There was an outpouring of admiration for Gavin Rajah's spring-summer collection at Cape Town Fashion Week on Thursday.
But this week the social media are abuzz with condemnation of the designer for allegedly copying the design of one or more dresses from foreign designers.
First accused by Sim Tshabalala, convenor of Durban's Fashion by the Sea, on his Facebook page, Rajah has been criticised by many who have seen the post for presenting a dress remarkably similar to one that appeared in Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad's spring-summer 2013 collection.
Tshabalala's Saturday post reads: ''Who did it better? Was this a colab design? Or a direct copy? OMG shocked for days."
Tshabalala said he first recognised the dress on the walkway. But it was only when he saw pictures of it the next day, and tracked down the Milan Couture Week 2013 publication, in which Murad's designs are shown, that he realised how similar the two dresses were.
Rajah said: ''I had never seen the [Murad] dress before Saturday [when it appeared on Tshabalala's Facebook page].
''There are undeniable similarities between the dresses but also many differences, which the trained eye can see . "
He claims the similarity is a coincidence and says he would never knowingly show a dress similar to another designer's.
''It would be brand suicide to do that intentionally," he said.
''The integrity of all our designers is put at stake," Tshabalala said.