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• Sera Lilly discovered her clothing designs and images being used on Shein’s website without prior consent.
• Lilly highlighted the lack of protections for small businesses against IP violations by large corporations.
• Shein says it has “proactively removed” the products while they investigate.

A New Zealand  has been left “gutted” after she came across her own clothing designs and images being marketed on global  brand ’s website as their own.

, a Feilding-based designer and founder of clothing brand , said the incident was “frustrating” as  like hers usually don’t have the resources to pursue legal action against  violations.

Shein - the world’s largest fashion retailer - has “proactively removed” the products while they investigate, telling the Herald it “takes all claims of infringement seriously”.

Shein was founded in Nanjing, China in 2008. The company moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2022, although most of its clothes are still produced by Chinese manufacturers.

In a recent Facebook video, Lilly shared screenshots of Shein’s website, saying the company had directly pulled the designs of at least two pieces from Friday Flamingo’s and reused her images.

“Shein has stolen my small businesses designs and photos from my website, and they’re selling them as their own,” Lilly said in the video.

Lilly, who has a reach of over 120,000, said she was “shocked” after one of her followers got in touch to bring her attention to the images and designs.

“Seeing my own FF designs and even my own photos, barely changed, being used by a huge company without my permission was so frustrating,” Lilly told the Herald.

She “put a lot of work into creating unique pieces”, so it felt like “a slap in the face” to “have them copied and sold” without compensation.

The mum-of-five was concerned her photos had been digitally altered by the fast-fashion company as “a way to avoid getting called out” for using them.

“The changes are so small that it’s clear they weren’t trying to create something new, they just wanted to use my work while making it slightly harder to prove,” Lilly said.

Sera Lilly's original photo (L) and the one seen on Shein's website (R). Composite / Kennedy Anderson, Screenshot

While disheartened, Lilly said fast-fashion brands “have a long history of doing this”.

“In my case, they haven’t just copied my designs; they’ve also taken my original photos, with my photographer’s work, and passed them off as their own.

“That’s next-level theft, and it makes it even more unfair.”

Lilly believes Shein would be using “lower-quality materials” to replicate her designs and sell them for the price of $24-$27. She says doing so is “misleading” and “damaging” to her brand.

IP is domestically protected by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ), yet legal action is often prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, making it difficult for small businesses to defend their IP rights.

Another of Sera Lilly's dress designs and images can be found on the Shein website. Composite / Kennedy Anderson, Screenshot

“It feels impossible to take on companies like Shein without spending a fortune in legal fees,” Lilly said.

She called for “better protections for small brands” to prevent large corporations “taking advantage of independent designers with no consequences”, noting “this isn’t just about losing sales”.

When the Herald enquired about the products, Shein said it was “never our intent to infringe anyone’s valid intellectual property and it is not our business model to do so”, and has removed the products from their website as a precaution.

“All Shein vendors are required to comply with company policy and certify that their products do not infringe third-party IP,” it said in a statement.

“We also provide various avenues for IP rights holders to report any potential infringements or raise concerns with us.”

“If a violation is confirmed, Shein will take appropriate action against the supplier of said products.”

Shein has an intellectual property notice on their website that states: “As we ask others to respect our intellectual property rights, we respect the intellectual property rights of others.”

Those concerned about a violation are encouraged to submit a complaint through Shein’s “online intellectual property complaint portal”.

In response to the Herald‘s enquiry, Shein said it will continue to “improve our product review process, including investing in image recognition technology developed specifically to recognise cases of potential infringement and growing our product review team”.

Tom Rose is an Auckland-based journalist who covers breaking news, specialising in lifestyle, entertainment and travel. He joined the Herald in 2023.