Sabo Skirt Sues SHEIN, Kmart Over Alleged Copying of 36 Designs

The complaint reads like a receipt for what the fast fashion machine actually does to small designers: 36 garments, prints, sketches and patterns allegedly copied, 16 respondents named, and one multicoloured knit dress still being sold in alleged breach of a settlement Sabo Skirt thought it had locked in back in 2024.

Sabo Skirt filed a sweeping statement of claim in the Federal Court's Queensland Registry, naming SHEIN's Australian arm as first respondent and accusing it specifically of infringing six of the label's designs. Kmart Australia and multiple wholesalers and retailers are also named. The alleged copies were sold "virtually identical" to Sabo Skirt's originals, according to the filing, but at lower quality and heavily discounted prices, a combination the label argues damaged both its sales and its reputation.

The case is a precise illustration of what design copying looks like at industrial scale. SHEIN doesn't just borrow an aesthetic or riff loosely on a silhouette; the complaint alleges near-direct reproductions of specific garments, prints and pattern work. For shoppers, the distinction is often invisible at point of purchase: the silhouette matches, the print layout mirrors the original, but the fabric degrades after a handful of wears and the construction details that justify a higher price are simply absent. The lower sticker price isn't a bargain; it is the cost of the original creator's lost sale transferred directly to a fast fashion platform.

The sustainability stakes compound the legal ones. When a design can be copied, mass-produced and listed at a fraction of its development cost within weeks, the incentive to keep generating those copies is effectively limitless. The garments that result, lower quality and produced in single-season volumes, cycle through wardrobes and into landfill at a rate no amount of "conscious collection" marketing neutralises. Lawsuits like this one don't just protect individual designers; they create friction in a system that currently operates with almost none.

Founded in 2011 by Brisbane friends and sister-in-laws Thessy and Yiota, Sabo Skirt built its name through an influencer-first model. Its designs have been worn by Jennifer Lopez, Gigi and Bella Hadid, Ariana Grande and Kylie Jenner. That social-media visibility, the same quality that made the label's pieces aspirational and recognisable, is precisely what makes them targets. A design worn and documented across Instagram is also one that can be screenshot, reverse-engineered and listed for $15 within days.

The 2024 settlement breach allegation adds procedural weight that could shape how this case resolves. Sabo Skirt alleges SHEIN continued selling the disputed multicoloured knit dress after the two parties had already closed out a prior dispute over it. If that allegation holds, it shifts part of this action beyond standard copyright infringement territory toward something courts treat with considerably less patience.

Relief sought includes both damages for lost revenue and reputational harm, and injunctions ordering respondents to pull alleged copies immediately. A settlement across 16 respondents is procedurally possible, but any resolution without injunctive relief sets no meaningful precedent for the next label that finds its work reproduced at scale. The matter returns to court in July.

The structural problem the outcome won't immediately solve is the gap between how quickly designs can be copied and how slowly courts can adjudicate that copying. For fast fashion, that gap has never been a risk; it has been the business plan.