The designer lawn market has hit a boom. Big billboards and hoardings displaying latest designer lawn brands seem ubiquitous. The interesting development, however, is the emergence of companies producing cheap counterfeits of famous brands and offering the same prints at lower prices with relatively cheaper quality.

Local markets of Islamabad are flooded with copied designer lawns easily available at prices between Rs1,000 and Rs2, 000 while individual shirt pieces can be found at as low as Rs300 to Rs500 depending on the fabric’s quality.

On the other hand, the same original designer’s suit can range anywhere from Rs3,000 to Rs8, 000 in price whereas individual shirt pieces cost from Rs800 to Rs1,500.

For most Pakistanis, such prices become unaffordable who revert to counterfeit fabric to stay stylish.

Saba Qureshi, who works at a call center on a nominal salary, defended the availability of inexpensive lawn prints. “Working women with low salary package like me cannot afford to buy one suit for Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 so we go for copied prints available at very low prices,” shesaid.

Mushtaq Rafiq, a shopkeeper in G-10 Markaz told Dawn that, in his experience, the sale of counterfeit lawn is picking very quickly and customers have started asking specifically for copied lawn suits now.

“Previously, a customer would just come to us looking for a ‘good print’, but now we find that they especially ask for the copied designer lawn,” explained Rafiq.

Lawn has traditionally been a daily use item for women. Rafiq explained that one of the reasons the counterfeit market is expanding is because customers still consider lawn a very informal material with a life span of not more than two years: so they prefer cheap counterfeitvarieties because of their low prices.

Being a lightweight cloth, lawn prints have always been much in demand among the people in Pakistan and people from every social class tend to purchase lawn suits as its soft material keeps them cool during the intense summers.

Not more than a couple of years ago, the average price of these suits stayed between Rs350 and Rs1,000. The prices were both low and did not vary much. But now that designer wears have entered this sector of economy, both the prices and their range have witnessed a sharp increase.

No wonder then that industry of counterfeit designer lawn has emerged to allay the burden of those who cannot afford to buy suits worth Rs5,000 but want to keep abreast of the latest fashion.

However, for the actual designer lawn industry, this is only a setback.

This means that not only is the designer industry sharing at least part of the profit with the counterfeit industry, but also their exclusivity is getting affected – and that ruins the whole premise of designer wear.

Abdul Ghaffar, a salesman working at a cloth shop in Karachi Company Market, explained that most of the women visiting his shop come from lower and middle class sections of society.

“We used to sell branded lawn only at our shop but we found out that our sales stayed low. So we transitioned to selling cheaper copied prints of famous brands like Gul Ahmed, Nadia Hussain, Sana Safinaz etc. and our sales picked up considerably, so we are doing good businessnow,” said Ghaffar.

Defending issues of copyright, he was of the view that designer’s should recognise that emergence of copy brands is a major source of publicity for the designer lawns.

Especially since designers produce limited stock and quickly run out within days of a collection’s launch.

Perhaps what Ghaffar failed to take into account is that the limited stock and exclusivity is the very secret behind the high prices of these brands.

From the point of view of the customer who can afford the original brands, the copy brands are troublesome. Farkhanda Azam, who works with the United Nations (UN), was of the view that the companies’ designs should be protected against piracy under copyright laws.

She opined: “It is frustrating when June 1st comes and you see your maid walking into your home wearing an exact copy of the same print you bought at a much higher price. Then it doesn’t matter how exclusive and special the print may be, it becomes useless.”

But designer lawn is not just about a style statement. What these brands also provide is good quality and reliability. Fauzia Ahad, a young house wife, who was busy in shopping at Jinnah Super, said that she always prefers designer lawns as they look exclusive and special.

“Designer’s lawns are trendy, their fabric is comfortable and they are made keeping in mind the harsh summer season. The colors and print patterns are also very different from rest of the lawns available in the market,” she added.

One can assume that with a designer lawn exhibition opening every other day, and considering their rapid sales, this trend is here to stay.

One can also assume that as long as the brands flourish, their copies will also flourish equally rapidly.