TikTok star "Tami" talks about feeling "shaken" by Shein Design

As a TikTok star for her style and design, Tamara Strzelecki has a habit of getting put forward. But she was brought to a halt earlier this month when one of her followers shared an image of a Shein dress printed with what she says looks like her profile.

Strzelecki, who is known on TikTok simply as "Tami", was first informed about the Shein dress on January 11. "Shocked" by the seemingly strong resemblance to herself and her likeness, she said she must have looked at it 10 times before giggling. "Then it started to scare me a bit. I like to talk about my life in general with my TikTok, so I went to TikTok and made the video about feeling shaken after seeing this dress who looks like me,” Strzelecki said.

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Shein executives did not respond to requests for comment Thursday or Friday.

While her online business Sugs' Shoppe has been running for 15 years, she has found success l last year after one of her prep videos — for a visit to her therapist — went viral, she said. Over a million people saw her, liked her style, realized she sold online and started supporting Sugs' Shoppe. Strzelecki previously worked in palliative care, but a bout with the long COVID-19 in 2020 sidelined her for a long time. This inspired her to join TikTok and find out how to make more money.

She said she raised concerns about the similarities and asked for more information about the dress design in two emails to Shein, but received no response. The stylist bought the $20 dress to see for herself, though she's never bought anything fast fashion, "which isn't really my thing." After posting another video of her wearing the Shein dress, an attorney offered legal assistance and suggested sending a cease and desist letter. Two subsequent cease-and-desist emails have yet to receive a response, Strzelecki said. With a small business to run, she said she had little time to lobby legally.

The way she sees it, the problem is her logo is based on her likeness, style is hers alone too, and something she is very proud of. It didn't feel fair to me,” Strzelecki said, adding that there are copyrights to protect her likeness in her home country. "A huge influx" of people were "pretty rude" saying it looked nothing like the dress, she said. It made him consider the possibility of a lookalike, but his 2022 viral experience on TikTok makes him think the design was more intentional.

The dress was later sold out on the Shein website. Having felt "really scared at first" by the design, she said she tries not to stress too much now. Acknowledging that it would be nice to hear from Shein, Strzelecki said she would probably play with the dress more "especially if I haven't heard from them."

The stylist and designer posted a few videos of herself wearing the Shein design.

Some followers have speculated that an image was used by Shein via AI and Strzelecki noted how Shein has faced copyright infringement allegations from designers in the past. The 38-year-old said her husband...