The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie engages the arts, to raise awareness of the social impacts of the counterfeit timepiece trade
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Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie Leverages Film to Fight Counterfeiting
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Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie engages the arts, to raise awareness of the social impacts of the counterfeit timepiece trade
Sylvain Metlz – Take a True Look at Fakes
Part of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie’s (FHH) raison d’être is a commitment to fighting counterfeiting and raising public awareness of its knock on effects. Counterfeit watch revenue is now estimated at over $400 billion, where counterfeiting siphons off 7% of world trade. The FHH believes that over 40 million fake watches are sold per year, when there were only 26 million genuine Swiss timepieces made in 2010 – a difference they believe raises over $1 billion for counterfeiters.
In January 2009, the Foundation joined forces with the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry to launch an international awareness campaign with visuals and a slogan declaring “Fake Watches are for Fake People.“ The FHH also has partnerships with international anti-counterfeiting organisations StopPiracy, Unifab and Indicam.
The first FHH anti-counterfeiting campaign, launched in January 2009
To reignite the counterfeiting discussion and educate consumers, the FHH launched a short-film competition for the general public and visual communication students at Lausanne University of Art and Design (ECAL), on the theme, Take a true look at fakes. Thirty “infomercials” and short films – cartoons, fictions and montages – were selected to be shown in Switzerland and internationally.
The latest campaign aims to inform the public about the peripheral effects of purchasing counterfeit goods. Highlighting the obvious impacts of lost revenue and intellectual property theft, but also exploring ethical and social issues such as child labour, money laundering, job losses and the link between counterfeiting revenues and organised crime.
To watch more entries from the Take a True Look at Fakes campaign, please visit the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie’s YouTube channel
Creative Strategist, Digital
Sophie Doran is currently Senior Creative Strategist, Digital at Karla Otto. Prior to this role, she was the Paris-based editor-in-chief of Luxury Society. Prior to joining Luxury Society, Sophie completed her MBA in Melbourne, Australia, with a focus on luxury brand dynamics and leadership, whilst simultaneously working in management roles for several luxury retailers.
