The industry built on risk is playing it safe, and small creators are paying the price.
The fashion industry used to be about art walking the line of absurdity. It was about having guts and taking risks. Silhouettes that told stories, pieces that held more symbolism than a 20th-century British novel. But as of late? It seems to be playing it safe. Like someone put innovation on the back burner and cranked up corporate strategy.
We’ve entered an era where creative directors are practically playing musical chairs throughout the major brands. And it feels similar to a class project, you know, where no one is actually doing the work but still showing up for credit. The focus has shifted from creating something new, to repackaging something familiar. Quiet luxury, minimalist chic, all of these are tasteful. But it’s the current strategy to staying relevant. And while these brands may think it’s screaming “never seen before” all I’m hearing is “nothing new.”
Fashion has always meant more than simply the fabric that covers your body. It’s identity. It’s community. It’s camp. It’s where the weirdos and visionaries and beautifully deranged get to collaborate in a pattern-filled mosaic where they can tell the world who they are before anyone even has to ask. Or judge them. Or erase them.
So the main question is: What happens when the industry built on the foundation of innovation stops supporting its inventors?
Smaller designers, who don’t yet have a trademark, and who typically work with ethics and sustainability in mind, are being dronwed out by luxury conglomerates who have the power to steal, sanitize, and sell their original ideas back to us… only triple to price.
We’re watching it happen in real time. Fast fashion giants are working faster than “fast,” they’re replicating indie designs in the blink of an eye. Which means, the weird is getting washed out and the “risks” are being smoothed over into something more palatable.
We don’t crave fashion because it gives us exactly what we want, we love it because it gives us what we never knew we needed.
Take Brandy Melville, the peak example of how a brand can go morally bankrupt over something as simple as a baby tee. From size exclusivity and environmental harm to now flat-out design theft, they’ve become a brand known more for leeching off the originality of smaller artists than the California laid-back aesthetic they were built from. Case in point: Kissing Cowboys, a queer owned, sustainable brand emerging in New York City.
Founder, Emma DiMarco, recently took to TikTok to call out Brandy Melville for ripping off her brands logo, name, and aesthetic, releasing a full line of tees and tanks under the name “Kissing Cowboys” (which uses the same font and spacing from DiMarco’s original logo) and a cowboy graphic that has been used on her advertisements before. Not even subtle, or legally clever. But definitely shameless.
But what makes the sting that much worse is that fashion, at its core, is supposed to be about community. About uplifting the ones who do the hard work, especially if that’s done in a cramped apartment using someone’s life savings. It’s supposed to be sacred, a space for expressing yourself when the words fall short.
Instead? We’re watching a major brand steal from the little guy without an ounce of remorse or accountability. And the industry’s silence and support? Well, to quote the queen, Taylor Swift, herself, “I’ve never heard silence quite this loud.”
So what does fashion look like in 10 or 20 years if we keep letting this happen? The small names, the passionate names, the people with stories, all get boxed out. And then we’re stuck in the cycle of sameness. It looks like a million brown trench coats and the slow, heart-wrenching death of creative risks.
If fashion is going to survive as an art, we need to get weird again. We need to shine a light on the small brands. We need to make a more welcoming space for the dreamers and the disruptors. We need to protect the ones who truly believe a t-shirt can change the world.
Because it can, but only if we let it.
Shop Kissing Cowboys here.