Copied lawn prints: a murky business?

With designer lawn being copied left right and centre, how fair is it for designers and its niche clientele?

KARACHI: How ethical is it to copy someone’s original design and on what grounds can you fight a battle to regain your lost lawn prints to a "D" grade textile mill?

This was the crux of a debate that ensued in the library hall of Alliance Francaise in Clifton, Karachi, Sunday afternoon.

The panelists were Umair Tabani, brother and business partner of Sania Maskatiya, the designer, and fashion journalist Maliha Rehman.

While Rehman termed it a "murky business", Tabani delved deeper into the subject of "Pirated designer wear and lawn prints: Is making fashion affordable, the only solution?"

"It’s a continuing problem, it does affect our business, but in honesty you can't do anything about it. Every design has a life cycle. However, it is certainly very annoying to see your hard work wasted, and clients who have paid for the original, suffer the most," Tabani said.

Rehman, while citing examples, said designs of Faraz Manan were copied within three days of their launch.

However, Tabani added, "Whatever, the rip off will not be as perfect as the original. It may look the same, but on closer inspection, you will see that the fabric will not be good enough and the design would certainly not have the same charm."

"It’s okay to get inspired, but one must do their homework. You need not copy an entire lawn design; if you do that, you are not a designer but a tailor," asserted Tabani.

Rehman pointed out that there are pages on Facebook where designs have been placed as replicas of the original ones, which is certainly unfair. Designers, she said, should be exclusive when offering their designs.

Lawn is not a niche and is primarily for the masses, but when a designer enters its realm, it offers exclusive products to its niche client; hence, the hefty price tag on a designer lawn jora.

However, many would like to get their hands on a famous designer brand, and will not reconcile to a cheaper version of the lawn available in the market, said Rehman.

Tabani argued that Fashion Councils should work to promote copyright laws.

“Fashion Councils can work on promoting copyright laws; however, as far as the designer is concerned, he must delve in his work and concentrate on it, because the cheating class instead of finding and accepting it faults, shames us by their talk and justifications of doing it,” he said. “One can only stress on our hard work and we must rise up beyond this."