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.”
