LONDON, United Kingdom and MUMBAI, India – Over dinner at Milan Fashion Week last February, I got to talking to Bandana Tewari, Fashion Features Director of Vogue India, about the renewed energy in London fashion. Naturally, her first question was what Indian designers were doing to contribute to the London scene, particularly as India continues to emerge for a centre for world-class design.

The result of our conversation is this Vogue India article on Indian designers based in London. While writing the piece, I got to know three Indian designers with three amazing stories, each of which started in India and subsequently took them all over the world, until they finally ended up in London.

Between them, Ashish Gupta, Saloni Lodha and Aseef Vaza have lived and worked in Toronto, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Florence, Paris and New York — bringing quintessentially cosmopolitan energy to London’s design and fashion community.

An article in Friday’s Women’s Wear Daily highlighted the ongoing battle that young designers are having in preventing their designs from being copied by much larger mass-market rivals. Hence, the CFDA in the United States is spearheading The Design Piracy Prohibition Act, to protect the designs of American fashion designers for a period of three years and impose a fine of at least $250,000 for a successful conviction of fashion copyright infringement.

While the law is still far from being enacted, the high-profile discussion has shed new light on the scale of the problem. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimated that $12 billion was lost due to counterfeiting and piracy in the fashion and apparel industry in 2006.

With formal legal recourse hanging in the balance, sometimes designers have to take matters into their own hands. Aseef Vaza, whose shapely clutches have become a must-have for London’s fashion insiders, is one example.

Last year, Aseef successfully defended himself against Arcadia Group, whose copy he discovered in one of those "get it for cheaper" features in the Sunday Times Style Magazine as seen in the banner image above.

More recently, Aseef has taken on Judith Lieber for her Twilight clutch, which he insists is a copy of his own Elsie clutch.  Several attempts (via the Lieber Internet site and via telephone) over the past few days to contact Lieber to get their side of the story were unsuccessful.

So, while we can’t attest to the veracity of  Vaza’s latest claims (we’ll allow you and the courts to judge for yourselves), we thought it would be interesting to talk to Aseef about his experience with defending his designs, as a lesson for other designers.

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BoF: How did you discover the Judith Lieber clutch and what makes you so sure it is a copy? How do you prove that?

AV: A dear friend of mine from NYC emailed me to check the website of a leading NYC based department store. When I checked the website to my horror I saw an example of the Elsie clutch by VAZA being offered by Lieber.  I rang the Lieber Boutique on Madison who promptly sent me images of the piece and also told me where in the UK I could find the piece, which was being offered in crocodile and was assembled in a similar way.

Judith Lieber is known worldwide for doing cute organic shaped little minaudiers embellished with crystals – the  "Twilight" is a complete u-turn on their design.

The Elsie clutch was created  and offered on the market in October 2005 in Paris. It was picked up by US retailers Mix Modern in Houston and Blake in Chicago. The piece first came to press in November 2005 on the JC Report.

BoF: Your lawyer has written to Judith Lieber to file a complaint. What has been the response from Lieber?

We have written a formal letter of complaint to Lieber and are awaiting a reply.

BoF:  This is not the first time you have charged someone with copying your designs. What happened the first time around and how did you defend your interests as a emerging business up against a much bigger rival like Arcadia?

AV: I first caught sight of the piece in a leading publication which I presented  to my Italian manufacturer who was furious to see both my design and his craftsmanship exploited.  With his support and encouragement  I contacted a UK based law firm who agreed to act on my behalf after having researched the evidence. Their actions were prompt & efficient to my satisfaction.

BoF: What advice would you offer other young designers who face similar challenges with bigger rivals copying their designs?

AV: If you have the means and recourse to apply intellectual property rights to your products please do so. I would also recommend you join organizations such as ACID.

Photos clips courtesy of Aseef Vaza, Sunday Times Style Magazine and Judith Lieber.

© 2008 Copyright Imran Amed – The Business of Fashion

Walk down Madison Avenue in New York, the Bund in Shanghai, and avenues Montaigne and Georges V in Paris, and you will see the same luxury stores teeming with the same luxury products. No matter where you go, there are Balenciaga bags, Jimmy Choo shoes and Dior Homme suits on offer.  It’s no wonder then that everyone’s talking about limited edition products from established companies like Neiman Marcus and Martin Margiela to start-ups like 20ltd and couturelab. Customers, it seems, are looking for something a little bit special.

The phenomenon has the fashion business media chattering too. The Financial Times covered the phenomenon over the weekend with a particular focus on men’s luxury products and this week, WWD gave us a laundry list of limited edition collaborations to show the degree to which scarcity is proliferating as a perceived selling point for luxury brands. The Business of Fashion has been in the fray as well, exploring the renaissance of haute couture and the unappealing ubiquity of Tory Burch and Goyard in Upper East side styletribes.

So, is there a viable business model here?

Some of the limited editions are part of an entire concept dedicated to the notion of planned scarcity, like internet site 20ltd, which offers only 20 items on its website at any given time.  All the products are produced in limited runs and are not available anywhere else. When the model is a focused one like this and scarcity is part of the raison d’etre, customers are more likely to buy into the value being offered. Furthermore, beautiful bags from upstart designers like Katherine Kwei in New York and Aseef Vaza in London also give people access to designers who may not be household names, but who are creating beautiful products that are covetable and exclusive for the very reason that relatively few people have heard of them.

On the other hand, when Neiman Marcus uses its buying clout to get 20 of its huge vendors to create one-off items to celebrate the Neiman Marcus 100th anniversary, the limited edition approach seems a lot more gimmicky. These Prada shoes, for example are not going to be appealing to people who find even one logo over-the-top. Since when does someone want to walk around with both Neiman Marcus and Prada emblazened on the back of their shoe?

Photos courtesy of 20ltd (Katherine Kwei purse £550, Oliver Goldsmith glasses £680, and Stephen Webster cufflinks £3,500) and WWD.