Inspiring To Copy? — The Shantanu Goenka Controversy
As the fashion industry thrives and is mushroomed with budding designers, fashion workers and creative geniuses, the debate on Fighting Fakes has brought together curious minds speculating choices of whether or not to bully and criticize those who talk about ‘art and inspirations’ or to support the ‘artist alibi’.
The scene is rather odd with prominent designers and boutiques throat grabbing and accusing each other of stealing designs and duplicating costumes. Worst there has been many instances where two celebs have been spotted wearing same designs, to be exact, same dresses to award functions or cocktail parties. Imagine the embarrassment on their part! They must have wondered in confusion whose the original design is!
Recently Kolkata based fashion designer Shantanu Goenka created quite a buzz when he accused established designer boutiques as Innaya and Simmaya of plagiarizing his creations.
When the brand associates were questioned, they pointed out that Shantanu Goenka was trying to malign the brand for not exhibiting his works amongst their designer line.
The dispute over plagiarism has become a major concern with designers around the world. There is always the artist’s inspiration which to some extent works on borrowed ideas and creations. For instance Shantanu Goenka himself has been charged on several instances of copying designs by NIFT peer Sabyasachi and the big-man Tarun Tahiliani. However the biggest controversy was him copying Alexander McQueen’s Fall line in 2012. The late British designer McQueen’s inspiration was so prominent that it looked like McQueen’s creations and not Shantanu’s, such was the similarity. Caught in a fiasco when Sabyasachi called him a rif-off all Shantanu said was “Just because I am doing a patti look doesn’t mean I am copying. I did it in my way, it was my look.”
Talking in lines of shamelessly copying other’s work, Ralph Lauren renowned designer for Paris fashion week stated in an interview “Art can only be reinvented” — So does this give license to designers to replicate works in an intelligent way? I mean, if a designer pulled out creative aspects from ten different designs to make a statement ensemble will he/ she escape from theft accusations? Having to think about the ‘flourish of replicas’ I wonder if designers themselves have shown the easy way out to boutiques — copy and sell.
Simmaya and Innaya cater to a larger market of clientele around prominent metropolis in India. “We house designer collection and it’s a two way connect which benefits the brand as authentic suppliers and also the designers with maximum exposure” said an official spokesperson from Simmaya. “Shantanu’s accusation is personal, but indeed if he has evidence he surely must not hide it from the media, as the media showed no mercy when he copies from late designers.”
What bothers us buyers is for boutiques as Innaya and Simmaya, which houses creations of more than 50 ace designers across India, how feasible it is to sell duplicates? More importantly who exactly is Shantanu Goenka accusing?
