Will the claws be out for Gavin Rajah?
He has been dubbed the ‘copycat’ designer. Ahead of showing a new collection at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Rajah chats to about fashion and originality
‘FOR the longest time I thought I had made the biggest mistake going into fashion,” reflects Gavin Rajah. The designer is in his surprisingly modest Cape Town studio. Unexpectedly, his misgivings about the industry have to do with the catwalk-centric nature of the fashion “biz”, which, in his opinion, places far too much emphasis on — and resources towards — a fashion week.
His disdain for catwalk culture might have something to do with the way his designs have been so heavily scrutinised and some labelled “copies”, although two of the cases took place off the ramp. He claims to have been unfairly targeted by the same group of people and be a victim of cyber bullying. In 2014 and 2015, garments he showed on the catwalk appeared to be carbon copies of designs by Zuhair Murad and Han Chong respectively. His plagiarism seemed irrefutable.
However, fashion is rarely clearcut. Fashion accrues its impact via imitation; not only in the recycling of past styles but trends themselves can only be dubbed as such through mass imitation, replicated across labels and design houses. Forever plagued by feelings of cultural inferiority, South Africans have long suffered from a condition in which locally produced items are often seen as poor imitations.
“We have this culture here where we build people up and then tear them down,” Rajah says.
Eager for a scandal involving flying feathers and beads and “appliqué coming unstuck”, the media appears to have relished each accusation.
Rajah is slightly cagey about his motivation for opening the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town on Thursday. He hasn’t shown a collection since 2015 after the second plagiarism accusation. In 2016, a US-based designer, Chelsea Liu, claimed he had passed off designs in a magazine spread made by her as belonging to the Rajah label. It must have been a rough couple of years. He admits to having taken a sabbatical of sorts, participating in an innovation workshop at Harvard University.
In spite of, or maybe because of, his disdain for catwalk culture, Rajah had a hand in establishing the African Fashion International weeks and up until the debacles maintained a strong presence on the catwalk. He clearly has a love/hate relationship with the catwalk and fashion weeks.
Rajah is ready to have his designs dissected again; to challenge his detractors.
“I am waiting for someone to say something; we will have it [the designs] all perfectly archived,” he says, though in truth it would be hard to prove originality or ownership of a style in this field.
He is “tired” of talking about the scandals that have dogged his label and suggests that once one claim of plagiarism had been made his collections were unjustifiably studied, paving the way for further accusations that could have easily been directed at other designers whose originality could be questioned.
It all began in 2013 with claims by designer and fabric-shop owner Paul van Zyl that the fabric used in Rajah’s famous Pebble dress, which was named the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa, was not his innovation. However, the claims were around the fabric — a metallic finish on ostrich skin — not the design, as was the case with accusations made in 2014 and 2015.
Those cases were grounded in comparisons between photographic images and not with the garments themselves, says Rajah.
“You would have to examine them, compare the fit. I must be amazingly brilliant to make these copies. I would have had to have had access to the original.”
The Art Deco-style sunray dress he created for the 2014 collection, which is thought to be a copy of Murad’s, is similar from the front, but the back of the dress is completely different, he claims. “It was covered in black flowers. No one saw the back. It all went viral and I could not control it.”
Murad’s design was “not unique; it is clearly derived from a stage design by Erte, that is the real reference. Naeem Khan went on to do the same dress in orange, [but] didn’t come under fire. It was a dress of the season. One season Balmain made a jacket that looked exactly like one Givenchy had done; no one said anything,” says Rajah.
It didn’t help that the so-called copycat ensemble, believed to have originated with Han Chong, was worn by Reese Witherspoon, affirming its status as a “copy”.
If he is an imitator, he is an extremely good one; not only do the garments appear identical, but the fit and cut are superb. In this way, claims of imitation could be to his credit, particularly for those seeking out designer couture garments beyond their means.
“Word has got around that there is this little Indian boy in South Africa who makes these things.”
Since launching a line in Paris in 2006, Rajah has made a name for himself in Europe as a designer able to offer luxury — beaded evening garments — for a fraction of the normal price. This may explain why the imitation scandals have had a positive impact. “I was so busy; it was good for business.”
Studying the garments in his workroom and those for this week’s collection — inspired by the 1959 film A Summer Place — reveals incredible workmanship rarely produced in this country. It takes up to three months to complete a beaded dress. Having learnt beading from a former employee, Rajah personally trains his staff — a process that takes years. He still gets his hands dirty.
“There are holes in my fingers to show for it. When I walk in my studio I can pick the first thing that is wrong. It instils a sense of respect in my staff.”
His clients have remained loyal and he is, to some degree, with hindsight, more philosophical about the imitation scandals.
“Brands go through these things. A brand has its own life out there. My brand is out partying with celebrities while I am at home watching Netflix.”
Not unexpectedly, Rajah wants to leave the scandals behind him and move on. Fashion is after all about reinvention and escapism. Either to placate his enemies or to heal himself, his collection is centered on love, with anatomical and stylised heart motifs in prints and appliqué motifs adorning garments. A palette of pinks, reds and turquoises are harnessed into an iridescent collection that brings to mind the glittering scales of the koi fish motif he loves. “To be loved is the sole reason for existence,” says a voice over the Summer Place movie soundtrack that Rajah plays. “We all need it,” he sighs. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town runs from March 23-25 at the Camps Bay Sports Complex