The Quality Makers: Shea Marie of SAME

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Shea Marie is the founder of SAME, a trend-setting and cult-favorite luxury swim and ready-to-wear line designed to elevate your forever wardrobe. Launched in Los Angeles in 2015 by the fashion it-girl, the brand is responsible for jumpstarting some of the biggest swimwear trends over the past decade. With its stellar and long-living reputation, SAME launched ready-to-wear and denim in 2024, and is consistently a favorite amongst celebrities, influencers and fashionistas alike.

Shea was casually decked out in her iconic SAME earrings when I spoke to her. She opened up about her fashion journey, how her personal life magically transformed with the creation of SAME, and the incredible milestones she’s met and continues to meet with this iconic brand. Read her story below.

Can you introduce SAME?

SAME is an attainable luxury women's fashion brand. We have our roots in luxury swimwear, but over the past year and a half, we've transitioned into a full fashion lifestyle brand. We're most well known for setting the biggest trends in the swimwear resort space. We have a major it-girl following. 10 years ago, swim wear was really meant to be covered up or worn in the water, and we really helped transition it into a true fashion category, and built a name for ourselves doing so. We are trend setting, fashion forward, and modern. 

What led you to the world of fashion in Los Angeles?

My mom was a model when she was younger, and my aunt was a makeup artist. They were always into fashion and beauty, so I was around that from a young age, and I always liked it. But I was very good in school, especially in math and science, so my family wanted me to become a doctor or a lawyer. After I graduated high school, they didn’t let me move to LA, so it wasn’t until I graduated college that I could make that decision for myself.

I've always been someone who is extremely dedicated and driven. I have a never-give-up attitude. I was always looking at what was coming next in terms of technology and social media – a true digital entrepreneur. I saw things happening online before they even happened. There used to be these websites that not a lot of people knew about, where girls were sharing what they were wearing. It was truly Instagram before Instagram. I remember thinking, “this is going to become something big.” Looking back now, I should have started Instagram myself! 

How did your brand get started?

I grew up in a little country town outside of San Diego. After college, I moved to LA with little to no connections. I wanted to work in fashion, but it wasn't super realistic. I was working at a bar, and I decided to start a Tumblr online. That Tumblr turned into a blog where I was posting photos of what I was wearing, things I was thrifting, ways to save money when shopping, etc. And at one point, my blog was getting a million views a day. I became one of the top OG fashion influencers of the time. 

In such a short period, my life changed drastically. I went from living in a 2-bedroom apartment with 4 girls, $20 in my bank account, to traveling all over the world and sitting front row at the biggest fashion week shows. At the time, social media was new, you didn't know if it was going to last forever, so I always felt like I wanted to start building something that was going to be long lasting. But there wasn't any sort of blueprint for talent to start brands. It wasn't like it is now. So I started SAME in 2015, and it was very much a passion project. I didn't take it seriously for a long time, and even now I catch myself still thinking of us as a startup sometimes.

I had to self-fund SAME as a project, because there wasn't anyone I could look to for help. But I had a friend who had a swimwear factory in LA. I really started thinking about the swimwear industry, where it was at, where I thought it could be, and how I could bring something unique to the market. I proposed my idea to my friend, specifically this one special swimsuit, and he was on board. So we self-funded it together, I think we each put in about $10,000, and we launched with one suit. It was an immediate hit. The first big moment for us was maybe a month after we launched, Kendall Jenner wore that piece on a yacht with Harry Styles. There were all these press photos, and it was in every magazine. Everyone was trying to figure out what suit it was, and they found it because of how unique and recognizable it was. That’s something that is very important to me – I want to create what people are going to see, and they're going to know immediately what it is. So we made a splash really early on, and it legitimized us.

When and why did you expand your brand into other fashion categories? 

We became known for being a very trend setting, fashion forward, swimwear brand. We were doing beautiful trips and shoots, and styling our pieces with amazing accessories like jewelry. People were always asking us: “Where can we get these other pieces that you're styling with?” Our team spent a lot of time sourcing these things for our shoots, and at one point, we thought: why are we not putting this energy into designing our own additional categories? 

