When Camille Charrière designed a capsule assortment for the British intimates model Stripe & Stare final 12 months, she was not anticipating the road to trigger controversy — and definitely not anticipating to start out a public combat with Kim Kardashian and her billion-dollar model, Skims. However after Ms. Charrière accused Skims of copying her work in a post on X that has since been extensively shared on social media, that’s precisely what occurred.
Right here’s all the pieces you might want to know concerning the web’s newest vogue drama, and why Ms. Charrière thinks her level has been misconstrued.
What’s happening?
Ms. Charrière is a vogue influencer, designer and contributing editor at Elle UK who has collaborated with manufacturers like Chloé, Mango and Tommy Hilfiger. Final 12 months, she labored with Stripe & Stare to design a line of underwear and fundamentals in delicate florals, olive greens and comfortable yellows, which was marketed as sustainable and compostable. On Tuesday, as social media was buzzing together with Met Gala discourse, Ms. Charrière instantly accused Ms. Kardashian and Skims of stealing her work, providing side-by-side examples.
Ms. Charrière stated that the Stripe & Stare design was hand-drawn in London, and that they examined a number of colorways earlier than touchdown on the one on the market on the web site.
“I’m not at all claiming that I’ve invented the floral child tee,” Ms. Charrière stated in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “Like, there’s no a part of me that thinks that we did that. However the entire level of this assortment — and it’s what I used to be attempting to get out on this tweet — is that we needed to supply a greater different to what’s arguably simply landfill.”
“It’s shocking that six months — which is strictly the lead time that it could take them to show it round after we did this T-shirt — they got here up with the very same one,” she added. “I’m not saying we invented that T-shirt, however I do understand how collections get constructed. I work in vogue. I understand how temper boarding works. I understand how tendencies work.”
Has Ms. Kardashian or Skims responded?
Neither Ms. Kardashian nor Skims have publicly commented on Ms. Charrière’s accusation. Derris, a public relations agency that has labored with Skims, didn’t reply to requests for remark by the point of this text’s publication.
What has the response been to Ms. Charrière’s accusation?
Ms. Kardashian’s followers, Skims devotees and different opinionated social media customers shortly pounced on Ms. Charrière’s publish, which, based on X’s metrics, had been seen practically one million occasions as of Wednesday afternoon.
Some on X accused Ms. Charrière of claiming possession over a typical design: “Omg a small floral child tee??? Actually by no means been executed earlier than that is my first time seeing one,” learn one post. In different posts, X customers declared their allegiance to the Skims model: “Kims is cuter and suits higher.”
Ms. Charrière stated she was stunned by how a lot consideration her publish obtained. “I don’t suppose I’ve ever had one thing that has made folks so riled up,” she stated. “Actually, like, hordes of individuals retweeting it yesterday and insulting me. I believe it’s simply so fascinating. It’s simply fascinating, as a result of folks completely missed the purpose of my tweet.”
What was the purpose of the publish?
Ms. Charrière stated that by declaring the similarities between her Stripe & Stare objects and the Skims objects, she had hoped to emphasise how the sustainable method to her items was not mirrored within the Skims variations.
“Copy the aware, copy the innovation, copy the factor that truly issues about this product, as an alternative of offering folks with the precise duplicate of this at a a lot bigger scale,” she stated.
Stripe & Stare is an authorized B-Corp — a designation that’s owed, partly, to its dedication to sustainable vogue practices — whereas Skims was ranked on the backside of the 2024 Trend Accountability Report, which is printed by the Remake, an advocacy group centered partly on lowering the environmental impression of the style trade. The report had Skims tied on the backside of the checklist with fast-fashion giants like Temu and Trend Nova, noting the corporate’s lack of transparency and accountability.
“Nobody is attempting to cancel anybody,” Ms. Charrière stated. “The Kardashians are who they’re, they’re not going away. However on the identical time it’s infuriating to see the way in which they do enterprise. In case you’re going to function a enterprise at such an enormous scale, then do it effectively. You’ve received the assets, simply do it.”
