Regulating Style: Intellectual Property Law and the Business of Fashion in Guatemala

Kedron Thomas

ISBN 10: 0520290976 / ISBN 13: 9780520290976

Published by University of California Press, 2016

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # B9780520290976

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Regulating Style: Intellectual Property Law and the Business of Fashion in Guatemala
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520290976
• ISBN 13: 9780520290976
• Binding: Paperback / softback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 499 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Fashion knockoffs are everywhere. Even in the out-of-the-way markets of highland Guatemala, fake branded clothes offer a cheap, stylish alternative for people who cannot afford high-priced originals. Fashion companies have taken notice, ensuring that international trade agreements include stronger intellectual property protections to prevent brand “piracy.” In Regulating Style, Kedron Thomas approaches the fashion industry from the perspective of indigenous Maya people who make and sell knockoffs, asking why they copy and wear popular brands, how they interact with legal frameworks and state institutions that criminalize their livelihood, and what is really at stake for fashion companies in the global regulation of style.
 

About the Author

Kedron Thomas is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. She is coeditor, with Kevin Lewis O’Neill, of Securing the City: Neoliberalism, Space, and Insecurity in Postwar Guatemala.