A customer is unable to keep the zipper of her blouse up. That led to a wardrobe malfunction. She shared the problem on TikTok. The brand hit back

The pesky zip. Screen shot: narflixparty/TikTok

What do you do when the zipper of your strapless blouse won’t stay up? You turn to the brand that sold you the blouse. What if they were deemed unhelpful? Like so many now, you turn to TikTok for answers or to gripe. Chances are, the brand that you are unhappy with won’t be happy either. What happens next? TikTok plays the de facto court of public opinion, if not the mediator. Fashion consumers increasingly turn to the social platform to air and settle grievances. The virality and the reach are appealing, so too the accessibility and ease of use, as well as the immediacy and real-time impact. And, more crucially, the empowerment of the individual. But empowerment is a two-way street. If you feel empowered, the party you are railing against can too.

This played out recently when a lass, who goes by the handle ‘natflixparty’, shared on TikTok her woes with a S$15 pleated tube top she purchased that had a rear zipper with a puller that won’t stay securely in place. In the reel, which first showed her drinking milk teas and then revealing the garment with the supposedly defective zipper. The text that ran across the page cheekily read: “She doesn’t know it yet, but the new top she just bought & wore for the first time will fall off in public due to a faulty zip. And she also doesn’t know it yet but the local blogshop that sold her this top will gaslight and ridicule her as if she doesn’t know how to use a zip & refuse to give a refund lol.”

But empowerment is a two-way street. If you feel empowered, the party you are railing against can too.

How was she “ridiculed”? The brand’s response, when it came, only added salt to the wound. Instead of a conciliatory tone or a prompt resolution, they chose a questionable video. The brand in question was identified as The Style Soirée, an online shop, whose naming convention is consistent with the many local brands that love three-word monikers and hawking of clothes that are hard to differentiate from those at, say, The Editor’s Market or The Closet Lover, which is shuttered for good today. After ‘natflixparty’ posted her video, The Style Soirée shared their own. Titled “Tutorial: how to use a lock zipper”, it was a demo that came with not only visual instructions, but also text to dispute the complainant’s assertion. This how-to reel was sent to ‘natflixparty’ before her online lament. But what was rather curious was the soundtrack of the communique used by The Style Soirée that was attributed to the brand: it sounded like Bozo the Clown’s personal anthem. In sum, they seemed to be saying, “it’s not the zipper, stupid”.

Determining why a zipper comes undone, or even the precise type of zipper used in a garment, isn’t always straightforward. While a zipper can fail regardless of whether the puller is pressed down, its locking mechanism is key. There are basically three types of zipper sliders, depending on their locking mechanism. There are auto-lock sliders, with a built-in mechanism that automatically locks the slider in place when the puller is released and not under tension. Not pressing down the puller zipper doesn’t typically make it spontaneously undo, unless the zipper is faulty to begin with. Then there are the semi-auto lock sliders. These require the puller to be pressed down against the slider body to engage the locking mechanism. The zipper used in the tube top in question appeared to be of this particular type. And there are the non-locking sliders, which are rarely used in garments today.

The Style Soirée ‘Paylyn Pleated Tube Top’ in the centre of the dispute, as shown on the brand’s website. Photo: The Style Soirée

A zipper is a mechanical device; it can become faulty, whether the wearer presses down the puller or not. For ‘natflixparty’, there might have been a genuine product issue, even if the brand tried to frame it as user error. The exact back-and-forth between them? That’s still murky. Yet, it’s clear the customer hit a wall with the traditional channel of contacting the brand directly. By taking it to TikTok, she essentially put the brand on public trial. Other users could see the issue, offer their opinions, and potentially share similar experiences, which was what happened. But as with most social media discourse or disagreement, the other side may not take the charges quietly. When a brand is publicly called out, their initial reaction might be defensive, aiming to protect their reputation. This can manifest as an unhelpful, dismissive, or even aggressive communication, which further alienates the customer and the wider audience, exacerbating the very problem they sought to contain.

This fabric-based fracas, like tube tops, was not that unusual. TikTok videos are short and designed for quick, even mindless consumption. This format makes it difficult to present a full, nuanced account of a complex situation, especially when nuance will not bring in views. Perhaps, in a digital age, the zipper of a S$15 blouse made of “exquisite satin fabric” can unravel an entire brand’s reputation faster than a loose thread of a Shein seam. For consumers, TikTok blares siren songs of instant justice, a place where the court of public opinion convenes faster than customer service can put you on hold. For brands, however, it’s less a battlefield and more a circus with no ringmaster, where the most cutting insult or the most grating clown tune can drown out any semblance of reason, leaving both parties not just looking bad, but looking utterly unzipped.