Note to Ashley Dayley. Seek Us and Repent

I know this situation a little more first hand and have some thoughts on this- To the best of my ability to ascertain this pattern has moved well into the area of public domain due to the age of the pattern- http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/ Some of the points are well taken and as with all design originality is primary-I know Ashley and she never said,or alluded that the dress was her design- that dress is so recognizable as a vintage design that anyone with a half way conceived idea as to being fashion “smart” would recognize that-so no great revelation that the blogapostlistas could have the bright shining light on themselves as to their brilliance…. the problem with the current thread is that this line of thought is defamatory to a perfectly talented and capable designer, and that maybe someday the mass you all will be rocking your grandchildren talking about sewing a “Dayley” with them- O K so I am getting carried away but my point would be lighten up just a bit. when viewing art and master painters it is obvious that they all developed styles of painting which would indicate a movement and some imitation of each others work.
Blogapostlista a word coined by me feel, free to plagiarize it as your own-being followers of the master blogger

What photo?

This is Ashley Dayley one of the two designers from AFV and there is another lady Felicia Pease that is apart of this line as well. I called but your mail box was to full to leave a message and you did not answer. We have never claimed this design as our own, as of the 13 garmets we made for this line. This one dress was one that we never claimed as our own design. We have given credit to the pattern when people asked about it and did not claim it as my own. And the quote that you are refering too as “Vintage Sexy” was over a phone interview with St.Louis Post Dispatch and Debra was the one who summed up from speaking with her that our line was “Vintage sexy.” I told her what we were going for as a line, AFV and those were not my words. So if you do not know where quotes are coming from do not take dialoge of it text form. Get all your intormation straight before you start accusing individuals of certian circumstances. As artist you build from other ideas and it was one dress out of thirteen. We as AFV were not here to “ripp off” so to speak this pattern. ” So this is my repent since you could not answer the phone call. Thank you. AFV

It’s funny to read that Ashley Dayley still calls herself a designer… she hasn’t understand yet that she is only someone who sews, and honestly there’s much more creativity on the blogs of the sewing comunity who at least change the patterns and do not claim themselves as designers.

A word of advice Ashley, if that is how you are going to respond, you are better of not responding. That response in no way defends your character or your credibility, and just makes you appear defensive and irresponsible. If you want facts, the fact is that you presented this dress in a showcase of your “line”, and in doing so you took credit for the design itself. The event was a designer’s showcase, not a seamstress’ showcase, so the implication is that you “designed” the dress. I have read that you are a trained designer, so you really should know what fashion design entails, and that picking out fabric is not designing. Yes, artists build from other ideas by changing them and developing them to express their own aesthetic, but that is not what you did. Oh, and by the way, it is not an unreasonable assumption to believe a quote in a reputable newspaper, so you can’t impugn the credibility of the argument against you with that one. The quote had little to do with it anyway; if you ignore the quote completely, then the fact still remains that you put up a dress from a sewing pattern in a design showcase and then were too hard headed to admit your error.

Perhaps I might be stepping out on a ledge here but I have to throw this out there…EVERYTHING IN FASHION and ART HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE! I think we could probably take anything and FIND SOMETHING that it resembles enough to know that was where the idea came from. Anyone that has taken a fashion history class pretty much had a project that basically HAD to take modern designs and find the past originals. Maybe she really did use the pattern but I must confess as a woman that is partial to vintage style clothing and dresses, that’s a pretty typical style of THAT style of Dress. Let me also say I am not familiar with Dayley so I am sure to many of you I have lost all credibility by stating this…I just wanted to say we should remember that though it may be new to us OR look copied I’m sure THAT pattern was VERY COMMON in it’s time and there were MANY dresses just like it!

as a designer, we are taught in college/design school… there is such thing as rub offs (you do just that, copy the pattern) and pattern manipulation (where you alter the pattern to your liking) however in this…you must give credit where credit is due. There is such thing as inspiration from vintage clothing and patterns… If Ashley would’ve done so with this dress…it could’ve been super interesting I’m sure. As for this photo above…the only look that stands out, is the butterick pattern, and not just b/c it’s a retro replica, but b/c the rest of the collection is not cohesive. hmmmm.