It's a fool's market with over 6 billion views.
For the past few months, TikTok has been driven by a large-scale treasure hunt.
In the viewfinder of users: products that look like high-end parts, the cost less.
Called "dupes", these replicas are unearthed in accessible stores by users who are quick to share their tips on the platform.
#dupe
,
#dupealert
,
#dupetalk
... The phenomenon has given rise to a constellation of hashtags that each peak at tens of millions of views, or even several billion for
#dupe and #dupes
alone .
And the impact is felt even in the store.
@elledevries
so soft.
no gatekeeping over here lol — it's from intimissimi#skimsdupe #skims #cphfw
hot people is using this - nightcore
This is how a quite ordinary high Intimissimi suddenly panicked the twenty-somethings in mid-March.
Referred to as “the perfect dupe” of a Skims top, this affordable tee, worn by American model Kendall Jenner during a podcast taping, has gone viral.
Overnight, the Italian brand saw customers arriving at its points of sale in search of their holy grail, smartphone in hand and TikTok screenshot in support.
Artistic vagueness... and legal
In the spring of 2022, a first hashtag laid the foundations for this game of pairs and bargains.
Through the
#zaradupe
, TikTok users began to point out the similarities between the collections of the Chinese brand Shein and those of the flagship brand of the Inditex group.
A quest that highlights dozens of identical looking parts, but 30% cheaper on Shein's site.
Behind the English term "dupe", which translates as "copy", some would be tempted to look for a notion of deception, a case of plagiarism between two brands.
It is not so.
Here, there is no question of accusing one of copying the other, but of pointing out price differences and directing towards the best prices.
A very similar part, on sale at a lower cost?
It's called a boon to customers.
But for some brands, it is indeed an imitation.
Wouldn't a “dupe” be a counterfeit that doesn't say its name?
Fashion lawyer Glynnis Makoundou explains the difference: "Classic counterfeiting is taking a bag from a brand, reproducing it identically and trying to pass it off as a bag from the said brand, selling it cheaper.
The "dupe", he will take only some characteristics of a model without trying to copy it identically.
Except that in some cases, the inspiration is more than supported.
“This is where we get into somewhat vague areas, continues the lawyer.
When we try to assess the counterfeit, we will first look at the similarities between the products and if the overall impression they give off is really identical.
It's really on a case-by-case basis."
Only a court decision can therefore decide.
In May 2020, the Rains label thus won its case in the Danish court in its lawsuit against Inditex, found guilty of copyright infringement on two parkas.
But this is far from always the case.
On November 14, 2018, Isabel Marant sued H&M before the Paris tribunal de grande instance, for a disputed jacket with cosmic embroidery marketed by the Swedish giant, which shared many details with the “Eloise” model of the French label.
From the litigation, judged last November, it was held that the overall impression was not similar for these two creations, and H&M was not condemned for infringement.
This is how accessible fashion brands regularly receive complaints,
@maciestringer
DOOOOOP #dupe #funny #fyp #trending #lolage #leicester
original sound - mace
#dupechallenge
Dyson hair dryers, Fenty lipsticks, Starbucks coffees... Products in sight, all categories combined, thus find themselves at the heart of a quest for "dupes" on TikTok.
The enthusiasm is such that flushing them out becomes a challenge.
The #dupechallenge
challenge
(71 million views) consists of walking down the aisles of stores to grab the famous equivalent items.
Presenting each of their finds to the camera, the young protagonists of these videos cry victory by pronouncing the word “dupe” in a caricatural tone, before, often, bursting out laughing.
Because, far from being an act of denunciation, the activity is purely playful.
However, it highlights the disturbing quantity of pieces inspired by others on the shelves of certain businesses.
“It's called the fashion common fund,” explains fashion law specialist Glynnis Makoundou.
“Trends are available and within everyone's reach, no one can appropriate them.
Any designer can use them, which ultimately causes similarities across all collections.”
However, should we be concerned to see these young consumers give in to the siren song of counterfeiting, which is on the rise on social networks?
“In my opinion, people who are looking for dupes are fashion enthusiasts, who are well aware that they are not buying the original product.
And in any case do not intend to pass off what they have bought for something else.
A story of
fashion
more than of victim.