When Camille Charrière designed a capsule collection for the British intimates brand Stripe & Stare last year, she was not expecting the line to cause controversy — and certainly not expecting to start a public fight with Kim Kardashian and her billion-dollar brand, Skims. But after Ms. Charrière accused Skims of copying her work in a post on X that has since been widely shared on social media, that’s exactly what happened.
Here’s everything you need to know about the internet’s latest fashion drama, and why Ms. Charrière thinks her point has been misconstrued.
What’s going on?
Ms. Charrière is a fashion influencer, designer and contributing editor at Elle UK who has collaborated with brands like Chloé, Mango and Tommy Hilfiger. Last year, she worked with Stripe & Stare to design a line of underwear and basics in delicate florals, olive greens and soft yellows, which was marketed as sustainable and compostable. On Tuesday, as social media was humming along with Met Gala discourse, Ms. Charrière directly accused Ms. Kardashian and Skims of stealing her work, offering side-by-side examples.
Ms. Charrière said that the Stripe & Stare design was hand-drawn in London, and that they tested several colorways before landing on the one for sale on the website.
“I’m by no means claiming that I’ve invented the floral baby tee,” Ms. Charrière said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “Like, there’s no part of me that thinks that we did that. But the whole point of this collection — and it’s what I was trying to get out in this tweet — is that we wanted to offer a better alternative to what is arguably just landfill.”
“It’s surprising that six months — which is exactly the lead time that it would take them to turn it around after we did this T-shirt — they came up with the exact same one,” she added. “I’m not saying we invented that T-shirt, but I do know how collections get built. I work in fashion. I know how mood boarding works. I know how trends work.”
Has Ms. Kardashian or Skims responded?
Neither Ms. Kardashian nor Skims have publicly commented on Ms. Charrière’s accusation. Derris, a public relations firm that has worked with Skims, did not reply to requests for comment by the time of this article’s publication.
What has the response been to Ms. Charrière’s accusation?
Ms. Kardashian’s fans, Skims devotees and other opinionated social media users quickly pounced on Ms. Charrière’s post, which, according to X’s metrics, had been viewed nearly a million times as of Wednesday afternoon.
Some on X accused Ms. Charrière of claiming ownership over a common design: “Omg a small floral baby tee??? Truly never been done before this is my first time seeing one,” read one post. In other posts, X users declared their allegiance to the Skims version: “Kims is cuter and fits better.”
Ms. Charrière said she was taken aback by how much attention her post received. “I don’t think I’ve ever had something that has made people so riled up,” she said. “Literally, like, hordes of people retweeting it yesterday and insulting me. I think it’s just so interesting. It’s just interesting, because people totally missed the point of my tweet.”
What was the point of the post?
Ms. Charrière said that by pointing out the similarities between her Stripe & Stare items and the Skims items, she had hoped to emphasize how the sustainable approach to her pieces was not reflected in the Skims versions.
“Copy the conscious, copy the innovation, copy the thing that actually matters about this product, instead of providing people with the exact replica of this at a much larger scale,” she said.
Stripe & Stare is a certified B-Corp — a designation that is owed, in part, to its commitment to sustainable fashion practices — while Skims was ranked at the bottom of the 2024 Fashion Accountability Report, which is published by the Remake, an advocacy organization focused in part on reducing the environmental impact of the fashion industry. The report had Skims tied at the bottom of the list with fast-fashion giants like Temu and Fashion Nova, noting the company’s lack of transparency and accountability.
“No one is trying to cancel anyone,” Ms. Charrière said. “The Kardashians are who they are, they’re not going away. But at the same time it’s infuriating to see the way they do business. If you’re going to operate a business at such a huge scale, then do it well. You’ve got the resources, just do it.”
