DIY business variation

This Business Week story, “Arts and Crafts Find New Life Online,” includes an interesting anecdote. It notes that a German company called Hubert Burda Media, described as a “sewing-magazine and pattern giant,” has recently relaunched a U.S. site called BurdaStyle.com. Among other things, the site — which bills itself as “open source sewing” — gives away some patterns in downloadable PDF form. “Sewers can alter the patterns as they fancy, and there are no restrictions on selling finished clothing.”

Burda, according to BW is “the biggest pattern seller” in Europe, but it’s a minor player in the U.S.

It has a loyal fan in Mirela Popovici. The 28-year-old spends hours on the site downloading patterns, getting advice in the forums from other members, and creating how-to slide shows. A computer programmer by day, the Hollywood (Fla.) resident spends her evenings and weekends whipping up skirts, dresses, and tops. Last January she created a shop on Etsy … mirela.etsy.com … [where] she sells some of the clothing she makes using Burda’s patterns. “I love to alter their patterns,” Popovici says. “And having the community makes it so easy to figure out how to make different alterations.”

A few thoughts on this.

First, while BW emphasizes that users of the Burda site “can” alter the patterns they find there, this is not a meaningful point. You “can” alter any pattern, whether you found it online, or in a box of patterns your mom put in the attic in 1974. I mention this because I am very tired of being told how exciting it is that this or that company is letting us express ourselves these days. Believe it or not, people expressed themselves before the Internet.

Second, what might be meaningful is that Burda is giving the a-okay for you to sell what you make based on its patterns. However, its exact meaning is kind of interesting to consider. It happens that this is a recurring issue in the DIY world: Crafter A makes, say, embrodiary patterns; Crafter B loves them, buys some, executes the patterns on a jacket and a pillow — and then sells what (s)he has made. By and large, Crafter A is not so excited about this, because Crafter B is profiting from Crafter A’s intellectual property. Of course, Burda is in a very different position from Crafter A, insofar as it’s a “giant” company, so it can afford to do a little “open source,” to help establish its name a new market.

Third, I’m sort of curious if this kind of arrangement has an impact on the “handmade” nature of a garment. Clearly, in a literal sense, it’s still handmade. But since the “handmade” idea has been infused with a sort of anti-corporate ideology, or some sheen thereof: Does it matter where the pattern came from (a “giant” European company, this case)? What if it came from some vintage magazine, would that be better? What if it came from Wal Mart — would that be worse? Why?

Just to be clear, I have nothing against this Etsy seller and am not accusing her or anybody else, of anything. Just asking a question or two.