Renowned Pakistani designer Farah Talib Aziz and her daughter Maliha Aziz accused Haris Shakeel for copying their designs but Shakeel has finally addressed the plagiarism claims.
As per FTA, the ensemble worn by model Sunita Marshal at Bridal Couture Week was a ‘blatant copy’ of her design.
Maliha wrote on Instagram, “Our work gets copied a lot but usually, I opt not to make a fuss because popular designers often get plagiarised by smaller brands. It may agitate us but we usually just take the higher road and turn the other way”.
“However, Haris Shakeel has copied us far too many times. He may have placed this particular design on the catwalk now but pictures of it have been on his social media for some time, replicated from us,” she continued.
“A girl called us and asked us to make an outfit urgently. She was very upset and even though it was an extremely complicated design, I agreed,” Maliha added.
“We made the outfit very quickly for her. A few days later, I saw it being advertised on Haris Shakeel’s page. It was a complicated design so he probably couldn’t make it on his own so he just decided to sell our original, pretending that it was his own,” she further added.
However, Shakeel told a publication that Farah should have protested earlier.
He said, “You see we initially posted the outfit on our Instagram last year in November. A label that knows its ‘designs’ so well should have called us out then and there. Why wait until one walks the ramp to do all the talking and that too online?”
“The body-cut is different, the hem of the dress, the sleeves, the dupatta, and even the neckline is different [from Farah Talib Aziz’s dress]” he added.
“Yes, I agree the colour is the same but it’s a very common colour used in every bridal wear. Farah originally showcased an angrakha if I’m not mistaken, whereas for me it’s a pishwas. The paneling on both styles is usually the same, so I feel the claim is baseless, utterly based on spite,” he further added.
Moreover, one more designer, Zaheer Abbas has come forward and accused Haris of copying his designs as well.
Abbas said, “He’s actually quite shameless, openly offering to copy different designers’ clothes. Clients of mine have told me several times how they have found copies of my work hanging at Shakeel’s store.”
“He’s never hesitated telling people that it’s a Zaheer Abbas copy in order to encourage them to place orders. I have known about this for some time now but my work often gets copied in markets like Tariq Road and Ghausia Market in Karachi and I considered Shakeel’s to fall in the same category of stores,” he added.
“Now, however, I can no longer look the other way. He has stepped on to the runway and is pushing himself forward as a designer. He has to start taking more responsibility,” Zaheer further stated.
