Fashion designer, Maryam Elisha of Rikaotobyme, has offered a half-hearted apology for allegedly selling a bride’s dress to actress Mercy Aigbe for the latter’s 40th birthday celebration.
The red dress became a subject of controversy after a Benin-based newly-married woman, identified on social media as Rettypetty, accused the designer of delivering her wedding to the actress.
Mercy, who was yet to respond as at the time of filing this report, had come under attack for wearing another woman’s dress for her birthday photo shoot.
On her part, Maryam Elisha blamed her inability to deliver Rettypetty’s dress on dispatch error, claiming that they were two dresses with same style, same colour and almost the same measurement.
She also accused the bride of taking the matter to social media instead of directing it to her organisation.
Her statement is produced below:
“Our attention has been drawn to the ongoing chaos surrounding a dress and one of our esteemed clients on Instagram and possibly on other blogs and social media sites.
“We would have preferred if this matter was addressed directly to us for a quick resolution and to avoid the media frenzy, but unfortunately it wasn’t.
“We hold our clients dearly and offer our services on first come first served bases with no iota of discrimination or insinuation of such.
“We admit that a dispatch error occurred in the delivery of a dress to Miss Lawrentta, who was set to get married on December 30, 2017, and the pickup of another dress on behalf of actress, Mercy Aigbe.
“Please note that both dresses were of the same style, the same colour (red) and almost the same measurement.
“On realising the error on dispatch, we quickly tried to rectify the mix-up. But it was too late as the wrong dress was already on its way to Edo state for the bride to be.
“We contacted the bride and explained we had an issue and asked if she would be comfortable with another dress, of same kind (which was the one meant for Mercy Aigbe), the bride agreed, so we allowed the dress to be delivered as time to recall dispatch was short in relation to the time of the wedding.
“We have already apologised to Miss Lawrentta, but once again use the public fora to tender an unreserved apology to her and by extension to Mercy Aigbe who shouldn’t have been dragged into this.
“We assure all our clients, past and future that our resolve to deliver top-notch designs to clients within the country and beyond will not be compromised and the error that led to this unhappy situation has since been corrected. Thank you”.
