Fake Designer, ‘Dupes,’ Counterfeit, and Imitations – How Much Does Authenticity Matter?
In 2022 I tried finding JNCO jorts – ‘jean shorts’ – on Depop, eBay, and at Sydney’s Glebe markets. If you’re unaware, JNCO, short for Judge None Choose One, is a denim brand that was popular in the 90’s for their wide leg pant design. In 2018, the brand faced liquidation but was later reacquired leading to a resumption of sales a year later. Consequently, for the past five years or so, it has been difficult to buy JNCO denim shorts in Australia.
They were virtually impossible to find online at reseller websites, and if you could find them, they only came in one size, often much too big for me. Purchasing the original was far outside of my budget, and they didn’t even ship to Australia anyway. Furthermore, there was nothing on the second-hand market because jorts as a trend hadn’t taken off yet. So, I set off to find a dupe.
I didn’t need them, I wanted them.
Eventually I found what I wanted from Cotton On on sale for 30% off, and in my size too! I bought them. They didn’t fit. They sagged a bit and were uncomfortably low waisted. The ‘leather’ tag sewn onto the back felt like carboard, the hammer loop too large, with no supporting pocket beneath it. As far as reselling shorts goes, these specific ones cannot be found anywhere, an attest to its lack of long-term value. Often, really good quality clothing can be sold and resold due to its long-lasting wear and value. To put it plainly, my current jorts are were mainly a placeholder for my dream JNCO shorts. In the long run, my current jorts will not hold up, quality or style wise, where JNCO shorts would.
I fell for the quick dopamine fix, and now I’m just irritated with myself. So, take it from me. Spending your money on ‘dupes’ and knockoffs is futile. Let’s talk about it.
How counterfeit culture came to be
First, let’s delve into the history of counterfeiting. Everyone wants to look good, but not everyone can afford to. Dating back to the 19th century Paris fashion scene, couturiers created bespoke designs for elite clientele, making their pieces exclusive and expensive. Thus, to meet demand for couture at lower prices, copy houses emerged, replicating designs from couture shows with cheaper materials. This posed a significant financial threat to couture houses like Chanel and Balenciaga.
To combat this, designers like Madeleine Vionnet implemented authentication methods such as stamping her fingerprints onto labels, while Cristobal Balenciaga adopted more proactive measures like hosting private shows exclusively for buyers to prevent potential replication attempts. Christian Dior took a more aggressive stance by actively pursuing legal action against designers that copied his work in 1948.
Conversely and interestingly, some houses, like Chanel, drew inspiration from copy houses instead. In a surprising turn of events, when her secretary at the time bought a 50-franc counterfeit Chanel dress to show her, she used the featured braided trim not found in the original in her next collection. She even once said, “being copied is the ransom of success.”
Counterfeiting has since shifted focus from couture to bags and ready-to-wear clothing, with Paddy’s Markets in Sydney and Queen Victoria Markets here in Melbourne offering counterfeit Dior, Prada, and Gucci items alongside knockoff North Face jackets and even, I once found, ‘authentic’ One Direction blankets. Despite 19th-century French legal victories against copying, counterfeiting persists, and has grown. In France fashion designs are legally considered “real works of art… entitled the same protection accorded (to) authors and copywriters.” Unfortunately, that sentiment is not shared by many other jurisdictions, Australia being a lucky exception. Today, it has become endlessly easier to find a cheaper ‘fake,’ or imitation, of what you want.
How counterfeit culture continues today
Though it is well known that China is the largest producer of counterfeit goods to date, you might be surprised to learn that counterfeit goods are often made in the same factories, by the same workers, as the original item it’s knocking off, whether in Chinese or Indonesian factories. Counterfeiters track trends closely, replicating popular designer items once they hit the market. In cities like Guangzhou, where knockoffs (from cigarettes to car parts to clothes) are rampant, factories churn out copied goods with minimal labour costs. These products then find their way to Australia, often without scrutiny, as customs primarily focus on more pressing matters like drugs and weapons, not shoes and handbags. Despite strict laws against manufacturing and selling counterfeit goods in Australia, enforcement is lax, making it easy to find shops selling fakes, despite the legal risks involved.
Other than the fact that it’s illegal to buy fake goods, there are also ethical and moral implications with doing so. First, the working conditions of the manufacturers of such goods are often dire, workers are underpaid, and money flows into the hands of people that benefit from this labour. Labourers are underpaid and also overworked, and since none of it is legal, workers do not receive any work protection rights. This is widely known and is even detailed by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime. The profit of this business is evident in the following statistics: the luxury apparel market was valued at USD $99.7 billion in 2016, whereas fast fashion markets at USD $113.9 billion. Those numbers have shrunk and grown to USD $96 billion and $136 billion respectively. Unfortunately, the conversation to be had about the growing trade of inexpensive clothes is often shut down in online and in-person discourse with the statement “not everyone can afford to buy sustainable,” despite various alternatives (op shops being the obvious). This ultimately leads us to asking whether the suffering of overseas impoverished communities is justified so that our own can dress nicely?
