Woman Buys Lila Birthing Gown and Gets Skeleton Posters Instead

Another day, another TikTok scandal to quench your thirst for drama. Per the usual, Distractify has all the tea.

In September 2023, Caitlyn Schollmeier — creator of the viral maternity brand, Lila — found herself at the center of controversy after she was called out by an unhappy customer.

Dallas-based influencer Desiré Westphal (@desirewestphal) said that she ordered a birthing gown from Lila and received an entirely different product in the mail. The mix-up made the influencer wonder if she was being scammed.

In a video with more than 1.7 million views as of this writing, Desiré unboxed what she thought would be a luxe birthing gown that she ordered from Lila Maternity. When she opened the package, she discovered two tubes.

In them were prints of a couple of rock and roll cartoon skeletons, which were certainly not what she expected. "This is supposed to be my Lila gown, but this is what came in the package,” Desiré said in the video.

She double-checked the receipts just to see if she was tripping. Lo and behold, she wasn’t. According to Desiré, she was skeptical of her purchase before it even came in the mail.

“One more thing that I will add that is like, a little sketchy — is that when I ordered it, it was saying guaranteed delivery by the 9th and it didn't get here by the 9th and I just thought, ‘Oh maybe there shipping delays,’” the influencer added.

“But now I just feel like I seriously just got scammed. I'm so confused.”

And so was the rest of the internet!

In the comment section, people had suggestions as to what could have caused the maternity gown mix-up. “My guess is they use a fulfillment center with a bunch of other companies stock and they mixed your order up,” @catalinatrez chimed in.

And there were plenty of customers who vouched for the company, sharing that they had a much more positive experience with the company.

“That’s crazy lol I ordered my gown from her and I got my actual gown. It’s 10/10. Hopefully, they fix whatever went wrong,” @mi.nal wrote.

And @bellagurll said what we were all thinking: “Why didn’t you just email them LOL.”

While most commenters chalked it up to being a hilarious and harmless mistake, Caitlyn took to social media with a response that only made things worse.

In response to Desiré’s viral unboxing, Caitlyn took to TikTok and refuted Desiré’s claim. In one since-deleted video, she accused Desiré — whom she has since blocked — of lying to get a free birthing gown. But Desiré came back with receipts to prove that she wasn’t lying. The influencer even posted the Ring camera footage of the package being delivered to her front door.

With this, Distractify investigated the story even further. We reached out to Lila Maternity for comment on the controversy. The company responded with a statement that acknowledged Desiré's "initial disappointment" and revealed that an investigation into the skeleton scandal has been launched.

"However, we would have appreciated the opportunity to resolve the issue privately first," the email response said. "Instead, the situation escalated quickly with negative comments and messages aimed at our company and our owner before we were given the opportunity to mitigate the customer’s concern. We firmly believe that constructive dialogue is a better way to resolve such issues."

The company also addressed Caitlyn's rebuttal to the viral unboxing video, which Lila plans "to handle legally" in due time, that started this whole thing.

"We recognize that our response, though well-intentioned, was not universally well received," they added. "While our goal was to show authenticity and transparency, a better course of action would have been to not engage in any public discourse with the influencer."

The statement ended: "We remain committed to providing high-quality products and excellent customer service. Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to serving you better in the future."

Thanks to Caitlyn’s rant, she’s now become the poster child for unprofessionalism. For her sake, hopefully, the viral skeleton scandal will blow over soon enough. One thing is for sure — after this, Lila's definitely lost Desiré's business.