Matthew Williamson, the British celebrity designer, whose achievement have been recognized by the fashion industry consistently for several years, is disappointed as Ethiopia’s Intellectual Property Office conveyed their annoyance over replication of their traditional prints in his creations.
The designer has imprinted these African-inspired designs in his Spring Summer 2008 collection. The Ethiopian Government Woyanne launched an inquiry against him to protect their national costume.
In order to defend Matthew Williamson, his spokesperson, in a statement, said, “Historically, Matthew Williamson bases his collections on the idea of a modern girl who is a global traveler. Her style is in part defined by incorporating many different cultures, traditions and customs.”
It was further stressed, “The spring-summer 2008 season was particularly inspired by the idea of modernizing and celebrating certain traditional African fabrics and costumes.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE
These greedy dictators want to control every thing, even the fashion industry. If we are to follow the Woyanne logic, then the U.S. Government can tell other countries not to manufacture jeans. What a bunch of idiots! If Woyanne stands for Ethiopia’s interest, why does it give away large swaths of fertile land to Sudan?
28 thoughts on “Woyanne goes after British fashion designer”
For what’s worth,I think they are right on this one!
Dear Editor,
You got it wrong this time. I do not think we should be myopic to unfair pratices such as this one simply because of our political opposition to the regime in power.
Here is what my self as a concerned Ethiopian wrote to the designer in question followed by the reply I received from them:
Dear Designer,
Allow me to ex press my appreciation for what you are doing in the world of desgn. It is just superb.
I am from Ethiopia . Recently, I was visiting an Ethiopian website when my attention was drwan to a certain clip of a fashion show from your website. I went to your website and looked at your Spring 2008 Ready-to Wear show clips of images.
I was surprised to see images 21 and 23 on page 3. We Ethiopians are quite familiar to those dress designs. I wonder whether you are claiming to be the creator of those designs. I do not have full information as to how these designs ended up in your show. You could be working with an Ethiopian designer, etc.
However, I just want to point out to you that any claim to those designs by any single designer would be unfair not only to the consumer but also to the Ethiopian traditional weavers.
I understand that piracy is a common place in the seed industry, in medicines derived from plants (modern drug companies pirating the knowledge of traditional healers of the developing world), in cosmetics, etc. Poor countries are plundered their knowledge, design and innovations by those who have advantage of technology and trade mark, design or patent protection. You take our knowledge and make billions of dollars out of it quitely, and you give us in return “humantarian and development aid” with a lot of fanfare and news headlines.
I wonder whether the notion of “fair trade” clickes to your mind.
Best reagrds,
The reply:
Thank you for your email.
Matthew Williamson , like many other designers, draws inspiration each season from many different cultures.
Historically, Matthew Williamson bases his collections on the idea of a modern girl who is a global traveler, whose style is defined by incorporating many different cultures, traditions and customs.
It is a celebration of global style and the many different ethnicities that exist in the world today.
This seasons collection, as shown in London Fashion week, was more specifically based on Africa . During the research process, the design team derived inspiration from various African countries and tribal groups and sought to highlight the tradition style from these peoples.
In presenting his Spring Summer 2008 collection Matthew Williamson strived to gain recognition and admiration for not only the traditional dress of the Ethiopian people, but also other African communities whose beautiful traditional techniques are also evident in the show.
It is not the intention of Matthew Williamson to offend such communities, but to show his appreciation and passion for travel. His long held esteem for global fashions and individual countries traditional dress is habitually acknowledged and communicated to the media when citing his latest inspirations.
Best Wishes.
Eliase,
The work which is currently done by: 1/ The Ethiopian Intellectual Office (I know the director – may be, he is more nationalistic than you), 2/ Oxfam UK and America, and 3/ the international NGO called “Light Year” (based in DC and led by a true friend of developing countries from Newzeland)in relation to the Ethiopia’s Intellectual property rights should be recognized and applauded. You do not know the complex issues and international power play that are undergoing about intellectual property rights between developed and developing countries. Besides, you sould have had a statesman’s “eye view” of the long term interset of Ethiopia. What is now being done about Ethiopia’s intellectual property right will be benificial for generations to come, even when “Woyane” is erased from history.
If the legal actions are meant to protect the rights of Ethiopian creators of the design, it should be encouraged and not condemned. However, the records of woyane suggest that this is a ploy to divert attention from its crude dictatorship. It is impossible to trust the woyane regime that gives for free Ethiopian land to Sudan and Eritrea and allows foreign and domestic parasites to exploit the country’s natural resources.
elias i agree, i reckon they want to get money off of him as they do wih everything else. the very idea that woyane stands for ethiopian national symbol is a contradiction, an oxymoron!! there is clearly some money to be made from this for woyane..even if it is to blackmail the designer and get some kickback or bribe from him to drop the supposed copyright charges.
