Celebrated Ghanaian designer Abrantie the Gentleman known as Oheneba Yaw Boamah, seems not to be happy and fumed over the non-involvement of fashion in the Tourism, Arts and Culture industry which have left designers unprotected from theft of designs.
In an interview he noted, “Unlike music and movies, the fashion industry which includes the creative designers, tailors and models are not as protected when it comes to the entertainment industry.” He went on to register his displeasure at how there are no laws and regulations that protects the works of fashion designers in Ghana.
Cloning is predominant in this field and that is evident as tailors are using his brand to market themselves without his consent.
He added, “Imagine someone taking Sarkodie or any other person’s beat or song without his knowledge, rights reserved to protect his music and the music industry as a whole would find that defaulter guilty and hence promotes creativity and deters others from stealing in that industry. However same can’t be said about ours.”
The designer in an Instagram post quizzed Bullet, late Ebony’s manager saying, “Bullet who did this outfit for you”, and added “And some tailor somewhere will copy designs and mess it up”. Abrantie who did not blame Bullet for wearing the said design but expressed his disappointment in the tailor who cloned his work sounded very crossed and disappointed.
He ended by likening the Ghanaian fashion industry to that of Nigeria and urged the Ministry to see fashion as a part of the tourism and art industry and such make the necessary laws needed to protect their hard work, “Ghanaian’s are constantly being compared to Nigerians because of things like this. They protect their fashion designers. Why can’t we do same? Nigerians have done it so we can also do it.”
Source: georgebritton.com
