Hello and welcome to the 44th issue of moderated, a newsletter created to dive into insights and phenomenons of the Fashion Industry. It also has a curation and summary of the most talked about last week’s events of the industry, offering further readings for more details.
If you are new here, welcome! I hope I can somehow help you to keep up with the fast-paced Fashion Industry.
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In this week’s moderated, I dived into the controversial dupe culture on TikTok and how fashion brands can deal with this new challenge.
But before jumping into the main article, check the last week’s recap of the Fashion Industry.
Last Week’s Recap
#PayYourWorkers Campaign Pressures Fashion Brands on Labour Rights
#PayYourWorkers is a campaign created by more than 200 civil society organizations and unions. The movement is pressuring fashion labels to take more responsibility for the degrading conditions of supply chain workers. The campaign is demanding that brands pay immediate relief to workers affected by the pandemic. It also asks for fashion labels to make commitments to operate more responsibly in the future.
This is a natural response from the garment production industry that was left devastated since the pandemic started. Cancellation of orders and payments to suppliers left workers without the minimum wages to survive. It is estimated that, in the first 3 months of the pandemic alone, workers are owed between US$3.2 billion and US$5.8 billion in lost wages. Orders are now returning, but quantities are smaller and rates are slashes. This increases the pressure on the fashion supply chain, making the path for recovery even harder.
Enter the #PayYourWorkers website to see read more about it and see how you can help with the cause.
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BoF Released ‘The Sustainability Gap Report
Last week, Business of Fashion released its inaugural Sustainability Index. In 'The Sustainability Gap Report’, BoF tracked fashion’s progress towards ambitious sustainability targets for the coming decade. The report compared 15 of the largest fashion companies from 3 distinct sectors of the industry. The publication revealed a gap between how much fashion brands speak about fashion and how much they actually act on it. Out of a possible score of 100 proposed by the Index, the average score of the companies analysed was only 36.
You can download ‘The Sustainability Gap Report’ here.
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Pinduoduo and Dafiti Founders Stepped Down, While the Companies’ Revenues Radically Increased
Two e-commerce companies, one in Latin America and the other in Asia. But both sharing similar news: founders leaving while the companies do better than ever. The two remaining founders of the Latin American e-commerce platform Dafiti announced last week they will be leaving their positions in the company. President Philipp Povel and managing director Malte Huffmann attributed their decision to personal reasons. Earlier on the week, Global Fashion Group (GFG) reported that Dafiti’s net merchandise value increased 31% in 2020, reaching R$3.4 billion (US$609 million).
In the Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, the growth was even more impressive. The company had a 146% increase in quarterly revenues. Pinduoduo also became China’s largest e-commerce platform by the number of users, passing rival Alibaba Group. However, the company’s shares fell 9% due to the other announcement made earlier in the week. Pinduoduo’s founder Colin Huang Zheng announced he would be stepping down as chairman. He had already left his position as CEO last year and is now officially departing his company. Huang still owns a 30% stake in Pinduoduo.
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The Cashmere Industry Is Being Linked to Sandstorms
The cashmere production in Mongolia might be the cause of the increasingly aggravated sandstorms in Asia, according to some experts. Mongolia is the second largest cashmere producer in the world, only behind China. But, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in the 30 year period to 2020, Mongolia’s livestock numbers tripled, mostly due to cashmere goats. This led to the constant growing degradation of grasslands, which is being linked to the sandstorms in the region that have become more severe and frequent. If nothing is done about the decreasing grassland issue, it is likely that the sandstorms’ situation around Mongolia, China, Japan, and South Korea will only get worse.
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Ralph & Russo Went Into Administration
The couture and ready-to-wear label Ralph & Russo announced last week it will be entering administration due to the hard impact of the pandemic on sales. Administration is the British version of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US. This means the company will keep its doors open but will go through a restructuring and renegotiation of debt. The pandemic might have been the last straw, but Ralph & Russo had been facing issues before it. In 2018, the label had already reported losses of £14.8 million. This same year, a minority stake of the company was sold to Tennor Holding, but the situation, unfortunately, got worse. Best luck with this new phase of Ralph & Russo and I hope this inspiring brand manages to turn the situation around.
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India Set to Become a Hub for Lab-Grown Diamonds
India’s Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) announced last week that India is on the track to become a major hub for the production and processing of lab-grown diamonds. According to data from Bain & Co, the country already accounts for about a quarter of global lab-grown diamond production (1.5 million carats), ranking only behind China (3 million carats). Last year, exports of India’s lab-grown diamonds grew 55% year-over-year. So even though the country is still behind China, the extremely fast-growing production may be something to keep an eye on.
