By: Aqilah Humaira Ab Halim
Editor: Alexandra Prudente
Source: Rojak Daily
KUALA LUMPUR, 7 May – Millionaire fashion entrepreneur, Vivy Yusof, is yet again under fire after a controversy regarding her brand, dUCk, surfaced on social media accusing her of plagiarizing scarf designs produced by local artist and model, Nia Atasha Rosli, or better known as ‘sleepylllama’.
Although a lot of people were anticipating the release of Vivy’s “The Artsy dUck” collection on the 28th of April, the public could not help but notice the resemblance of the design and entire photo shoot concept with Nia’s Soonaru x Sleepy Studio collaboration which was released 2 years ago.
Nia took to Instagram to express her disappointment over the issue and said “In the end of the day, you will cash your millions, and you will go on winning the heart of the rakyat with your donations and charity and continue to be idolized and looked up upon. You will still receive your awards and go on with your business. Life will still be great for you regardless,” because of how established Vivy’s brand is and how it won’t be affected by such issues.
From Vivy’s response on her Instagram story stating how her heart breaks from the accusations, Nia responded that the fashion mogul should imagine how Nia’s team felt with what happened; stating “Because we know we could never win against you and the power you have.”
She also noted that if dUCk keeps facing the same issue all over again, then the problem might actually come from Vivy’s side as this isn’t the first time something similar has happened. In April 2019, Vivy was also facing similar plagiarism issues with the design of dUCk’s new turban collection which was a bit too similar with local entrepreneur Echenta’s Ilham Echenta turban.
Twitter user @ailing_co also pointed out that Vivy’s new scarves release seemed to cop the concept from Bella Dally’s shoot with Galeri Ariani. Another Twitter user @babeandsparrow1 also sarcastically congratulated Vivy saying “Daylight robbery at its finest.”
Nevertheless, there are still a number of people out there who defends her and still supports Vivy and her brand as the scarves – plagiarized or not – received tons of positive response from their loyal customers. The brand has made itself prominent to younger generations and has continued to grow despite past controversies.
