MUMBAI: A fashion face-off is unfolding as singer Neha Bhasin calls out viral influencer Nancy Tyagi for allegedly misrepresenting the origins of her Cannes outfit.
Neha recently took to Instagram Stories to accuse Nancy of falsely claiming she stitched the beige ensemble worn during her second appearance at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival. The singer pointed out that the outfit closely resembled one she had previously worn at a concert, sharing a collage of both looks with the caption, “Same Same.”
[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”617860″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”548″,”width”:”600″}}]]
Related Post
Adding fuel to the fire, Neha revealed that the dress in question was from The Source Bombay, a designer store in Bandra known for customized clothing. “This corset looks too familiar, hmmmm. Just wondering,” Neha wrote in one of her posts. In another, she shared an Instagram screenshot of a similar dress from the store with the message: “I rest my case.”
[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”617861″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”978″,”width”:”600″}}]]
Backing Neha’s claims, Surbhi Gupta, founder and stylist at The Source Bombay, confirmed to The Free Press Journal that Nancy had purchased the dress from their Mumbai store for Rs.25,000. “She bought the dress. There was no barter, no collaboration. She’s free to wear it, but it is our design. She did not stitch it herself,” Surbhi said. She noted that only the cape element appeared to be Nancy’s own addition.
On Tuesday, Neha further explained her decision to speak out. “The intention was not to demean another woman but to state a simple fact. We’re all self-made and we’ve all worked hard to get where we are,” she wrote on Instagram Stories. “To claim someone else’s work as your own will never be okay. Just because no one applauds someone’s work doesn’t mean you rob them of their credit.”
Nancy Tyagi, who rose to fame for crafting her own Bollywood-inspired outfits, recently turned heads at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in a beige mini dress adorned with tassels, pearls, and crystals, paired with a dramatic floor-length cape. In an Instagram post, Nancy claimed the outfit took her over a month to create, adding that she worked on it “till the last minute” because of the garment’s weight. “Heartfelt thanks to all those who were part of this lovely journey,” she wrote.
As the controversy brews, the incident has sparked a wider conversation on authenticity, artistic credit, and the fine line between inspiration and appropriation in the fashion world.
