"Tubo Blocked Me": Designer Behind Replicated Look Speaks, Says She Meant No Offence
- Earlier on, social media was buzzing with reactions after a fashion house, Damian's Couture, replicated one of celebrity designer, Tubo's designs
- Speaking in an interview with Legit.ng, the owner of the brand, Damilola Olaoyenikan, opened up about the experience and Tubo's reaction to her replication
- The designer who made the recreation in a bid to challenge herself to new designs, stating she was blocked by Tubo, among other things
- A Nigeria lawyer identified as Ahen Hembe, speaks about legal implications in this article and the issue of copyright infringement in fashion
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Dress recreations are some of the common trends we see in fashion today. Many a time, fashion enthusiasts replicate designs donned by either celebrities or looks created by top fashion designers.
These recreations are often done for either commercial purposes or as a homage to the original designer/celebrity fashionista.
The latter appears to be the case for a growing fashion house identified as Damian's Couture.
Source: Instagram
The owner of the brand, Damilola Olaoyenikan, caused quite a buzz on social media after she unveiled her attempt at recreating Tubo's 'High Tea' jumpsuit in a series of photos and videos.
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With mixed reactions trailing the recreation, Legit.ng's Kumashe Yaakugh reached out to the fashion designer to hear more about her experience recreating the look.
It took Damilola 18 hours to recreate
Damilola describes the process of replicating the design as being 'very difficult'. She explained that it took her nearly 18 hours - with the help of her mum - to recreate the look.
The designer attributed part of the difficulty of making the jumpsuit to not being able to figure out how to go about how the back of the outfit should look like, seeing as Tubo didn't post that view of the design on her page.
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She said:
"Because I've been sewing for a while, I thought it was going to be simple that was not the case. It took me around 18 hours to be able to make that outfit a reality with the help of my mum who also sews.But I tried my best."
"Tubo blocked me"
Damilola who shared photos and videos of herself rocking her version of the 'High Tea' jumpsuit, made sure to give credit to Tubo in her Instagram posts.
"STYLE INSPIRED by the Baddest @tubortw @tubo__ ," part of her caption reads in one of the posts.
However, the response she got from Tubo was less than encouraging as she soon found out she was blocked by the celebrity designer.
"The original owner of the design (Tubo) blocked me. I don't know what her reasons are. I know it's not easy to put your hard work out there, and somebody replicates it. But, I always try to give credit to the original designer, indicating that they inspired my design."
According to Damilola, designers are 'supposed to be inspired by one thing or the other'. She, however, maintains innocently that she meant no offence by her replication of the look.
"I just hope I didn't offend her by recreating her design. I just really wanted to challenge myself, to show I could do something that nice too. So I don't know what I did wrong (to Tubo)." she said.
Interestingly, this is not the first time she has recreated designs belonging to big creatives.
Damilola revealed that most times, these designers comment under her post, and some would even send her DMs acknowledging her recreations. So, getting blocked by Tubo left her confused about what she did wrong.
Legal implications of style recreations
"I didn't really think about it. I would never have believed that this post would be out there the way it is. Maybe it's just the prayers that worked. I'm not trying to steal someone's work because I put it out there that this is the person that inspired my design. While the two designs are the same, I tried as much as possible to add my design in between."
Damilola, throughout her conversation with Legit.ng, has maintained that she never set out to take credit for another person's work but was simply inspired by it.
But despite having no intentions of commercializing the recreated version, as she revealed she made one just for herself, it begs the question of whether Damilola is likely to get into legal issues with Tubo.
Tubo may have no cause of action - Lawyer says
Ahen Hembe, a legal practitioner with @learnedwithoutborders says that generally, fashion design patents are not protected under any law in copyright.
She explained that it would be a Herculean task to distinguish or protect fashion designs as it would be impossible to say that nobody else could have thought of it, citing the case of Ugo Monye, who accused producers of the movie, Coming 2 America, of copying his agbada design.
"As far as copyright goes, Tubo may have no cause of action. Nevertheless, she may sue in civil law for passing off," Hembe said.
'Passing off' is a civil action against a person alleging that such a person is carrying on business in a manner that is capable of misleading the public as to the identity of the actual business owner.
However, Hembe revealed that this would be arduous to prove, especially as Damilola maintains that she only produced one for herself and not with intent to produce for other end users.
"Imagine two different artists drawing very similar pictures, it would be hard to establish that they didn’t do so from their various stand points of creativity," Hembe explained.
Regardless of the mixed reactions that have trailed the recreated piece and Tubo's response - or lack thereof - Damilola holds no regrets about replicating the look.
"I'm happy that I did it and I'm happy that it got the recognition that it deserved and I'm grateful for it."
Source: Legit.ng
