissertation requirements of Iowa State University Signature was redacted for privacy. Major Professor Signature was redacted for privacy. the Major Progra iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii ABSTRACT . viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 Research Questions 5 Methods 5 Organization of the Dissertation 7 Definition of Terms 8 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 11 Development of the Women's Ready-to-Wear Apparel Industry 11 Changes in the Need and Availability of Ready-to-Wear Apparel 12 Technical Advancements 15 Structure of the Women's Ready-to-Wear Apparel Industry 18 Rapid Growth 20 The Emergence of the Dress Industry 22 Importance of Style and Fashion Change 29 Originals and Adaptations 33 Fashion, Class, and Social Status 37 Dress and Fashion as Status Symbols in Open Class Systems 38 Theories of Fashion Diffusion 39 The Inherent Similarity of Fashion 42 Style and Design Piracy 43 Style and Design Piracy from the U.S. Apparel Industry Perspective 45 Style and Design Piracy from the Legal Perspective 48 Summary 54 CHAPTER THREE: AMERICAN FASHIONS FOR AMERICAN WOMEN 56 The Need and Desire for an American Art of Dressing 56 The Copying of Paris for Style Inspiration 58 Identification of Paris with Fashion Creation 59 Demand for Parisian Goods 61 Methods of Copying Parisian Styles 63 Developments that Encouraged American Style Independence 67 Tariffs 69 Rising Wholesale and Retail Prices 70 Disappointment in Paris 71 False Parisian Labels 74 iv Development of a U.S. Design Presence 79 What are American Fashions? 79 Encouragement, Education, and Promotion of the U.S. Designer 84 Museums and Style Libraries 85 Education 86 Advertising 89 Summary 92 CHAPTER FOUR: AMERICAN STYLE PROTECTION ARGUMENTS 95 Style and Design Piracy 95 Style Protection Arguments 98 Arguments in Support of Style Protection 99 The manufacturers' interest 100 The retailers' interest 101 The consumers' interest 103 The interest of labor 104 Arguments Against Style Protection 105 The manufacturers' interest 105 The retailers' interest 106 The consumers' interest 106 The interest of labor 107 Regulating Piracy 107 Legal Attempts to Regulate Piracy 112 Trade Association Attempts to Regulate Piracy 115 Summary 123 CHAPTER FIVE: THE FASHION ORIGINATORS GUILD OF AMERICA 125 The FOGA 125 New Regulations and Controversial Policies 137 The National Recovery Administration Hearing: The Design Piracy Debate 144 Competition and Regulation of Originality 145 Originality and Adaptations 146 Entitlement to Fashion 148 Style and Economic Issues 152 The Debate over Labor and Employment Issues 153 Quality Considerations 156 Did the FOGA Monopolize the Industry? 158 Summary 160 CHAPTER SIX: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 161 Summary 161 REFERENCES CITED 168 V LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Number and value of dress establishments, 1929 27 Table 2.2 Number and value of dress production, 1929, 1931, 1937 28 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 M&H Rentner advertisement 36 Figure 3.1 The dishonest Paris label 76 Figure 4.1 Dress with copyrighted number 110 Figure 4.2 Design in patent dispute 112 Figure 4.3 Dress Creators League of America inaugural announcement 121 Figure 5.1 Fashion Originators Guild of American inaugural announcement 127 Figure 5.2 FOGA mid-season showing announcement 129 Figure 5.3 FOGA dress manufacturer member advertisement 132 Figure 5.4 Herbert Sondheim registered sketch 134 Figure 5.5 FOGA label 135 Figure 5.6 Popular Price Dress Manufacturers announcement 139 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The idea for this dissertation was a result of a dress purchased with an FOGA label by my advisor, Jean L. Parsons. Jean, you have been most supportive throughout the Ph.D. process. Thank you for helping to build my confidence in the art of history writing. I thank Jane Farrell-Beck for her dedication to the subject of historic costumes. Thank you to Amy Bix for encouraging me to present this topic to a wider historical audience. To Linda Niehm, I owe a great deal of gratitude for teaching me to view topics from a "so-what" perspective. Thank you to Larry Ebbers for encouraging me to pursue a minor in higher education, a subject I have greatly enjoyed. Thank you also to Sara Kadolph for her example of master teaching and her willingness to assist me in my pursuit of becoming a great teacher. I also thank the College of Human Science at Iowa State University, the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, the Costume Society of America, and the Kappa Omicron Nu Association for their financial support. The process of receiving a Ph.D. was difficult and at times disheartening. I thank my parents, Ted and Margaret Brubacher for their love, support, and constant encouragement. Their examples of hard work and dedication buoyed me throughout this process. I am grateful for my decision to attend Iowa State University. It is here that I found my life's work and life partner. I thank my husband, Mike Marcketti, for the reminder that receiving a Ph.D. is only one of my life-goals. This dissertation is dedicated in memory of my grandparents, Ted and Dorothy Brubacher and Harold and Esther Maxwell, for their examples of everyday leadership and faith. viii ABSTRACT This research investigates the economic conditions of the American apparel industry, as well as the complex interactions of apparel industry members, trade organizations, and the U. S. government to better understand the reasons cited for supporters of apparel style protection versus those who accepted design piracy. The purpose is to examine the concept of piracy within the historical context of the American ready-to-wear apparel industry. Through an analysis of journalistic coverage in trade and popular fashion periodicals, pertinent legal records, economic and census data, governmental hearings, archival sources, and the case study of the Fashion Originators Guild of America, this research analyzes the interrelationships among American access to fashion, the ready-to-wear industry, and design piracy. The precise time boundaries of this research are 1910 though 1941. These years encompassed the rise of the American ready-to-wear industry and coincided with the beginning of the trade publication Women's Wear Daily. The year 1941 marked the end of the Fashion Originators Guild of America's program of self-regulation against piracy. Protection of women's apparel against piracy was controversial and difficult. First, protection of styles against piracy was contradictory to the concept of fashion. Without the social process of imitation, the lucrative business of the women's ready-to-wear apparel industry could not exist. Second, an objective criterion for determining product originality was difficult. These problems were multiplied in the women' ready-to-wear apparel industry which placed thousands of different styles in production each season, each conforming to the prevailing fashion in varying price and quality levels. While the apparel industry continues to debate the rubric of "referencing," the FOGA was an important early case highlighting the ethical, economic, and social considerations of a program of industry-wide

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