Copyright: Giles Deacon Does Giles for New Look

My favorite magazine in the world, Grazia, (tragically not online) did a two-page spread this week on Giles Deacon's new collection for New Look. Deacon's own collection for next Spring was one of my favorites of London fashion week (and will be available on Net-a-Porter). He also designs for Daks (nope, not online) and does a a collection called Gold By Giles for New Look (also tragically not online).

When I saw in Grazia how similar some of the pieces were to his runway collection I thought, "How cheeky! Good for you, Giles."

(The Giles Dress)

He Liked It So Much He Designed It Twice: The $80 Gold by Giles Dress for New Look.
"What a fab way to tackle the great copying debate. Have the high street shops hire the main-line designers to copy themselves!" Then, on closer examination, I realized that the runway looks used for inspiration, above, were from the fall/winter 2005 collection."Even more cheeky!"

As far as I'm concerned a flapper-style fringed dress is pretty much timeless, so no harm done. It's not like Giles invented the concept back in 2005. But I do wonder if the executives at New Look were aware of just how much he was raiding his own archives. In a statement Deacon said, "the inspiration for the collection was a range of pieces that would knock them dead and ensure some fantastic pre-Christmas action!" and says that his favourite piece is the black fringe dress. Will shoppers care about the real source of his inspiration for that dress? I doubt it. Expect the usual mob scene when the collection is hits shop floors tomorrow morning.

Photo by FirstView