Fashion is quite personal nowadays and so is its interpretation. What may be fashionable to you could hurt someone else’s sentiments. One thing is certain, as long as the fashion industry continues to exist, fashion controversies will prevail. We witnessed the best of fashion in B-town this year, but not without its controversial stunts. Taking risks is one thing but pushing the sensitive boundaries is another. While creating something innovative, some big names overstepped the line while the ones who fell short on inspiration blatantly made their first copies!
So far, we have not been short on saucy controversies that were worth munching popcorns to. Cultural appropriation, blatant plagiarism or insensitive remarks, this year witnessed a lot. Wow!
Having that said, PeepingMoon.com brings you the saucy and spicy controversies that made major headlines this year!
THE CHRONICLES OF DIET SABYA…
Diet Sabya made quite a few (read, a lot) headlines this year by doing what they do best- calling out the #gandicopies. Here are some of the controversial debatable topics DS stirred that left the fashion fraternity split in two.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
It all started in January when Diet called out Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya for wearing a blatant rip off of the iconic Bengal Tiger belt from ace designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee which was earlier donned by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for one of their campaigns. Without wasting much time, Divyanka, in her defence took it to her Instagram and posted a befitting reply on the same.
Janhvi Kapoor recently in December, attended VogueXNykaa Fashion Awards in a swan inspired feathered dress from House Of ExC that left the internet and fashion police confused. Turns out this dress was a firsthand copy of a Mihano Momosa’s creation as the anonymous Instagram account of Diet Sabya posted a picture proving the same. Well, they did not just stop at this; the fashion’s Gabbar posted a screengrab of a conversation with the OG designer, who confirmed that this dress was, in fact, a copy of their authentic creation. Ouch!
Well, a little homework on the stylist’s end wouldn’t hurt, what do you think?
DEFINITELY NOT ‘OK’AY!
Back in January, Diet Sabya bashed Anamika Khanna’s AK-OK collection for bearing resemblance with that of Anna Wintour’s AW-OKxAir Jordon collaboration. In no time, Bollywood backed Khanna and big names like Sonam Kapoor, Rhea Kapoor came to her rescue.
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When matters of sensitivity, mental health, and circumstantial drama erupted, Diet Sabya issued an apology on his story and took down the post.
THE MAGAZINE ‘ISSUES’
Being a budding fashionista herself, Janhvi Kapoor wore a sequined Purple Paisley dress for Cosmopolitan’s January cover shoot. Turns out this scintillating number was a rip off of a Balmain creation. And just like that, in no time, both Janhvi and the magazine received a major backlash for the same.
Just when we thought things are settling down, Diet Sabya struck again and this time actress Alia Bhatt took the heat. The anonymous IG account accused the Kalank actress of plagiarism as her Filmfare’s March issue cover shoot bore an uncanny resemblance to that of international pop sensation, Dua Lipa. Not the one to sit back and take the flak, Alia in no time retorted back on the same. Now that’s some shutdown!
COLLABS AND COPIES
This Gabbar of fashion industry called out MasabaXNyka in July for taking ‘inspiration’ from an international brand Sephora for the packaging of its beauty products.
However, in August, Masaba Gupta came out to the defence of her beauty line and took it to her Instagram saying that her work is ‘Absolutely Original’.
Few months after MasabaxNykaa fiasco, plagiarism police targeted actress turned entrepreneur Katrina Kaif and her newly launched beauty line Kay Beauty in October.
The art direction of the advertisement announcing Katrina's venture in collaboration with Nykaa bore a resemblance to that of reality TV star Kim Kardashian West's KKW Beauty. In response, Kat clarified saying, “Everything on this brand Kay Beauty, right from the products to every creative collaborator is entirely original”
COLD WARS AND SNAPBACKS
Fashion mavens, Masaba Gupta and Rhea Kapoor collaborated for a project together in November and needless to say, the results were stunning. But nevertheless, they were called out by Diet Sabya for their allegedly photoshopped photos. When asked about their views on the same, they didn't shy away from spilling hot-n-sweet comments about the Instagram page and his posts. Diet, in its defence, posted a long clap-back message.
Damn!
Well, looking at their controversy kitty it wouldn’t be wrong to say this year belonged to Diet Sabya, would it?
CUT COPY PASTE!
Diet Sabya struck again in July and this time it was designer Manish Malhotra that took the heat. His beauty collab with My glamm faced a lot of flak from the customers as the launched nail paint shade did not match with the colour advertised in their campaigns.
After much investigations and polls from the fashion police, it was found that the reference picture was actually a shutter shock image and not the one from the photoshoot.
Oopsie!
OVERBOARD AND INSENSITIVE
The creative director of Falguni Shane Peacock, Falguni Peacock was all over the news back in August and not for the right reasons. In an interview, Falguni was asked what advice she would give to the plus-sized brides while picking their wedding dress to which she said that she would ask a woman to ‘lose a couple of inches’. It just doesn’t stop at that. When further asked as to what kind of outfit should a plus-size bride opt for she downright body-shamed them and said ‘No deep-necks for them, maybe more higher’." Her comments received a lot of flak on social media. Falguni eventually apologized in the comments section of blogger Amber’s post who asked the former to speak up.
