I soon realize why.
Other videos feature dupes for everything from Gucci boots to Brandy Melville T-shirts.
Dupes are nothing new.
House of Sunny / Lena Helena Busch
Theyve existed for years under various names, including copies and knockoffs.
But while weve always bought dupes, we were once a lot more discrete about it.
The growing popularity of dupes on TikTok, on the other hand, presents a completely different attitude.
The reason for this surge in the popularity of dupes seems to be a combination of two factors.
To the young consumer who is both trend-driven and cost-conscious, dupes are an obvious choice.
But social medias fascination with dupe culture doesnt come without its problems.
After all, theres an incredibly fine line between inspiration and plagiarism.
Its one thing to be inspired by a design; retailers have always gained inspiration from luxury brands.
Its another, however, to create an exact copy.
Marie Dewet is the founder ofMaisonCleoand has publicly spoken out against retailers stealing the French made-to-order brands designs.
The items being sold by these retailers are exact copies of MaisonCleo designs.
Marie claims, [Websites like Taobao and AliExpress] even buy trending items from brands to duplicate them.
We once realized that we were about to send some blouses to the Taobao headquarters…
Unfortunately for Marie, fashion has limited legal protection against plagiarism.
Unlike other creative sectors such as music and art, there are rarely legal consequences for copying a design.
I dont want to waste my time trying to fight against them as its just not possible.
For one, the promotion of dupes can take sales from the original designer.
When the brand is a large well-known label, it somehow doesnt feel that bad.
But the smaller the brand, the more important each sale becomes.
For an independent brand, having consumers choose a dupe over their product can be detrimental.