In a fair world, Ethiopians would have to be compensated for their customs being replicated elsewhere. It is annoying that an Ethiopian doesn’t feel burdened by this robbery, that he would handsomely pay a premium for the simplest of “inventions” in the west, but feels no rage when years of creativity is stolen. Not that I expect Meles and co. to ensure that Ethiopians get their due. Their race, as seen by their secret agreement with Starbucks and their attempt to become co-patent owners of Teff, is to become partners in this looting. That you would choose to defend the designer simply because you hate Meles is ridiculous. We ought to be careful that in our own haste to denounce Meles, we don’t become our own enebmy.
This is an example of Woyanes insatiable greed extending overseas.
As part of an organized mafia style looting of Ethiopia, Woyanes now have monopoly over Ethiopian Coffee, Gold, Oil seeds, Flowers, Cement, Livestock and Hydes to name a few – in addition to the well orchestrated marketing of HIV Aids, Malaria and Famine in the name of the misery of Ethiopians and in the form of Foreign Aid. Woyane is now stretching the greed tentacles overseas!
The opposition has to seize the opportunity and expose these pigs and the economic crime they are committing!
elias i dont agree with you with this issue
This is another non-sense rehtoric from the woyannes. How can they try to guard ethiopian cloth while they are killing ethiopians? Which should be protected and safe guarded first, people or their cloth??
Its a shame that there are ethiopians who dont believe in protecting our national hertiage and uniqe cultural design.
Those traditional dress were not only Ethiopian, but Eritrean as well.
Well, Elias, I also disagree with you, as many of the folks above.
Mr. Williamson’s act constitutes another dimension to the massive plunder of the indigenous assets of the African heritage. So much has been out of Africa so far, including the filing of more than 500 patents over endemic plant species of African origin. This one concerns an aesthetic asset diverted to the economic utility of the powerful North. This effort is backed and facilitated by the WTO’s TRIPS agreement which makes the indigenous lifestyle of traditional people subject to the private rights of people like Matthew Williamson. The African people need to voice loud against all this ripping. The African governments need to show that they have much more concern than their megalomaniacal drive, if they do, and prove this by pressing hard to get the issue of Traditional Knowledge and Folklore protection as a negotiation agenda at ongoing Doha negotiations.
It is hard to believe that the TPLF administration is pursuing this out of altruistic grounds. However, Elias, the guy in the Intellectual property Office, Getachew Mengistie is a very courageous Ethiopian, and I bet that the coffee trade mark as well as this one are his own personal initiatives. I have known Getachew when he has been a part-time instructor of Intellectual property law at the Faculty of Law, A.A.U. He is one of the very few individuals who are really working hard for the good of their country, disregarding the prohibitive political atmosphere.
I can feel that such initiatives are unTPLFite because when it comes to the nation’s interest in the general context, like this one, we know where TPLF stands. As we have seen it through out those 17 years, TPLF is out of the picture whenever the national interest of Ethiopia is involved. But, this move is master-minded by this guy Getachew Mengistie, and some people around him and TPLF has let it or encouraged it because it will draw to them some pocket money. Despite that however, the move is an encouraging effort that should be supported by all Ethiopians and should be adopted by other African countries, and ofcourse, the Ethiopian IPO has also other areas to be involved in the same manner.
I hope you will respond to us on this thread and tell us the reasons why you seem to oppose such efforts.
Elias
I Totally disagree with you on this one. As much as I admire your dedication to opposing Meles, sometimes you don’t see beyound him.
Jeans in not of American origin. The material is named for a city in Europe where it was originally manufactured. Look into the history of jeans.
To inform the readers : It is the ethiopian community in europe which alerted and is forcing the government to take action. You can’t have it both ways. On the one hand we said the government is not guarding the interest of ethiopians and ethiopias product abroad, on the other hand when something is going to be done about it we try to deny them public opinion advantage.So please we have moral obligation to support what is ours.Do you think any other country or thier companies let ethiopians to showcase their product as thier own in international stage? By the way the same organsization that brought good deal for our coffee farmers by fighting starbucks is the one which is handling this matter.
The editor wrote “If we are to follow the Woyanne logic, then the U.S. Government can tell other countries not to manufacture jeans” I respectfully disagree with you here.Lets take not complicated(trade rule) example here :Generic drugs- The original (owner)creator of the drug has exclusive right for few years to produce and sell it solely for that owner profit(hence its company-country benieft).After that any company who wants to do this can produce and sell it as generic drugs but they still have to pay for the orignal creator some loyality. This is my 101 take on the issue .I thing this apply to any product even jeans.Althoug it would be wiser if you(respectfully -THE EDITOR) bring ethiopian experts to disect the issue , pros and cons of it for our country.Dont you think we should give them benifit of the doubt -even you have the resposibility to your readers to wise us up with expert input.
