Earlier this week I blogged about Matalan's shameless rip-off of a Luella frock for their upcoming Spring collection. Even if you have no interest in fashion and have little to no knowledge of the subject, it's a commonly accepted fact that the majority of the high street consists of catwalk copies.

That's just how it works, right?

Designer shows a collection on the catwalk, high street designers up and down the country load up Style.com and sketch a few copies. It's pretty much always been the way, and in our increasingly Internet-led society it's easier than ever. If they wanted to, the high street would probably be able to get catwalk copies into the shops quicker than the designers themselves.

Watch the live stream of Big Designer's show, get your sketches done, email them to your factory and a week later, the products are ready. Probably takes less time than it does for the designer to hand sew a few hundred frocks, right?

We all know that's how it works and most people buy into it quite happily -- after all, who can afford the real deal? Not many. So why does this Luella copy by bargain basement high street store Matalan strike me as just so wrong? I don't know whether it's the obvious; Luella has only just gone bust and realistically this, her final collection, won't ever go on sale. It just seems kind of messed up. Without being too melodramatic, it's a bit like dancing on Luella's grave and taking advantage of the brand's misfortune.

There's also the fact that they've opted to style up the dress for the catwalk in exactly the same style as Luella's quirky catwalk show. Oversized yellow bow and block blue eyeshadow, with just the addition of a couple of naff accessories that Matalan HQ have probably asked them to flog. It's just shameless really, isn't it? There's no attempt to do anything even remotely clever or original with their copy; no thought process beyond duplication. 

Actually, thinking things through, it's not just the blatant ripping off of a much-missed designer that irks me so much, it's the sheer laziness of it all. Topshop are a great example of the high street taking catwalk inspiration and coming up with something good. They certainly aren't completely innocent, but for the most part they're imaginative and clever. They take their cue from the catwalks, get a design team to sit down and talk about it, then reimagine the trend in a way that's relevant to their customers.

They actually design things. They don't carbon copy looks from prominent designers; they do as most designers (both high street and high end) do and take the catwalk trends as a starting point to build on with the addition of their own ideas. You can see how successful this process is in the fact that Topshop have launched and sustained their own catwalk line; Topshop Unique, which shows alongside the big dog designers in a legitimate and respected fashion. That's how it should be. Taking a catwalk hit and just copying it? It's lazy and depressing. 

The UK high street is supposed to be the best in the world, but if it's just full of cheap, crappy imitations of designer gear, what's the point? I know that Matalan aren't alone in this blatant copying -- BooHoo also have a collection this season that might as well be called Luella v2 -- but as a one-time designer, a fashion addict, and a mourner of Luella, I think it's shameful that Matalan are happily flogging this copy and it depresses me to think how popular it's going to be.

If a singer released a carbon copy of another singer's single, an artist did an identical version of another artist's sculpture or a filmmaker made a film identical to one that had just won a load of Oscars, people would question WTF they were doing. Why do people think it's OK in fashion? I've not come to a conclusion, but I'd be interested to hear what other people think.