From ‘Gandi Copy’ to dupes: The evolution of counterfeit goods

However, this so-called “it bag” is nowhere to be seen on social media these days and seems to have gone missing from the collective consciousness.

So, is it surprising that this bag is just a rip-off, a dupe of Prada’s 90s nylon bags which were reissued in 2020?

The Prada bag has begotten many dupes—from luxury brands like Lemair and The Row, and affordable brands like Mango, Arket, and Uniqlo joining the bandwagon.

In the early 2000s, the term “dupe” simply meant a “copy” in the context of cosmetics. When MAC was the cosmetics brand that everyone was buying, there were not many cosmetic companies around, and customers desired things that looked like limited-edition, sold-out, or discontinued MAC products.

What’s in the name?

Raishma Islam, a fashion designer with an eponymous label, tells me why dupes like the Uniqlo bag are so in demand now—because they can be produced fast to always keep up with the trend.

According to Islam, the notion of a dupe as a less expensive substitute emerged a little later, around the 2008 recession. The initial generation of beauty YouTubers in the 2010s produced dupe videos to go along with their tutorials.

It didn’t take long for the idea to become more widely accepted.

The term “dupe” “just kind of caught on,” according to Christine Mielke, a veteran beauty influencer and the creator of Temptalia, a website that reviews beauty products and has been compiling a “Dupe List” for 13 years, told American magazine The Cut.

Even though dupe means counterfeit items and products that look like the original ones, the word doesn’t carry a negative connotation.

Fashion designer Shilpi Gupta says the items were called knockoffs because they were embarrassing back then. “They used to be the purses you bought on Canal Street with the not-quite-right Kate Spade label or the shearling boots from Costco that you hoped the popular girls wouldn’t notice weren’t genuine Uggs. They noticed. Of course, they noticed. They used to be the way to fit in, not the way to stand out,” she says.

Of image consciousness

Gen Z has popularised dupes, Gupta adds, not just those of dresses or bags but also experiences. Influencers and aggregators crow about their finds as “an incredible dupe for Hailey Bieber’s party dress,” or “a perfect dupe for Kate Middleton’s red Alexander McQueen coat”, she says.

According to Aashumi Mahajan and Niyoshi Shah, Co-Founders, The Luxe Maison, the younger generation is driving this trend primarily because they are image conscious more than just product conscious.

“The quality, longevity or value of a product is of less importance to them and they want quantity over anything else. They want the latest trending bag, shoe or the most buzzy brand on social media and flaunt it to their peers,” says Mahajan.

Though that may be true for some but Bhavya Agarwal, a 24-year-old product designer doesn’t agree. “I would rather invest in a luxury product than buy a dupe. I have a dupe of the LV shoulder bag. I wore it once but felt so ashamed I never wore it again,” says Agarwal.

Agarwal’s friend and fashion designer Shraddha Pandey also says she could probably wear a dupe but she doesn’t want it to have any luxury branding. “There are two kinds of people who buy dupes. Either they don’t know better and want to follow the trends or those who are so good at looking for dupes you would never be able to tell it is a dupe,” says Pandey.

According to a few behavioural psychology studies, consumers who buy luxury goods are not in a financial position to afford them.

The high rates of consumer debt in America could be a nod to this behaviour—at least in the US. Citing Federal Reserve Bank’s data, CNBC reported in June that Americans held a record amount of credit card debt of nearly $988 billion in the first quarter of 2023.

In India, Mahajan and Shah say dupe culture has gained momentum because of rising prices and brand allure, along with Indians becoming an image-conscious society. “Especially in smaller cities and smaller markets,” says Shah.

Several experts I spoke to also pointed to the skyrocketing cost of living and the scarily stagnant wages as the reasons behind Gen Z’s craze for dupes.

For Pandey, dupes have flown off the shelves in the last few months because Gen Z wants to look luxurious without putting in the money or the effort. “We read reports all the time that Gen Z is never going to own homes. Who said we couldn’t own dupes, though?”

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