Designer Charles Lu calls out fashion forgery — where does inspiration end?

Toronto fashion designer Charles Lu is reigniting a familiar debate in the industry: where does creative influence end and forgery begin?

The Project Runway Canada finalist and Next in Fashion alum recently accused designer Jeffrey Keely Abess of forging elements of his signature aesthetic. Lu highlighted similarities between one of Abess's looks from Project Runway Canada Season 22, Episode 3 — including off-the-shoulder corset construction, front lacing, pronounced horizontal shoulder bands, exposed hip areas, and panelled corsetry — and his own work.

"When does fashion inspiration become fashion forgery?" Lu posed to his followers on social media, laying out a series of questions: When does inspiration become regurgitation? When does reference become recreation? When does recreation become replication? When does attribution become essential?

Lu infuses his family's Vietnamese refugee history into his designs, making his work deeply personal. He frames his critique less as ownership over individual design elements — corsetry and lacing appear across eras and designers — and more about when a specific combination of references becomes distinctive enough that credit should be given.

When contacted by Now Toronto, Abess rejected the comparison. "He's not the first person to use lacing on a corset. And these looks are not the same," he said. "I'm thinking he needs a little bit of attention, but it's great that he's using me to get it."

Lu acknowledged that none of the individual elements he highlighted belong exclusively to him. But he says the broader question — about regurgitation versus evolution — deserves the industry's attention, particularly when fast-fashion labels reproduce combinations of references without acknowledgment.