Lilia Todd

I don't believe in original. I'm really unsure if anyone cares I'm awesome.

I've been really nervous about blogging again. Last year I had a baby, but that's not the reason I haven't been back. I did a custom order for someone on etsy. I copied a dress. I did an amazing job. I shared the finished product with flickr. All of the sudden everyone cared about the copied dress. It was even on a craft magazine blog. I am very talented. I thought I had finally gotten some deserved recognition for being awesome.

I guess I'm telling you the rest for myself. This is my place to post my things and the things I care about, and it was taken over by anonymous assholes. Apparently the folks over at Daydream nation didn't like that their idea was copied. Up there is the picture I posted theirs on the left, mine on the right. I didn't know what daydream nation was. That photo was supplied to me. I posted on this blog stating pretty obviously, "look at this dress I copied." I couldn't stop the hate mail from coming. The guy who designed the dress even posted, under anonymous so I will never really be sure if it was him though I'm pretty sure it was. The whole air mail line was for his father who had passed. Under his comment, and others that were by far the rudest I had been addressed in my whole life, I wrote a short apology. The hate mail kept coming. I erased the post.

I'm not sorry for making the dress. I didn't break the law. "You should be ashamed to call yourself a designer" someone wrote. I was and still am surprised at how hurt I am by the comments of people who live on the other side of the planet and never told me their names. I am not ashamed. I made a dress for someone who couldn't find where the dress was sold. Daydream nation never told me where you could buy the dress so I could pass it on.



I have had success though. My OWN idea. I make vintage handkerchiefs into flag buntings. One that I made will be featured in Bride magazine in March. These have since been copied. It was copied by THeinoriginals ironically. I don't think they copied me, though they could have. I think it was more like a couple of ideas I had that that had already been thought up. I could have sworn I was so damn creative too. I thought of making cone gnomes, and making gift bows out of VHS tape. Both ideas already taken. I don't really believe in original.