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Adventures in Copyright
Adventures in Copyright
Adventures in Copyright: ABS Discovers Prabal Gurung
By Britt Aboutaleb
On the one hand, sure, when ABS rips off your designs you’re officially a big time, red carpet-destined, Rachel Zoe-championed designer.
On the other hand, Prabal Gurung probably enjoys that success so much more when it comes in the form of dressing Oprah.
ABS, which we’re pretty sure only re-makes designs stolen from other designers, has re-manufactured Prabal‘s red one-shouldered bow dress from his first collection, which debuted exactly one year ago for AW09. They’ve taken the seams, the waist, the layered shoulder detail, left off the detailed hem and left out the quality fabric.
And they still have the balls to charge $310.
Tags: ABS, Oprah, Prabal Gurung
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guilty
Kill me and all, but the ABS design looks way more flattering than Gurung’s – the waist seams, the ruffle covering the breast instead of starting above it, the more flattering length – all that’s going to make the girl look much more tailored than she would in the original. I mean, total ripoff for sure, and let’s censure censure censure, but imo they actually made some design improvements.
Not to mention that Prabal’s original looks like it has a subtle stripe to it, which ABS also dropped.
Again, the ABS fabric looks like crap and that price is an insult for a ripoff. But on the whole, much as I hate to admit it, I think they brightened up the design.
To be honest – I actually prefer the ‘ripped-off’ version. The higher waist line, reduced silhouette and shorter length are much more flattering and appealing than the original.
It kind of sucks that a fledgling designer’s self-funded debut collection is fair game for ABS. They may use polyester fabric instead of silk and made it slightly shorter, but it’s really a question of ethics.
i don’t think abs really cares since he calls himself the king of knockoffs. If he doesn’t care, should we?
http://www.freeenterpriseland.com/BOOK/KNOCKOFFS.html
http://celebrity.lovetoknow.com/Celebrity_Dress_Knock_Offs
Typically, Schwartz copies what he feels are the top four to six celebrity dresses at an awards show and then his team works quickly to create them for his A.B.S. label. This allows people to get their favorite celebrity dress for a huge discount — in most cases the dresses average $250 to $350, where the stars pay $10,000 to $15,000 or more for their one-of-a-kind gown.
Kind of funny because I tweeted about this ABS copy to Prabal 8 hours ago and now it’s spreading like wildfire: http://twitter.com/intheircloset/status/8030840285
Copying pretty much happens all the time. ABS does this almost exclusively… $310 are tough though.
if you think the ABS version is nicer… you’re clearly blind.
just saying.
Prabal is genius =)
ABS charges too much for its dresses. c’mon 310 bucks for that?!
also i found a very similar dress at a local ross today. should’ve taken a picture!
Agreed on the price. I feel this way when I go to h&m and see a shirt for $29.99. My first thought is, “who the hell do you think you are, h&m???”
Didn’t Zoe Saladana wear this dress? I loved it on her. Does anyone else recall her wearing it, or am I just crazy?
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/bazaar-blog/bazaar-loves-prabal-gurung
Zoe looked gorgeous in this dress-
the tailoring, the strategic seams hidden in the stripes (bust darts etc) the full bow, the amazing hem…
really abs? this dress is genius… the knock off looks a polyblend and cheesy.
Prabal is beyond major.
great red dress, I have a similar one
abs’s is a million times more flattering
The version zoe saldana wore is much better the than the Prabal Gurung version they showed here.