Dupes, Design and The Law: When Is Inspiration Theft?
When Dunnes Stores released a €15 tote in 2024 that looked strikingly like Longchamp’s iconic Le Pliage, the debate reignited: where does inspiration end and infringement begin? Dupes aren’t counterfeits, but they blur legal and cultural lines—praised as accessible by some, condemned as theft by others. The Longchamp case may reshape fashion’s uneasy balance between originality and imitation.
After the King: Giorgio Armani’s Empire at a Crossroads
When Giorgio Armani died on 4 September 2025, Milan lost more than a designer—it lost a cultural anchor. Armani revolutionised tailoring, redefined womenswear, and built one of the last great independent fashion houses. Now his empire faces a defining test: can the foundation and inner circle he so carefully assembled preserve his ethos of discipline, restraint and independence in an industry dominated by conglomerates? Armani’s greatest creation may not have been a suit at all, but the roadmap he left behind.
No Pants, No Problem: Gisele’s Leather Power Play
At 45 and just months postpartum, Gisele Bündchen stormed back into fashion in head-to-toe leather, pantsless, and unapologetic. The Autumn 2025 Elisabetta Franchi campaign isn’t about comfort, trends, or age-appropriate dressing—it’s about audacity. From crystal-encrusted G-strings to crocodile boots under the Miami sun, Bündchen turns discomfort into spectacle, defying expectations of mothers, older women, and supermodels alike. More than clothes, this is disruption dressed as power—a reminder that fashion’s sharpest edge lies not in what you wear, but in daring to wear it against the rules.