The ethics of knockoffs and ‘dupes’
Clearly, fast fashion is unethical. It’s bad for the environment, it feeds into capitalism, and contributes to the unsafe working conditions of fast fashion and counterfeit factory workers. When looking at smaller brands such as Selkie, the shifts from viewing counterfeits as a ‘resourceful bargain’ to being forced to acknowledge the profound damage they inflict is apparent. In 2021 a dress from the brand became viral, and among the virality it also found fast springing knock offs of the same item. While the original retails for about $250 to $400 depending on length, these imitations were priced as low as $35.
It is crucial to the story to understand that the brand’s head, Kimberley Gordon, only employs 15 people full time. Every dupe sold directly took some of Gordon’s potential livelihood. As Maura Judkins put it in an article for the Washington Post, “[although] knocking off a massive corporation like Lululemon might make a gal feel like the Robin Hood of seamless yoga tops,” the same cannot be said for modest companies such as this one.
Selkie is one of the few brands today that is age, size, ability, and BIPOC inclusive, as well as being ethically and sustainably made. Even if, by some miracle, an individual can justify the unethical process by which a ‘dupe’ garment is made, the harm doesn’t end there. These actions both support illegal employment practices and threatens the very existence of the brands from which designs are stolen from.
The founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega Gaona, followed the mantra “fast fashion democratizes style,” meaning that anyone can afford to look good. A common argument for fast fashion, the idea that the impoverished people in the Global North (“high income environments” such as Europe, Australia, and the USA) deserve to wear trending clothes supersedes the right of workers that produce said clothing to work in a safe environment for adequate compensation is a popular one. Majid Rahnema, a scholar and diplomat whose work focused on poverty and the market economy, said “within capitalist systems the elite class has created a cult of envy where the masses buy into aspirations of wealth, opulence and status.” Fast fashion corporations feed into this envy and instil the false notion that the only way to fit into society is by dressing like everyone else, even if it means supporting unethical labour practices, the suffering of labourers in the Global South, and small businesses.
So, what now?
The question becomes, what can I do better? Unfortunately, most of us are indoctrinated into the religion of SHIEN, fast fashion, and AliExpress. I won’t lie, I’ve taken part in this too. The whole point of these brands, as well as others that have supplied the general public with thousands of ‘dupes,’ is the perpetration and maintenance of a have-to-have-it-now mindset when it comes to fashion. Everything about dupe/knockoff culture wants one thing from us, our money. It sells you cheaper items of a lower quality that you might only wear once or twice – and you’re not the only one. Imitations and fakes are oversaturating the fashion market, but only because the large majority of consumers will buy them.
In real life there is no dupe. It doesn’t really matter how convincing that TikTok was by that one influencer, or how good the photos are on AliExpress, there simply is no replacement for the genuine article. Passing on Rachel Solomon’s advice from her article “Dupes” are the devil, “I would think about what I was craving… Not what it looks like physically, but what it represents,” when you want something but can’t afford it. She also added that going to resale shops and op shops looking for an item that acts, feels, and behaves in a similar way as the item you want is another good step. The project of finding it is rewarding. Also, don’t be afraid to go on eBay, or Depop. As Solomon said, “it’s not as if we are standing with no [clothes] on desperately needing [an item of clothing] right now. It’s fine to wait.” Wanting trending clothing when you already have piles of them isn’t a necessity, it’s a want that more often than not comes at the cost of someone else’s suffering if you’re not willing to get it sustainably.
Ultimately, who isn’t tempted to buy something from H&M when there’s a huge sale going on, and they have something that almost looks like this one thing you’ve wanted for the past month? I certainly am. The point of this article is not to shame people who shop at fast fashion stores occasionally because it’s the only affordable/size inclusive clothing for them, because that’s not really the problem. Though I have extensively written on the effects of knockoffs, dupes, etc., here, I do so to raise the issue of excessive consumerism and the “need-it-now” mindset we all just about suffer from. The rise of cheap alternatives at the cost of ethical sourcing and authenticity is a conversation we all need to start having. To give a happy ending to my JNCO story at the beginning of this article, it’s unlikely that I’ll try and save up for the actual jorts because I currently have no need to. Last year in September I made it my mission to find another pair of suitable shorts, I was fed up with slugging my cheap jorts around with a tiny shoelace holding it all together. I wanted to find something before summer bulldozed me in my lack of suitable ‘hot weather’ clothes. And I did. As I write this, I’m actually wearing them, the perfect shorts, 100% cotton, and they fit me perfectly. Ironically, they were even cheaper than my first jorts because they’re second hand. I found what I wanted, not because I was looking for JNCO shorts or something that looked like them, but because I searched for an item of clothing that made me feel what I felt when I first saw JNCO jeans. Sufficiently baggy, sit on my waist well, and huge pockets. Currently I own two pairs of shorts, my ‘dupe’ lesson jorts, and my beloved happy ending thrifted ones.
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