| dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines the status of clothing design silhouettes within the intellectual property (IP) framework, and the interaction with sculptural forms in other forms of creative work, including fine arts. From the perspective of fashion designers and consumers, fashion design garments are feasibly compared to art and to sculpture, because through their silhouettes they can communicate meaning, social significance, cultures, history, authorship, and amass substantial economic values. At the same time, silhouettes may be perceived as part of the functional character of clothing, in covering the bodies of wearers. This fluidity is different from sculpture; however, from the visual perspective, silhouettes share significant similarities and practices with sculpture as a fine art. Arguably, designers utilise the wearer’s body as an infrastructure/collaborator to achieve their vision for an artistic shape as three-dimensional silhouette. After the Court of Justice (CJEU) decision in Levola, the horizon of copyright works is potentially expanded, including not only fashion as sculpture, but also the fashion silhouette; that is, fashion in movement and wear. This thesis will consider the impact of Levola on UK and EU copyright protection, with a focus on the post-Brexit landscape, arguing for the addition of a new subject matter, established, and defined in the thesis as Sculpturette. The fundamental question for fashion is identifying infringement and enforcing copyright, and so a key question is how to particularise silhouette as a copyright work. This thesis draws upon work in fashion theory and art history to understand the scope of the silhouette as a work and to inform the interpretation of originality and expression in the silhouette. This reflection of our social conditions in which the copyright regime operates within fashion provides an innovative insight into the nature of copyright works more widely. | en_US |
