The look worn by Shakira49, at the opening of the World Cup 2026in Mexico, became the target of a controversy that quickly dominated social media in recent days.
It all started when the Brazilian designer Jheni Ferreiraname behind the brand SSJHENIclaimed to have sold a skirt structured from football shirts to the singer’s team and, at the beginning of the world tournament, to have identified similarities between her production and the model she displayed, signed by the brand Off-White.
Coming from a family of seamstresses, Jheni grew up surrounded by fabrics and sewing machines. During the pandemic, when she needed to find a way to generate income and support herself in the capital of São Paulo, she collected a shipment of scraps from her own mother’s studio and created some experimental pieces.
“Upcycling and reusing materials have always been at the heart of my brand and in addition to fashion, my background is in Social Sciences, so much of my work is based on cultural investigation”, he tells CNN Brazil.
“The pieces made with football shirts emerged from this research into two phenomena that I consider central to Brazilian identity: football and carnival”, he adds.
The creations soon caught attention on Instagram, but the big leap came with a quick phone call: the Nicolas Brustylist, needed to rent one of her exclusive skirts for a project in Rio de Janeiro.
Logistics required the necessary task force to get the piece to the artist’s hotel in less than 24 hours. “Until then, the negotiation was exclusively a rental, there was no conversation about purchasing the piece. The skirt would be used and later returned”, recalls Jheni.
The mystery ended when the world watched the teaser of , artist’s song for the World Cup. “Seeing one of my creations appear in a project of this size was a very special moment”, he recalls.
Jheni also says that, weeks after recording, Shakira’s team showed interest in buying the piece outright. Initially reluctant as she did not usually sell items from her personal collection, the designer made an exception on the grounds that the skirt would go to “future exhibitions or World Cup projects”.
The piece was sent to the indicated address, but the final destination crossed the ocean into the hands of the Off-White team, in Italy.
“At the time of the sale, I did not associate the address or the recipient with any future situation. For me, it was just the delivery of a piece acquired by the artist’s team”, he explains.
The shock came at the official opening ceremony of the championship. Shakira took the stage wearing a skirt with the same concept as reworked football shirts.
On social media, the brand celebrated the costume as an exclusive collaboration between the brand, the singer and stylist Nicolas Bru, but without mentioning SSJHENI.
“My initial reaction was surprise. Soon after the presentation I started receiving messages from friends, clients, journalists and fashion professionals asking if that skirt was mine or if there was some official collaboration that I had never spoken about publicly. At first, I didn’t know what to say myself”, she comments.
“It was from these questions that I began to look more closely at the play presented, research the credits involved and reconstruct the entire sequence of events”, he adds.
“The facts are that a piece created by me was used by Shakira, later purchased by her team under the justification of being part of her personal collection, sent to an address linked to the team that later developed the World Cup costume and, later, a new skirt appeared with numerous visual similarities presented as a collaboration between other parties”, he says.
In Brazilian lands, the complaint echoed on social media, generating a wave of support that surprised the designer herself. So far, attempts to contact Jheni have not received clarifying responses.
The designer hopes that the case sets an important precedent for how the international market views Latin American creativity. “Brazil is recognized worldwide for its hospitality, but our professionals are often still seen as just labor. I hope this conversation helps to reinforce that we are also authors, researchers and creators and intellectuals.”
Supported by specialized legal guidance, the Brazilian now gathers documents to define her next legal actions. For her, public debate is a first step towards justice.
“If this conversation contributes to strengthening the protection of us creatives, especially us women, and encouraging more transparency in relationships between big brands and independent designers, then at least something important will have emerged from this experience”, he concludes.
A CNN Brazil contacted Off-White and the press office of stylist Nicolas Bru. Both did not return until the article was published.
