Celebrity designer, Toyin Lawani, also known as Tiannah, is at loggerhead with a young designer, who mass-produced one of her Elegante designs and used her picture in the collage.
Expressing how peeved she was, the CEO of Tiannah Empire said she will use all within her power to protect her designs from being duplicated and sold.
“This people Need to stop messing up my work,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Gosh, they need to stop using my beautiful pictures to sell this mess.”
However, a follower of hers, giftedfingerswigs, explained that most people cannot afford her high price.
“I am not disputing the fact that it’s not yours,” wrote giftedfingerswigs.
“You have been my role model from day one. And I look up to. But do you know too many people can’t afford your wears, but they love it. And I never knew they used your picture as the collage. I thought you collage the picture to show us the difference and for those who feel they can produce the design for clients who cannot afford hers.”
The single mother of two has called on the designers to use their creative minds to do something better and not ruin her work for her clients.
“When I see copies of my dress looking like hanger ibo, I roll on the floor,” she wrote.
“It’s meant to be a good thing when people copy your work, but I’m sorry it’s a no for me and my prestigious clients, who will buy the dress for 220k from you when they see it at Ketu Ojota bus top. This needs to stop in Nigeria. If you want to copy why not switch it around a bit or better still copy it right, yack this is totally disgusting.”
Lawani also said that the young designer insulted her person by using her picture to promote the mass production.
“That’s my picture on far right,” she wrote.
“They did the collage, I never did, and have your ever seen this design back in the days? I used my brain, they should use theirs, it’s so sweet in you people’s mouth to say it’s not a big deal, because you do the same from magazines.
“But it’s wrong on all levels to ruin someone’s hard earn work like this. When it happens to you, you will know how it feels, keep supporting nonsense, this makes Nigeria even worse than it is. Did they tell you I didn’t know how to mass-produce, but my creations are exclusive, my styles standout. That’s what my clients pay millions for. Then they set into a party and start seeing every Tom, Dick and Harry wear a rubbish copy of it.”
