Skepta’s Clothing Line MAINS Accused Of Plagiarism By Moroccan Photographer Ilyes Griyeb
“This is new-age colonialism.”
Skepta's new clothing line MAINS has been tied up in allegations of plagiarism. An article published on Medium about the appropriation of Arab aesthetics in the music and fashion worlds claims that Moroccan photographer Ilyes Griyeb's work was used by Skepta without permission, to promote MAINS. Earlier this month, Huffington Post Morocco reported Griyeb's claims of plagiarism and provided side-by-sides of the photographer's work and Skepta's Instagram images.
Further, Griyeb holds that the MAINS lookbook, which was shot by London photographer Dexter Navy in Marrakech, Morocco, also "hijacked" his signature style.
In a statement to The FADER, Griyeb details his frustration with seeing his personal work documenting his family's "struggle to succeed" in Morocco used to sell a clothing brand. Read his full statement and view his work below.
Skepta and Dexter Navy did not respond to The FADER's multiple requests for comment.
Ilyes Griyeb: This started in November 2016 when Skepta posted my images on his Instagram account with a logo on it saying "MAINS." I first tried to understand what was this MAINS thing. Having no clue and not seeing my name anywhere, I tried to reach out to him through a friend of his. I had no answer for days until I saw another picture posted on Skepta's account. The first time I asked [the friend] to make them put my name, at least, on the pictures. But after the second attempt without anything really happening, I asked him to make them deleted ASAP. [The friend] tried to intimidate me a little asking me if I really wanted any trouble with Skepta and that having my images being used by him is a better option for me than nothing. I asked again for them to be deleted. Then [the friend] told me Skepta was coming to Paris and he was going to reach out to me, so we can settle something, maybe work together on it. Of course, nothing happened. Dude has 1 million [followers] on Instagram, I didn't think sending him a DM was going to change anything.
Then this campaign appeared, shot by Dexter Navy, announcing a new clothing brand created by Skepta and called MAINS. This is when several friends kinda congratulated me for the pictures…that I didn't shoot. They just completely hijacked my work on that. We can see some pictures on Dexter Navy's Instagram and they clearly recreated my pictures of my series "Moroccan Youth" to shoot their campaign... and just found some Moroccan dudes to replace the characters.
More than plagiarism, this is a personal matter: this work I've done in Morocco is about some family members and their struggle to succeed in a third-world country. It's a real issue. Not just a cool group of people wearing cool clothes on a roof. Skepta was just looking here for a nice exotic landscape for his brand and decided that my story was good enough for him. He came to Morocco with his team, did what he had to do, and left the country. This is new-age colonialism.