You’re Being Duped
Not to be too “I’m 30 years old,” but I have no clue who Matilda Djerf is. But, after hearing her name for the 1000th time as TikTok creators on my For You Page either breathlessly defended her, or used her as an example to talk about “dupe culture” (aka knockoff culture) as a whole, I decided to open an Incognito Window in order to read one more free article on The Cut. For those not in the know like I once wasn’t, basically, Matilda has been slapping creators that recommend dupes of her brand, “Djerf Avenue” with copyright/trademark violations and people are mad about it because the majority of said brand is quote-unquote “basic” and not so unique that Matilda could even lay claim to having come up with it, first. Of course, there is the question of—if it’s all so unexceptional and unoriginal—why you’d even need to make content just to post links to a blazer that’s already been made 100 times but, I get it, Amazon storefronts don’t promote themselves.
The conversation surrounding copyrighting and trademarking fashion designs is a complex one. While it is illegal to outright “counterfeit” a brand’s design—that is, not just copy it but to try to pass it off as if it was actually produced by the brand being copied—as it stands, there are no real protections for fashion designers’ intellectual property in the U.S. at all, and only limited protections in the European Union. This is precisely why brands that almost exclusively sell copies of popular designs like Steve Madden and FashionNova are able to exist largely uncontested (though Steve Madden has had plenty of days in court).
As long as art has existed, there has been someone waiting to copy it and sell it for cheaper. Fashion is obviously no different but it would be wrong to imply that there’s not something quite different about the dupes of today vs. those of the past—especially when taking into account how both the explosion of fast fashion and proliferation of social media have compounded to exacerbate all the worst parts of both the fashion industry and human behavior. But, in an industry built almost entirely on the idea that high design concepts trickle down to the masses, how do we fight back?
Back when the majority of people—Americans, especially—made their own clothes, an entire industry existed almost solely to sell patterns—that is flat paper templates used to cut out clothing to be sewn—based on couture designs that were inaccessible to the average consumer. As mass production took over, American department stores would send employees to the Paris fashion shows—Paris is where all fashion originated, of course—to buy finished garments or even prototypes (called toiles or muslins) and bring them back stateside to be copied. But, buyers knew that what they were buying was a copy: even if a design had been altered and made more practical for regional audiences, there was no confusion about where the “inspiration” had come from.
Even back then, though, some people weren’t huge fans of the system. But, despite plenty of attempts to protect fashion designs, as I’m sure you read just two paragraphs ago, none have been successful. By the time Zara came to the U.S. in 1989 boasting a 15-day lead time from idea to sales floor and shipping new garments weekly, the battle had been lost. Now, fast fashion retailers can rip looks straight from the runway and have them in-store and ready to ship to you in just a week. Shein even allegedly employs entire teams to comb social media for trendy items to replicate and sell for much, much cheaper than any independent designer can match and with absolutely none of the values that define the designer’s work.
Some call this the democratization of fashion. I obviously disagree. But, I also know what it’s like to want something you can’t have, especially when it comes to clothes (or accessories, as the case may be). So, how do you deal with “But I Want It!” Syndrome, aka BIWIS (rhymes with kiwis)?
Living With BIWIS
Dupes are easy. You see it, you like it, you want it, you find a dupe—or whatever Ariana said. You don’t have to stop and think about what you like about it or why you really want it, just hop on Amazon or “The Gate” for a cheap knockoff that’ll be at your doorstep in 2-10 business days and hope you’ll still like it long enough for it to ship.
What I’m proposing is a lot more difficult than that (sorry!) but can and most likely will result in a closet full of things you actually love.
So, I’ve talked before about this thing called “recontextualizing.”
When I first talked about it, I was primarily referring to, basically, the ability to see an item and style it in your head, but, I think this can also apply to those times when you get that itch that you think you need a dupe to scratch. Get ready: we’re gonna overthink.
Look at what you want to dupe. Not on an influencer or on a runway, and not in a fancy editorial: if possible, try to get a neutral product shot (SSENSE is good for this if it’s a more designer item, Wolf & Badger if it’s an independent designer). Sometimes, just the act of removing it from the images/bodies that made you immediately crave the piece is enough to make you realize you don’t really like it at all, but, if not:
Figure out what you like about it—I mean really like about it. Is it the color? Is it the silhouette/shape? Is there some unique detail like hardware or something like pleating or ruffles? Why does it evoke such a strong emotion in you and if it doesn’t…well…
Remember: (pretty much) everything has been done before. So, where can you find that same magic from, say, a smaller brand, or even vintage, or how can you DIY it? And, if you realize that magic is, in fact, unobtainable elsewhere…
Wait! The way trends turnover these days, almost everything new and fresh gets old and, discounted or, even better, resold. Set up a saved search on a site like Lyst for sale alerts, or on Gem for matching secondhand listings.
In case you missed it: I’m quoted in this Cosmo article talking about sizing!