SABYA TROUBLE
The designer Sabyasachi Instagrammed a special Women's Day post on March 8, featuring an oversized model.
But looks like his message wasn't received in the best of spirits. While his intentions and sentiments were pure, the post received a lot of flak in the name of hypocrisy and emoting a negative approach. Many argued that it's wrong to emote and assume that dark-skinned and curvy women lack confidence, which was the message that many primarily received. Many also argued on the point of 'self-confidence', as to why it should be celebrated only on occasion and not every day.
Well, that escalated quickly!
Just when we thought all well settled in the Sabya world another controversy surfaced in July.
Quoting Miss Havisham from Great Expectations, the designer called an ‘overdressed’ woman, ‘wounded’. Soon after the post was out, netizens started trolling him left, right and centre for his regressive views on women.
After his statement started getting flak, Sabyasachi accepted the 'blame' and offered an unconditional apology on his Instagram post.
What do you think of this?
HEY RAAM!
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Actress Vaani Kapoor made some headlines back in November, but for all the wrong reasons. The actress posted a picture on her social media account where she was all smiling in a pink plunging crop top with 'Ram’ written all over it. However, this look of hers wasn’t well-received by the internet tribe and soon she faced flak for her choice of outfit.
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Owing to this online commotion, Vaani deleted this picture from all her social media handles although; the damage was done by then.
Wearing Lord Sri Raam's name on the uncultured dresscode doesn't give value to the actress Vani Kapoor @Vaaniofficial. This is hurting the sentiments of devotees of Lord Sri Raam. We uarge to removed such images from the site and value the devotees sentiments.#vaanikapoor https://t.co/v0jRJntB5w
— Pratibha Nayak (@prati_nayak) November 13, 2019
Well, it just didn’t stop at this, there was a police complaint registered against Vaani for this entire fiasco. Now, that was heavy!
FROM CHANDIVALI TO CANNES
Hina Khan made the television industry proud at Cannes Film Festival this year in May and her international red carpet debut instantly became the talk of the town. When the entire nation praised Hina for her extravagant achievement, Fimfare’s editor Jitesh Pillai took it to his Instagram to post a not-so –appreciative-comment about Khan. He mocked the actress on social media saying, ‘Cannes has suddenly become Chandivali studios kya?’ This comment riled up the television fraternity and celebs like Arjun Bijlani, Karanvir Bohra, Priyank Sharma amongst others slammed Jitesh for his derogatory comment.
Post the backlash, Pillai took it to Instagram to apologize to Hina and said that his comment was misconstrued.
CULTURE CLASH
Back in January, Shraddha Kapoor had also come under the fire for cultural appropriation as she posed with a mock Native American headgear for Daboo Ratnani’s 2019 calendar. Apparently, it is considered to be offensive when non-American natives wear a Native American headgear and can come off as a tone-deaf for other people’s culture. The traditional headgears are worn by the leaders who dedicated their lives to their tribe’s cause and cannot be worn as a mere fashion accessory. Both Shraddha and Daboo faced flak for this stint as users asked the duo to ‘educate themselves’, ‘apologize’ and ‘take the picture down’
Right after Shraddha's fiasco, Sara Ali Khan’s magazine debut with Filmfare’s March issue wasn’t well received with the audience and was criticized for its cultural appropriation.
The shoot featured Masai tribesmen and women from Kenya which were used as mere props to add on the aesthetic of the magazine shoot.
Many of the social media users pointed out the obvious racism and expressed their discontent on the same.
Apparently Filmfare and Bollywood think they exist in a parallel plane where racist discourse simply doesn't apply to them. Especially if you're a star kid (even one that studied law and political science at Columbia)! https://t.co/X7QgzBVEAU
— Nishita Jha (@NishSwish) February 27, 2019
Not cool!
Gucci faced a major backlash in May for its cultural appropriation yet again.
This time it was for their headscarf named ‘Indy Full Turban’ from its 2018 fall collection. Many claimed that the product’s name was quite offensive towards the Sikh culture while others pointed out that a Sikh turban is not a fashion accessory but a sacred religious article of faith.
Kim Kardashian West had courted criticism for wearing a traditional Indian maang tikka, a jewellery piece worn on the head, for a church service.
Kim accessorized her flowing white dress with gold Indian-inspired jewellery, including the headpiece typically worn at times of celebration. The photo made a stir in no time when it was shared online. One user said, "culture is not a costume" and that it was wrong for Kim to adorn it. "This is not a Sunday Service Vibe, it's an Indian vibe," another complained.
Another user explained the cultural significance of the headpiece and wrote in-depth about how Kim had appropriated her culture.
Now that was some drama for the year, don’t you agree?
(Source: PeepingMoon)
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