New scandal? Copy that

14 January 2016 - 02:10 By Gabi Mbele

A blue lace body-hugging dress has landed local designer Gavin Rajah in yet another copycat scandal. This time it involves the wife of former Proteas Captain Graeme Smith, Morgan Deane, who wore the dress to the L'Ormarins Queen's Plate on Saturday.She posted a series of images crediting Rajah as the designer of the dress which is worth R3000."The dress I wore at #QueensPlate2016 by fabulous @GavinRajah featured on @Woman24," Deane tweeted on Tuesday.But it is alleged the dress could be another rip-off.A patron of the horse racing event, Paula Einhorn, said in an e-mail titled "Liar Liar Liar", and sent to The Times, that: "I remembered I came upon this when looking for a cheap lace dress online from sites like Aliexpress to eBay."Who is at fault here? The designer or Morgan herself? Has Gavin Rajah replicated this dress or has he simply sewn his own label into it?" wrote Einhorn.This is the fourth time that Rajah has been accused of copying designs.In 2013 Cape Town designer Paul van Zyl accused Rajah of copying his pebble dress. Rajah's version won an award. A year later, a black dress by Rajah closely resembled a design by Zuhair Murad of Lebanon.Last year, a Han Chong dress worn by US actress Reese Witherspoon forced Rajah to face plagiarism queries after a similar dress was worn to the Val die Vie polo event in Cape Town.Rajah denied taking credit for Deane's dress, saying that it was a "Three Floor Fashion" design which she had liked and misunderstood as his."I was not at the office when Morgan picked up the dress. Whoever gave her the dress didn't mention that to her, which I would have done."We are stocking a few items by Atiya, Two in One and Three Floor Fashion. The dress was incorrectly credited as ours but it is from Three Floor Fashion," said Rajah.Deane who has been dressed by Rajah twice before said she "didn't ask any questions when picking up the dress last week Friday"."Gavin has dressed me twice before, the dress was chosen for me by Gavin and his assistant. They were happy, I was happy, I took the dress and wore it."Three Floor Fashion director Yvonne Hoang said that the dress was a design by her team from January 2013 which sold for about R3000."Gavin Rajah is not an authorised Three Floor stockist, there has not been any relations or contact with him ever," said Hoang...

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