‘Shameless scammers’ rip off Brisbane designer’s pieces

A Brisbane fashion designer – whose clients include singer Robbie Williams and a string of A-listers – is fighting back against “shameless scammers”. WATCH THE VIDEO

A Brisbane fashion designer – whose clients include singer Robbie Williams, comedian Julia Morris and a string of A-listers and TV stars – is demanding META help him shut down “shameless scammers” advertising his garments online.

Kristian Williams is fuming after professional images of eight of his artistic designs – including kaftans priced at $649 each – were posted by three accounts claiming to sell the garments for as little as $86 a pop.

A Brisbane fashion designer claims a scammer is ripping off his designs.

Another design that has been ripped off.

“I was horrified when a customer brought this to my attention,” Mr Williams said.

“These people advertising counterfeits have no idea how much hard work goes into what I do, I have put my heart and soul into these designs,” he said.

“I paid thousands of dollars for the photos and have an agreement with the modelling agencies that the images can only be used by me, but who’s going to stop these bastards?

“Something has to be done to mitigate these scams.”

Mr Williams said LOS Lady Occasions (32 Instagram followers), Aruchic (60 followers) and Like My Choice (16.3k followers) which appeared to be American-based had been “going gangbusters” advertising his creations, including on Facebook.

On July 14 Mr Williams ’ advertising team reported them to Meta, sending screenshots of the posts in question, but no reply has been received.

“Meta should be blocking these people and needs to be more responsible,” he said.

Mr Williams also wrote directly to the accounts, threatening legal action if they did not “remove all listings and advertisements” and stop “profiting from reproductions of my unique designs”.

On July 15 Like My Choice replied: “We take allegations of theft and misrepresentation very seriously, and we assure you that all our product images and videos are sourced through legitimate channels.”

Jason Zambelli is demanding they be shut down. Photo: Steve Pohlner.

A check of the Like My Choice website on July 16 revealed the photo of the “Unique Drop Shoulder Sleeve Coconut Tree Printed Dress ($86.88)” remained the original photo paid for by Mr Williams for his best selling Mairette Capelet Kaftan ($649), however, a different head had been photoshopped onto the model.

“Have these scammers no shame?” said Mr Williams, who has reported them to the federal government’s Scamwatch.

Images of Mr Williams’ garments have since been removed from Lady Occasions and Aruchic while images of another Australian designer, Alemais, also appear on Like My Choice.

Kristian Williams The Brand is favoured by Australian fashionistas and its Resort ’24 collection will feature in the upcoming Brisbane Fashion Festival in August.

Among his loyal clientele are comedian Julia Morris and Melbourne TV personality Chyka Keebaugh, while garments under a previous label, Bonita Collective, have been worn by Robbie Williams and US reality TV star Pandora Vanderpump.

Earlier this year, The Courier-Mail revealed another Australian artist had been impacted by knock-offs.

A dress worn by Olympic great Sally Pearson to the Magic Millions races in January was outed as a $4000 designer copy supplied by a Gold Coast personal styling business.

Artist Melanie Vugich, whose paintings have been commissioned by Oscar de la Renta for its fabric since 2021, said the blue floral frock worn by Ms Pearson was a “botched copy” of an original which retailed for $3825 in 2022.

Josephine Dewe, owner of Life Is A Party: Dress, subsequently removed the dress Ms Pearson wore from her range and apologised to Ms Vugich.