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Changes in Leadership at Teen Vogue, Walmart, and L Brands
Alexi McCammond was supposed to become the new editor-in-chief at Teen Vogue. But, last week, McCammond announced she will no longer take the position at the Condé Nast publication. The decision came after McCammond received backlash due to old racist anti-Asian and homophobic tweets she made.
Walmart appointed its first creative director in a new strategy to make the retailer more of a fashion destination. The name chosen by the largest retailer in the world was Brandon Maxwell. The designer already dressed celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Michelle Obama, and Meghan Markle.
L Brands, the group that owns Victoria’s Secret and other labels, announced that its founder, Leslie Wexner, is stepping down from the board. A year ago, Wexner had already been pressured to leave his position as CEO of the company, due to having his name linked to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Now he completes his last stage of departure from L Brands by leaving the board. However, he remains the largest shareholder of the group, with a stake of 16%.
The Dupe Culture on Tiktok – Is Plagiarism Being Praised?
The TikTok platform has an algorithm that, based on the content you engage with more, starts to unlock different “sides”. The sides of Tiktok mean the type of short videos you start to receive non-stop. There are the cute animals jumping of happiness side, the people cleaning stuff side, the little dance challenges side, and so on. I am explaining all that to explain the side I happened to fall into recently: the dupes' side.
Dupes are products that are nearly identical to another product, but with a lower price. Is like a more affordable doppelganger of those cute jeans you can’t afford. So the dupes' side of TikTok is a bunch of people sharing cheaper options that look exactly like a trendy expensive piece. There are dupes for many types of products, from furniture to cosmetics. But to no one's surprise, as this is a fashion newsletter, I am obviously focusing on fashion dupes.
If you didn’t catch why I am writing a whole article about dupes yet, let me enlighten you with the controversy it involves. Fast fashion retailers such as Zara and Fashion Nova are constantly criticised for copying the design and features of other brands. High-end labels or prestigious brands are constantly having their pieces being knocked off, which in some cases even resulted in lawsuits. Few people defend straight-up knock-offs. One thing is to get inspired by something; the other is to just copy it. So why are these dupes being perceived as unproblematic by most TikTok users? In fact, dupes videos are seen as a service to society. That’s what I will tap into in this article. Are dupes just plagiarism renamed by TikTokers?
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The Dupe Culture on TikTok
TikTok’s dupe culture is mostly attributed to the fact that Gen Zers, which are the main users of the platform, can’t afford high-end products. On top of that, this generation, like the Millennials, is very trend-led when it comes to fashion. Thus, they turn to less prestigious brands that offer garments that work just as well as the original ones.
It is important to highlight that a dupe is not the same thing as a counterfeit. While researching for this article, I saw many articles relating the term dupes to fake luxury products. But as someone that dived into the dupe side of TikTok, I can tell you this term is not used for counterfeit products. You can have a Givenchy sneaker dupe that looks very similar to the original, but it won’t have the Givenchy logo on it. A perfect replica of the Givenchy sneaker would instead be called “off-brand alternatives”. Still, it is important to highlight that TikTok does have a serious counterfeit problem that is really monitored. On top of that, since many people get confused with the dupe term, if you search for #dupe on the short-video platform, there will be lots of fakes being showed.
Now that I made clear that when I say dupe I am referring to knock-offs and not counterfeit, let’s keep going. Sharing a video recommending a dupe option for an expensive trendy item can reach millions of views on TikTok. The catch is the pricing. For example, Liz Lovery has a video with more than 400k views showing dupes of Lululemon items. The pieces cost almost half of the price of a Lululemon one. This is just one example of many other videos with similar content. Dupes of Agolde jeans, Jennifer Fisher ear hoops, and Gucci boots can be found easily in the app.
The thing is, dupes always existed, they were just copies, then Millennials started to use the term knock-offs, and now the word dupe is the preferred one. Nothing seems to have changed. But it did. Before, even though everyone bought knock-offs, we just wouldn’t scream and be proud about it. There was almost a deep sentiment of embarrassment in many of us. We didn’t want to buy the copy, but unfortunately, we couldn’t afford the original. We would discretely go for what we could pay for, but it was kind of common knowledge there was something wrong with knock-offs.
The key difference is that now, on this surging TikTok culture, dupes are neither discrete nor seen as being wrong. Actually, content creators that share dupes are praised for showing a more affordable option. At the same time, the dupes themselves have an image of allowing everyone to have access to designs not everyone would otherwise be able to wear. And what most bothers me, someone that came from an era when knock-offs were unavoidable but deep down wrong, is that I kind of agree with this unapologetic side of the culture of dupes.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think it is a controversial thing and I prefer buying something original than a cheaper copy. But with luxury becoming more expensive each year, inequality reaching its peak, and most brands, including luxury ones, not respecting fair trade practices, it’s only natural people will start to be proud of paying less for almost the same thing. I mean, at least Gen Zers and other people on TikTok admit to doing it.