I've always loved fashion and design, but we had to get to a certain point financially before we could afford to start expanding into other categories. We first launched ready-to-wear in June of 2024. It took a while because it was all new – we couldn’t use any of the same factories. They don't use the same machines. It's not the same materials. It was like starting and learning from scratch. You're doing a lot of development and research, but because we put so much of ourselves into it, it launched to incredible success. We started with one style, which we call our ruffle hem style. It’s this wiring in the bottom of dresses and other styles, and people loved it. It was something new, something people hadn't seen before. It sold out countless times, showing us that we have legs to stand on, and we have something signature. 

Walk me through the different fashion categories you offer.

After launching swimwear, we launched ready-to-wear and denim, and 2 months ago, we launched our first fall-winter collection. LA is the denim capital of the world. It has the best denim factories, and we hired an amazing person to join our team and handle everything denim. I do all the design, but she is the denim mastermind. We sourced the best quality denim from Italy, but it's made in LA in a factory that produces some of the biggest luxury brands. I put in that effort to make sure our denim was of luxury quality, but sold at a more accessible price point. We launched denim with The Perfect Jean. I really believed in this approach of starting with one piece and building momentum off that. People that loved those jeans ended up buying them in every color. At this point, we have 4-5 other styles to choose from. Denim is definitely one of our best performing categories. 

All of our bulk production for swimwear happens in Mexico. It's all Italian fabrics, though. We are also doing production in Turkey, China, India, South Korea and Portugal. In the past, I would see things ‘Made in China,’ and I would automatically think that it’s cheap, and was probably made in a sweat shop. But that's actually not always the case. China has the best equipment and the best factories in the world. So I started learning where the best pieces come from – like leather from Italy and Turkey.

In summer of 2025, we expanded our ready to wear collection, and it went from resort wear, to dresses and things you can wear all summer long. That did really, really well. We ended up opening our first store ever in St. Tropez in June, next to all the brands that I look up to and admire. And the outcome was incredible. It really was a testament to the brand, our potential and our future. We literally had a line out the door every day, and I think that’s because we brought something unique to the St. Tropez market, which is very much dominated by ultra luxury brands. People could come into our store and get pieces that had the style and trends of luxury brands, but they could buy their entire summer wardrobe. 

We have a pop up opening in New York that will showcase more of our first fall, winter collection. This will be a big, pivotal moment to see how we can move away from being this summer resort heavy brand that's very seasonal. You don't want to be a seasonal brand where the majority of your sales are made in 3 months out of the year. That’s not ideal for longevity. Now we have all new categories - we're talking leather, suede, wool, knits, and more. 

Where does your inspiration come from? 

I believe that style is truly an art form. It's a talent. It can be hard to explain when people ask me: how are you getting the ideas for your design? Sometimes it’s just there, within me. 

Even if you aren't doing it consciously, it is natural for creatives to see and experience things, remember and keep it in their memory, and weave it into something like design. Your brain just clocks things you like, and then when you're putting together inspiration, you see all these things you've liked over the years. 

Historically, I’ve always designed for myself, and what I felt like I was missing from my wardrobe. The SAME girl, for a long time, was me. Now, in my 30s, I want to have something for everybody. In our St. Tropez store, moms would come in with their teenage daughters, and they both found something that they love. So I still feel like I design for me, but maybe in different areas or decades of my life. 

But honestly, inspiration can come from anywhere. It could be from a basket woven on the side of the road, or from an artisan stand in a random country. It can be an image that you saw in a fashion show, and you think: I love that, but I wish it was like this. I couldn’t always find what I was looking for, so because I didn’t love what was out there, I designed something better.

I hope that when people come into our store, they leave with pieces that make them feel beautiful, chic, confident and stylish. In putting my name and word behind it, I've built, over the past decade, a reputation of being very true to myself. I hope that people can recognize that.

Keep up with the latest trends and find your personalized cult favorites with SAME fashion.