When ASOS copied
my oyster design.

One of the original Stella's Studios tees featured an oyster design I designed, printed, and sold as part of the brand. Not long after, the same design showed up on a t-shirt sold by ASOS, a company with global reach and a supply chain that dwarfs mine.

I didn't have a legal team. I had a phone and an audience who cared about where their clothes come from. So I posted about it on TikTok, laying out the original design, the timeline, and the side-by-side comparison so people could see for themselves. I wasn't just asking for a receipt for my own work; I used the moment to talk about a bigger pattern: how often big brands lift ideas from small, independent designers who don't have the resources to fight back.

The video struck a nerve, racking up over 20,000 views, and got picked up and reposted widely across Instagram. People shared it, tagged ASOS, and added their own stories of being copied. What began as one small brand's complaint turned into a wider conversation about originality, credit, and power in fashion.

ASOS reached out directly. After the back-and-forth, they agreed to pull the tee from sale and compensate me for the design.

The bigger win was what happened around it. The story kept circulating well after the resolution, reposted by strangers, other small designers, and larger accounts covering the story. That visibility turned into real growth for Stella's Studios: new followers who found the brand through the story, many of whom stuck around and engaged with future drops. It's a case study in how transparency and speaking up, even without leverage, can turn a threat to a small brand into fuel for it.