"Dupes" are the devil

Why "great dupe" is in fact an oxymoron.

I am seeing a lot of “dupe” talk pop up again. The last time I noticed it was when I was looking at the Tibi Fans Facebook page. People would note that they “found a dupe” for various Tibi items. (COS, Zara, even Old Navy.) None of which was actually a dupe! Because what was cool and zeitgesit-y about the original was lost in translation.

Like … an ice cream sandwich and Antartica are both cold, but they are not a dupe.

Arket boot at right, Tibi at left - proposed "dupes" from the Tibi Fans page

Another prosed Tibi dupe - Zara on R

Dupe me once, shame on me

Nor should there be a dupe, IMO. I know I am kind of a Holly Hobby or whatever and ok, a former lawyer, but there’s something about this dupe talk that sends chills up my spine. It’s really hard to track intellectual property around fashion. It’s hard to argue that one white tank top, for example, is a dupe of another in a way that’s ownable. But if there’s an idea involved, it feels off to me to find a cheaper/easier manifestation when that idea that contains someone’s blood sweat, and tears of creativity. It’s really, really hard to come up with original ideas. And we’re all so hungry for them.

OK having said that, I understand that not everybody can afford whatever this item is. But I don’t think the discussion ends there, given what’s at stake. (Art, arguably.) There has to be something else, another way to go. Something else that gets at that feeling. Possibly something used. Especially when we shop fast fashion dupes, we encourage and ultimately make a market for copying peoples’ ideas.

Duped + disappointed, a true story

And here’s the thing, when we shop those literal dupes, we’re inevitably disappointed and end up wasting money. Let me give you an example. I became smitten with this old Celine skirt when it first debuted in 2014, a white maxi skirt with paintbrush strokes all over it. And the price was bananas. I think it was $2600. I just couldn’t even process that price. But I really, really loved it.

Behold, I found something very similar by Alice & Olivia. Also a maxi skirt. The very same colors. Maybe an extra color or two. Also a brushstroke design. I bought that for something like $325.

It was a far more costly purchase.

I didn’t feel great when I wore it. There was some corner cutting about the fabric (it felt very synthetic) and the way the print was set. All it made me do was miss the original. That $325 was a complete waste of money.

Years and years later, I found the original Celine on YOOX, I think for $600 or $800. Still not cheap (!) but a lot less costly than that wasted $325. I bought it and I still have it. I still wear it regularly. I still feel like my best self when I’m in it. And if I do want to sell the skirt at anytime, I always get offers. For a skirt that’s now a decade old. That’s why I could find an image of it online. These Celine skirts are either with their original owners or are part of fashion circularity. But I tried a million different searches for the Alice & Olivia “dupe” and of course found NOTHING. There is no market for it.

still love it, a decade later

Feeling the feelings

I’m not blithely telling you to “go buy the original.” Instead, if I were operating on a tight budget and had to do this again, I would think about what I was craving with that skirt. Not what it looks like physically (long and paint brush print). But what it represents.

It was this kind of floaty without-a-care-ness, this pretty-not-precious feeling. Light, light, light. I wanted to waft through a day. I would go to a resale shop. And it doesn’t have to be an expensive resale shop. And I would look for something that moved well and gave a sense of lightness. Something that when I tried it on created that feeling. In a real fabric. I would enjoy the project of finding it.

Alternatively, it’s so easy to search for things online now that I could just go on eBay and some other places and do a “saved search” for that very Celine skirt and wait for it. I did this with another Old Celine piece I wanted, a gray wool vest with a textured velcro closure. I got it. And yeah, it took some time! Luckily, though, for me, and many of us shopping for dupes, we’re not standing there with no pants on desperately needing a skirt right now. It’s fine to wait.

The idea of a dupe underlines our worst “have-to-have-it-now” tendencies (the blame for that goes to the Zaras of the world, not you). We are conditioned that we so need to have this one exact thing at this one exact time, and so we’re excited to discover a meh replacement, or worse, to learn that someone has ripped off someone else’s idea. When in other areas of our lives we’d be completely appalled.

There is no “dupe”

The very idea of a dupe is such a false promise. The whole thing is a scam because you won’t be satisfied.

Remember SnackWells cookies — anyone, anyone? They had these fat-free Devils Food cookies we ate in the 90s. And we thought they were the second coming. A dupe for actual, delicious cookies! Only — they were worse for us than actual delicious cookies. They didn’t have fat to make them delicious so they added a lot of sugar. We’d all eat a ton of SnackWells trying to get “guiltlessly satisfied.” And then after that, still eat a real cookie — or, say. a muffin, split, buttered and tossed on a food truck grill top (who me?) — because inevitably all that “dupe” cookie left us bloated and wanting. What we should’ve done in the first place is waited until we were in a place where there was an actual, delicious cookie available. And then calmly, and in a way that was lovely to ourselves, eaten that one delicious cookie we actually wanted.

I know it’s easy for me to say because I have a lot. And I shop a lot. But I do not have an unlimited budget or unlimited space. There are always things I want and can’t have. And when confronted with those moments, I don’t think about a dupe, a lesson I learned in 2014 after the skirt debacle.

Bowing out of the dupe game

So how do I redirect when “find me a dupe” or “oooh that’a a good dupe for” creep into my head? I think instead about things like this:

• What is it that I’m after? The feeling analysis above.

• Is this definitely “the one” or should I do more research?

• How important is this item, when I’m being honest with myself?

• What happens if I wait? Even if I end up waiting a long time?

• What would happen if I allow myself to have this thing? How deeply would I feel the impact? What would spending this money look like and feel like?

• Are there other things I could get rid of? And how would that feel?

• Is this even want a real want in the first place, or is it related to something else —emotion, aspiration, etc.?

I think asking these questions, waiting, and even even allowing yourself the original when it makes sense for your life and budget — are all better than putting “less than” in your closet. And far better than supporting a dupe culture of things made to please versus last. A culture of light copying or all out idea stealing. A culture of faux satisfaction.

Rachel, get a reality check

I wanted to make a whole separate section for this. You may be saying — “I want to participate in fashion, and I’m just getting started in job world, you privileged a-hole!” Or “I am just in a tough financial position like most of the country and I’m not doing some ‘saved search’ for a designer skirt when Zara is having a sale on something that looks almost like it.” To which I say (1) I don’t blame you. And I don’t judge you. (Or anyone buying dupes. So much as I invite us all to think about how it will make us feel and what the impact might be) (2) You could also consider borrowing or swapping clothes with friends/family, and repeating outfits but mixing it up by playing with runway styling (like Irene here) — in which case, credit that runway when sharing on social. But I still won’t judge you if you don’t do either. Judging each other sucks more than dupes.

XO,

Rachel

I think this has an idea worthy of broader discussion, so I am removing the paid gate and encourage you to share it if you’re so inclined!