Dirt Review of Dupes

Quality check.

05 Jul

Illustration by Kyle Knapp.

Terry Nguyen, Dirt’s contributing editor, introduces a special editorial package.

In the Broad City episode “Knockoff,” Ilana and her mother are heading down to Manhattan’s Canal Street for a haul of counterfeit designer bags. “I know the difference between a cross stitch and a sailmaker’s stitch,” declares Ilana’s mom, who is disinterested in the shoddy fakes displayed on the road. She tells this to a Chinese seller, who nods approvingly before ushering the two women into a van. They are blindfolded and driven to an inconspicuous sewer grate where the good knockoffs are stored. Within this thriving counterfeit economy, there is a hierarchy. Those in the know, like Ilana’s mom, can not only identify the difference but fluently speak in manufacturing jargon to discern the high-quality fakes from the poorly-made ones.

I was once such a bag fiend, easily hung up on the details of a fake purse. I would spend hours trawling through the now-shuttered subreddit r/RepLadies, scouting for reputable sellers and offering my own “quality check” assessments on knockoffs. The experience was a lot like being told the ins-and-outs of a magic trick. I saw through the illusion that luxury brands sold to their consumers—that authentic bags are expensive because they are special in their design, quality, and history. In reality, many rely on inexpensive immigrant labor to manufacture designer goods, even those that bear the “Made in Italy” label.

From the Broad City episode “Knockoff.”

Counterfeits, knockoffs, replicas, fakes. These are, for the most part, interchangeable terms, referring to designer products that fall under the broad umbrella of consumer dupes. In popular culture, counterfeit luxury items (specifically handbags) have often received outsized attention, likely because of their illicit nature. But in fact, most mass-produced commodities are dupes—iterations of an original product or design. Fast fashion garments dupe runway fashion. IKEA makes brand-name furniture dupes. The Japanese store Daiso sells dupes of MUJI goods, which has duped higher-end brands like Aesop and Shiseido. Even the rich trade in art dupes. In Gwyneth Paltrow’s Architectural Digest house tour, viewers discerned that the sculpture she had on display was a Ruth Asawa dupe. Every commodity product can be duped or is itself a dupe, from fragrances to hair dryers to Italian couches to dildos. (In the same Broad City episode, Abbi buys a $79 dupe of a custom-made Shinjo dildo, after ruining the original in the dishwasher.)

“Dupe” connotes cheapness—in price, quality, and experience. Such items have existed since the dawn of industrialized mass production, although we can attribute the current collective fascination with dupes to TikTok, rampant inflation, and Gen Z’s own tortured relationship with authenticity. Now, thanks to the internet, we have too many dupes to choose from, found on a variety of online marketplaces: Amazon, AliExpress, Temu, DHGate, Taobao. Branding, too, seems to be passé when viral items are championed for their affordability and functionality, rather than originality.

Technology has accelerated the production timeline for dupes; items can be replicated within the same week that they go viral. For many buyers, qualities like authenticity and provenance have since become an afterthought, although luxury brands are still keen to discern their products from the masses (and the counterfeiters). Designer houses are experimenting with blockchain technology to authenticate products on the secondhand market.

For the next two weeks, Dirt will be publishing an editorial package that examines dupe culture and discourse, featuring essays from W. David Marx, Eugene Rabkin, Katy Kelleher, and Michelle Santiago Cortés. Welcome to the Dirt Review of Dupes. —Terry Nguyen

Use this to separate content

DUPE SYLLABUS

Relevant essays, books, research articles, and media that informed the ideas in this package.

 🌱 JOIN THE DIRTYVERSE

  • Join our Discord and talk Dirt-y with us. It’s free to join! Paid subscribers have access to all channels.

  • Follow @dirtyverse on Twitter for the latest news and Spotify for monthly curated playlists.

  • Shop for some in-demand Dirt merch.  🍄