On April 19, 2024, Taylor Swift released her “For a fortnight” challenge YouTube video, featuring multiple video clips of her day-to-day life. Among the recordings was a shot of Swift wearing a lavender skort that in her song “imgonnagetyouback,” is described as “the one that fits [her] like skin.”
Naturally, all the Swifties were racing to get that same purple skort, prompting it to be sold out within fifteen minutes and receiving over 10,000 pre-orders. A single piece of clothing, shown in a 0.3 second clip, took the world by storm.
However, this little skort has taken a long road to get where it is today, and it certainly hasn’t been easy. So, let’s trace the journey of the Pirouette Skort, along with all of its highs and lows, and find out what exactly makes it so iconic.
Launched in 2016, POPFLEX is an online leisure and activewear brand for women’s apparel. The company was founded by CEO and Head Designer Cassey Ho, who started it when she was a Pilates instructor and couldn’t find a bag that could fit her yoga mat. Instead of searching the far corners of the internet for one, she created her own. Since then, Ho has dedicated POPFLEX to create apparel that is both fashionable and functional.
Making over $6.9 million in revenue in February 2025 alone, the company is known for their iconic designs such as the Zip Cloud Hoodie, the Crisscross Hourglass Leggings (with Pockets), and, of course, the Pirouette Skort. Announced in 2022, the skort was created by Ho because she “couldn’t find an athletic skort that made her feel strong yet graceful,” and became one of her favorite designs to date. However, she wasn’t the only one that fell in love with the skort, and certainly not the only one who wanted to profit from it.
In January of 2023, SHEIN appeared to have a “dupe” of the Pirouette Skort listed on their website. According to Ho’s Instagram post, the SHEIN dupe copied both the designs of the actual skort (a ballet-inspired mesh skirt with underlying shorts and pockets) and the marketing images for it. Enraged, Ho went to her social media accounts and blasted the company for stealing her design. This eventually prompted SHEIN to remove the Pirouette Skort dupes from their website. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t last, as just a few months later, SHEIN relisted the skort dupes on their website.
Wholly unsatisfied with SHEIN, Ho took legal action and applied for a patent protecting her Pirouette Skort. Patents for clothing items are notoriously difficult to obtain due to quickly-changing trends, originality of a design, and the sheer legal expertise needed to apply for one. Despite these obstacles, Ho didn’t waver, and obtained a patent for her Pirouette Skort on January 16, 2024. After that, things seemed to be looking up for both Ho and the Pirouette Skort, with the piece of clothing being featured not only on Taylor Swift’s “For a fortnight” challenge video but also the official music video for her song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” It seemed like POPFLEX had finally found its place in not only the online shopping industry, but the clothing industry as a whole.
The trouble with POPFLEX making a name for itself meant that it was starting to attract the attention of the big names. As if SHEIN wasn’t enough, the brand Gottex, which is owned by Nordstrom Rack, is now selling dupes of the newly patented Pirouette Skort. In one of Ho’s latest social media posts, she states that the design and colors are exactly the same. When her team sent the brand a cease and desist letter for patent infringement, they were met by a lawsuit threat.
The outcome of this state of affairs is still unknown, but Ho has once again taken to social media to speak out against these brands that are threatening to steal one of her most beloved designs. She hasn’t allowed these circumstances to deter POPFLEX, though. On December 28, 2024, she released the Blogilates apparel line at Target, moving beyond her former online restrictions. And just recently, she organized a pop-up sale in Venice Beach.
Cassey has shown that her brand is more than simply a small, online retailer, and that it can even stand up to the likes of dominant companies such as SHEIN and Nordstrom. She continues to protect her company and her designs, and serves as an inspiration, proving that no company or person is too small to fight for themselves and what they care about—even if it’s a viral, lavender skort.