The Cases of Dior vs. Bihor, Vaideeni vs. Louis Vuitton — and a Different Path Forward
When Christian Dior released a €30,000 coat in 2017, the people of Bihor, Romania recognized the pattern immediately. It wasn’t Dior’s—it was theirs. Centuries-old embroidery had been lifted straight from their traditional folk vest. The response? Bihor Couture — a grassroots campaign that turned outrage into empowerment by selling authentic jackets made by local artisans for a fraction of the price.
In 2024, history repeated. This time, the villagers of Vaideeni mobilized against Louis Vuitton after spotting their embroidery patterns in the “LV by the Pool” collection. With the campaign #GiveCredit, they demanded recognition for their heritage and won international attention.
Both cases highlight the same question: what happens when intangible cultural heritage collides with global fashion markets?
📌 Short introduction about me
As a cultural bearer of the Martinki tradition — inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2017 — and as a certified heritage interpreter, I am deeply engaged in how living traditions are safeguarded, adapted, and sometimes misused. This is not an abstract issue for me: it is personal, professional, and urgent.
That’s why the ongoing conversation about intellectual property and intangible cultural heritage is not abstract to me. It is personal, professional, and urgent.
🧵 Intangible Heritage as Intellectual Property
Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)—like embroidery, songs, dances, rituals—is not protected in the same way as patents or trademarks. A community’s centuries-old stitch can be replicated overnight by a luxury brand, monetized for thousands, while the original bearers remain invisible.
✨ With today’s tools, it takes only a quick Google Lens scan or a simple AI prompt to discover whether embroidery on a blouse is authentic inspiration, a resemblance, or a pure copy from another culture.
Unlike tangible goods, intangible practices are collective, evolving, and identity-based. This makes them difficult to fit into classical Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) frameworks designed for individual authors and fixed creations.
⚖️ The Challenges
- No formal protection for most traditional designs.
- Global asymmetry between small communities and global corporations.
- Risk of commodification — when heritage becomes just a fashion item, stripped of meaning.
🌱 Innovation Instead of Appropriation
Not all stories of heritage and design are about loss. Some are about creative renewal.
A recent example comes from Macedonian designer Lasko Dzurovski, who created the font Makalo. Unlike typical typefaces, each glyph in Makalo generates a full decorative embroidery pattern inspired by traditional Macedonian stitches. Even the numbers are stylized as small dancing figures.
✨ In this way, embroidery is not just preserved but transformed into a living digital tool—usable in branding, visual identities, or education, while still acknowledging its roots.
I also experimented with this font myself. I am not a professional designer or illustrator, yet with today’s digital tools I was able to create a piece that resembles traditional Macedonian embroidery. This design is my way of expressing gratitude toward our intangible heritage, while exploring how it can inspire new forms of visual storytelling.
💡 Why It Matters
For communities: heritage is livelihood and identity. For brands: authenticity builds reputation. For all of us: heritage is not a free pattern bank.
✨ Because cultural heritage, like every stitch, may not always carry a name — but it always carries a story and a set of values.
This text was originally published in my LinkedIn newsletter.
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