When I Googled Steven Khalil, I learned that he’s embroiled in a dress-copying controversy from the Logies (Australia’s Emmys; we sadly didn’t have pics this year). It seems that the allegation is: Ada Nicodemou’s stylist wanted a dress from Melbourne’s Jason Grech, and when he said no and gave it to Sophie Monk instead, that stylist and Ada went to Steven Khalil and they copied it. Then both ladies wore theirs to the Logies and DRAMA ENSUED.
Khalil’s camp isn’t helping: First, per that link, Khalil’s spokesman said that Khalil’s atelier has for years had a pattern for that basic design and its variations, and they simply worked from that — the implicating being, “Dudes, there is nothing fresh or that new about this concept.” (True.) But then later in the same article, Khalil’s Facebook statement is quoted, claiming the dress he gave Nicodemou was from a design he’d be showing in this couture collection and that he just remade it in gold. That’s noteworthy because I don’t see that dress here anywhere. Do we think he yanked it after the controversy, or that it’s a false explanation? Grech claims his design was all over social media and hotly pursued, and that everyone would have known Monk was wearing it to the Logies. I obviously have no insight into any of this, other than thinking that Khalil is correct that there’s nothing revolutionary about either dress, and it’s highly plausible that the fashion mind-meld would yield two that are similar. But two that are similar that ALSO happen to appear at the same EVENT is an eyebrow-raiser. I wonder if it’s a case where the stylist and client were annoyed they were denied by Grech, so they turned around and described that dress to Khalil and he made it not realizing what their inspiration was. WHO KNOWS. It’s juicy.
We haven’t seen a TON of Khalil’s work Stateside — mostly on country stars Carrie Underwood and Lauren Alaina, and once on Vanessa from Brooklyn — but let’s check it out, shall we? He DOES like sparkle.
[Photos: Imaxtree]
