Fashion Funhouse Emporium

Photo: Wren/ Target

Wren designer Melissa Coker designed this British 60's style A-line dress --and its at Target for $79.99

What's strange is upon seeing an email from the Wren team this AM, is that this was actually the first I heard of the collaboration. Don't designer deals usually come along with a huge marketing push?

Upon further investigation, as much as I could at 6:00AM, trying hard to focus my gummy eyeballs on miniature iPhone type, I noticed that Wren only has one dress available at the super discount retail chain.

A real journalist would've done more to investigate. I simply checked Target's press release section--and still found nothing to answer my question as to why one dress only as opposed to a full collection. If I did not have to go to Lond Island City and assist on a shoot for a foreign language Vogue perhaps I could fire off an email to Wren and ask just that, "Why one lone dress for Tar-ghey?" Early morning incoherence on my part? Perhaps.

But I did gather this, from another blog...that the dress is part of the Target Red Hot Shop Online...for another blog. So this blog...has no new information, but hopefully a dash of entertainment value. It will be interesting to see which other designers we can get a piece of via Daily Candy's co-branded Red Hot Shop for Target.  It thrills me to see that it supports smaller designers as well.

About Wren:

Wren is named after Jenny Wren, a character who makes dolls in Charles Dicken's Our Mutual Friend. The company was founded in 2007 by designer Melissa Coker, an Illinois native who interned at Helmut Lang, then when on to work in editorial at top fashion magazines such as Vogue, W and Details. Her career in design launched when she was asked to consult on corporate apparel.

Since, Wren has remained a bit under the radar but has a steady group of devoted fans who love the feminine and playful sophistication of the designs.

Photos: Wren Shop Online

Tweet

Forever 21 is taking a page from thier fast-fashion counterparts like H&M and is launching it's first designer collaboration.

First up on thier roster is LA designer Brian Lichtenberg. Though this name may not ring a bell, his recent claim to fame is designing Lady Gaga's caution tape "outfit" for her Telephone video and her geometric necklace in the "Poker Face" video.

So has the knock-off retailer finally had enough lawsuits to decide that giving some cash to designers is a better business practice?

Forever 21 has definitley seen its share of designer names (and even other retailers) linked to its own, but in court.  Diane von Furstenberg, Anna Sui, Trovata, Anthropologie, Bebe, Gwen Stefani for Harajuku Lovers, Express, and the list goes on.

Though, with only settlements in these cases and never any clear "wins" for the plantiffs, will a designer collaboration actually bring in enough money for the chain whose entire being is based quickly produced runway "inspiration"? The answer is not black and white.

Milord A. Keshishian who practices law with a focus on intellectual property rights at Milord & Associates, PC in Los Angeles says "It’s difficult to ascertain the court costs and the amount of settlement because they’re usually confidential and the court costs and settlement sums may be covered by insurance.  So there may actually be no actual costs, other than increased insurance premiums."

However, this doesn't mean that designers can never win in the seemingly never ending brigade of lawsuits against Forever 21. Keshishian continues  "Although copyrights do not currently protect the design as a whole (or design construction), most designers are unaware that their garment, shoe, and accessories can be protected by design patents.  For example,True Religion has patented its stitch design on pants."

Though, will a connection to a rising fashion designer and a larger than life celebrity like Lady Gaga stop the chain from growing and growing like some sort of killer blob, rolling over the cities and towns, slurping up designer fashions and spitting out millions of cheaper, ill-constructed clones?

This remains to be seen until Lichtenberg's creations hit the racks (or rather the floor, if you've ever been in a NYC Forever 21) on August 13th at the retailer's top selling stores.