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What Can Fashion Brands Being Duped Do?
Naturally, prestigious fashion brands are not happy about this dupe culture. But are they really doing something about it? The lack of fashion brands’ presence on TikTok is loud, especially high-end brands. Last year, Tory Burch, Alice+Olivia, and Missoni joined TikTok, while Prada partnered with TikToker Charli D’Amelio. But even the brands that joined the platform early, such as Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, are struggling to create engaging content. Mae Karwowski, CEO and founder of influencer marketing firm Obviously, explained the difficulty for these brand to integrate the platform:
“Every photoshoot, every Instagram post is so curated; these companies are so particular about where their fashion show is to the staging of it.”
Indeed, fashion content is usually aspirational and carefully built. This format doesn’t really work on TikTok or with most of the Gen Z generation. To tap into this new public, fashion labels will have to be more laid back and take themselves less seriously. That is why simply attacking dupes will not work out. Brands need to be at TikTok building their image to fight back. As Jess Bedussi, associate director of social strategy at the ad agency Muhtayzik Hoffer, told Glossy:
“Brands can’t just attack people and sweep away all the dupes. They need to focus on building their own brand and awareness, put out organic content, and partner with influencers to show how high quality and great the product is. Build brand affinity and awareness.”
While before it was well seen to file a lawsuit against a knock-off that went too far, now the effect might not be the same. As explained, dupes’ content and products are being praised, so attacking people promoting them might not be the ideal approach. The strategy needs to be more about bringing consumers to you than attacking the other option they found. Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Moncler, and Clavin Klein are some that got more experimental on TikTok and managed to create some engagement. However, more often than not, high-end labels failed to be embraced by daily users. There are many opportunities for fashion brands on Tiktok that are still underexplored.
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Copies, Knock-offs, and Dupes Are Still Plagiarism
I do get the frenzy around this dupe culture, but it would be naive to don’t acknowledge the issues around it. Unfortunately, the fashion industry has very subjective rules when it comes to plagiarism. This makes fashion very little legally protected against plagiarism. Different from other creative sectors such as music, art, and film, a fashion design can often be literally copied without any legal consequences. This obviously creates an environment where copying is part of the industry and generally we have to accept it. There are some instances where lawsuits do manage to consider a copy illegal, but most of the time this is not the reality.
However, just because a brand is not being legally responsible for copying another, it doesn’t mean it is not plagiarizing. When the brands being duped are successful well-known high-end labels, as much as it is still kind of wrong, it’s normal to let it pass. But, when the ones being plagiarized are small independent up-and-coming labels, it is another story.
For a smaller brand, having their design copied and then the dupe being praised on social media can have very real financial consequences. Often, independent brands only manage to survive in a saturated fashion market because they are offering something different. By promoting retailers that straight up copy them, the dupe culture on TikTok can be taking sales from these independent brands. On top of that, often the labels being copied are not even that much more expensive than their dupes. Instead of supporting plagiarism, there are so many affordable small brands with original designs that you can go for.
I do get the dupe culture. I do understand its appeal. I do admire that this new culture at least admits to doing it. But I still believe are issues with this approach. There is nothing wrong with getting inspired by other brands. High street getting inspired by luxury is something that always happened in the fashion industry and it will keep happening. But the dupe culture on TikTok is not based on inspired pieces, but nearly identical copies. There are so many alternatives nowadays, from fashion rental to second-hand, and so many affordable small brands that can be found online. Do you really need a dupe?
As much as the line between inspiration and plagiarism is blurred, that line does exist – and as a consumer, I don’t think I would be comfortable with crossing it.
Thanks for reading this week’s moderated and next Tuesday I will be back with more.
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Loved this week’s topic! I actually didn’t know about this dupe trend! I’m familiarized with this “revolution” of having cheaper products that we can afford, but I always looked to the bright side (fashion and other industries universalizing access). Now I see that there are true copies and not just from big brands, even from smaller ones too!
And there is still another layer of this cheap market that can’t be ignored. Are we really happy fashion can now be universal or we’re just trapped by rash consumerism and using the “fair access” as an excuse to keep buying more and more? Aren’t we done buying stuff we don’t need - but come on, it’s trendy - ? The question here is: Do we even need all that - destroy brands originality - to feed our consumerism?
Ps: loved that you pointed second hand as an alternative, this is definitely a way I agree with :)