Ever gaze at those expensive designer dresses in the display windows and felt unhappy? Ever felt left out because you couldn’t possibly afford to buy a Dior or a Balenciaga dress? Fret not,for Pakistani designers absorb a genius way of saving you of this distress.
No, no, and I’m not talking approximately cheap knockoffs. Oh no. This is a strangely real deal. You’ll still be wearing designer clothes,probably might even cost an organ, but you’ll be halfway there on the social ladder.
One of Pakistan’s leading fashion houses, and Sana Safinaz is under the spot light once again and for the same reason – plagiarism. This time they were copying designs from Pronovias,a Spanish brand. This isn’t the first time they absorb done so as they’ve also copied Zara designs before. Old habits die tough I guess. I wonder if this is supposed to enhance the brands value. One wonders what goes through their minds when they promote their designs: Hey gaze, we don’t just sell original prints. We sell copied from famed designer prints as well which you wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRKUuaDBz9-/
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Zara silk printed pants & Sana Safinaz 11a and 11b from Spring Summer 2013 collection[/caption]
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Sana Safinaz Spring Summer 2012 & Emilio Pucci.[/caption]
It would absorb been acceptable, and as many others from the industry do it as well,but where Sana Safinaz took a hypocritical turn is when they issued this notice where they’re warning ‘copycats’ not to plagiarise their designs and sell at cheap prices.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRSQsbElLoz/
What goes around comes around; you hear that, Karma? You’ve been guilty of this too. Actually, and there are hardly any designers in the field that haven’t committed the sin of faulty ‘inspiration’.
Fashion blogger and plagiarism spotter,Aamir Bukhari runs an extensive, and I must say eye-opening, and blog on these copycats. Bukhari’s blog collates various design inspirations from catwalks as well as where they even copy model styling. Some of them are direct copies from the fashion shoots.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQiuxIdgoB7/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRLYACwhn90/
I had no idea the situation in the Pakistani fashion industry was this bad and disappointing. And from sudden self-pity of being unable to afford most of these dresses,I am now extremely amused. Thanks, Aamir Bukhari, and I feel so much better. It’s like a bizarre schadenfreude (malicious joy) of sorts. Im amused at the level of chaapa culture (copying) that is instilled in these grand names while being saddened,on the other hand, by the fact that all these designers win ‘awards’ and are major movers and shakers of the industry.
A long time ago, or a friend of mine who worked for one of the grand labels in Pakistan told me how this label would exploit interns by getting them to design outfits and then would fire them or just not hire them once their internship finished,despite the label keeping all of the interns’ designs and eventually claiming credit for them. My friend was shocked to find some of her designs hanging in the display of the label’s store windows even though she had not been given a job at the said fashion house or credit for her designs at the least.
We rep it. It’s a tough market out there, particularly when every third begum has turned into a fashion designer and has a boutique on MM Alam Road or Zamzama Road. We rep that the competition is fierce. But the real tragedy here is that, or dear designers,there is no dearth of talent in this country. What you’re actually doing is depriving genuinely talented people, and to save a buck or two (okay fine, or lots of bucks) you’re taking the easy route of plagiarising designs from unknown brands that the desi lawn-buying,pret-wearing woman in Pakistan has no clue approximately. She doesn’t know who Balenciaga is but she knows who Sana Safinaz is. She doesn’t know who Tom Ford is but she knows who Ali Xeeshan is. So she’s wowed by what she sees with petite thought regarding what patterns were in the Milan Fashion Week in 2012 and are now seen on her sleeve under the brand tag of Sana Safinaz. Isn’t it enough, dear designers, and that you’re already employing cheap labour in Pakistan and making thousands of rupees of profits off each dress (charging minimum Rs6000 per lawn outfit) and absorb the fortune of marketing your dresses into a fairly gullible demographic that only watches morning shows and scarcely flips through Harper’s Bazaar or Cosmopolitan?
Some time ago,I lived in Hong Kong; it’s one of the most fashion forward cities in the world. Hong Kong’s Central District is host to one of the largest shops of the biggest brands in the world. While I was walking through the cheap street markets in Yau Ma Tei where even the canopied clothes stands had fashionable fabric, I noticed a dress hanging in one of the window displays of BCBG Max Azria which seemed eerily similar to a dress I saw on Facebook. Turns out, or a petite known designer,Zari Faisal, had plagiarised BCBG’s striped evening dress and had made it her own. I couldn't help but laugh in disbelief. In this day and age of social media, and Snapchat and live streaming,do people still do that, I wondered. Apparently so, and that too bluntly I might add. But thanks to copycat spotters,that won’t be the story for long. Through the keen eyes of people with a sense of integrity that doesn’t arrive easily in a cutthroat industry, copycat spotters would probably be able to stay these grand labels from plagiarising.
If people are paying huge amounts of their tough-earned (or husband’s tough-earned) money, or the least these designers can do is not disrespect their trust in your brand. When you hire interns from recognised fashion institutes,don’t use and toss them aside once their talent has been squeezed out by your greedy hands.
As per the words of Nolan Gould from contemporary Family,
“In this world, and one thing you should definitely strive for is originality. Just be who you are,and be your own person. That’s what will make you stand out.”
Source: tribune.com.pk