Elias, your Jeans analogy is a little inate. Look at what has been going on about jeans in Europe since 1873 and more recently in 2002. http://www.out-law.com/page-2814
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeans
And also,don’t make the logic woyanie’s logic because we ain’t neither woyanie nor idiots. Ofcourse, woyanie has utilized it because it acrues to them pocket money. But, at a larger scale, it is much more than about TPLF. yes, it has given away fertile lands to Sudan, and woyanie is not letting this initiative for the sake of Ethiopia’s national interest. But, irrespective of that, we have to condone the efforts by those people at the IPO. Elias, you tend to siding with the inept Iyasus’s anja of the EPRPitis on this point, not the usual smart yourself.
Which one comes first? Respecting people’s rights who own the culture? or Killing the people and claim that they stand for the protection of property the people own? Unless they targeted to reap benefit or their own agenda…. TPLF led government has no intention of helping the people of Ethiopia at all.. they have proved it since they came to power… they helped Ethiopia lose port access.. and many many crimes against the people…… Weyanes kill the people and claim they stand for the protection of the victims property protection… Isn’t it funy? There is one famous saying “Azagn Kibe Anguach”
Thank you for the link Mr Yibiqan. It was informative. Yibiqan says:
“Elias, your Jeans analogy is a little inate. Look at what has been going on about jeans in Europe since 1873 and more recently in 2002. http://www.out-law.com/page-2814“
I think we have to be careful in everything we do. When it comes to Ethiopians and Ethiopia we ought to be one. This beyound doubt is against the poors of our motherland and it demands our unified stand against it.I simply am unable to see why Ethiopians are blindly going against interests of Ethiopia.Let us think several times before we take action.
I believe that ethiopians should be honored for our culture or whatever like other people worldwide. There is absolutely nothing wrong to fight for our properties. Do you think that any true ethiopian leader will give away its properties, plot of lands, ports ….for any one who could join him/her for dinner,or shared him notes of dollars?????????? Unfortuantely, there is no true leader in ethiopia, and this won’t surprize me as before.
I was indeed shocked when I read the Editor’s Note on this issue. Because we hate Wayane, do we need to condemn every thing it does what so ever it is?
Let me ask you Elias. If you, by some miracle, are given the opportunity to lead Ethiopia today, will you cancel this charge that Woyane has leveled on the fashion Designer? Just using your own logic – because you may not be greedy unlike Woyane, because you would not give fertile lands to Sudan, because you observe U.S.A’s experience that it did not care to allow production of Jeans any where, will you cancel the charge against Matthew Williamson that Woyane is pursuing to try to protect Ethiopian interest?
Let me ask you one more question just on the basis of the grounds you objected this move. Because Woyane is dectator and greedy, do you also object that it builds infrastrutre in Ethiopia? If you are entitled to lead ethiopia today, will you close down the new universities built by the dictator Woyane, demolish the roads and power plants constructed by the dictator etc?
Woyanne Mafia committed mass killings in Jijiga prison about one week ago according local informant. These large number snatched innocent children and men were randomoliy shot on their heads and killed one after the other. Local informant esitmates as many as two thousand prisoners were the victims.
This was one reason Woyanes kept out the UN-RED CROSS and many international agencies from entering OGADEN REGION. Among killed persons includes mentally ill homeless Oromo prisonner that was kidnapped from Somaliland with 7 Ogaden boys. Much of the killed thousands of Ogaden families and some Oromos who were displaced due to war that have engulfed the Ogaden region. The same informant reports heavy trucks full of bodies were taken loaded with human remains across to undisclosed mass barrial sites.
This is criminal at all levels, Meles Zenawi has violated all laws including the one he alter every second to make it work for him. This an alert to all.
Who said those traditional designes are only of Ethiopians.
Amazingly, the Eritreans are very known with it (Just look at beautiful Eritrean ladies around…., in holidays , at churches et.)
First of all they are not called Ethiopian traditional clothes,they are called “Habesha clothes”. so Habesha is a common name of people from northern part of ethiopia, including Amhara, Tigre and highlanders of Eritreans.
SO 24-Gual Asmara What is your point? Do we have to get eritrea’s permission to defend our culture and heritage?
Dear Editor,
Have you seen the clothes? I don’t see why the designer needs to get the credit for creating such dresses. These are the original Ethiopian clothes which have been there forever. I think it’s such a shame for the desinger to present them as his works. I bet any shemane in Ethiopia can do better than that.
Bringing Ethiopian custom to an International level must be incouraged. May be Ten year from now every other person might dress like Ethiopians and we all should be proud of that.
THINK!