With the rise of dupe culture on social media, there are many ethics and sustainability questions around the topic
By: Jillian Gonzales
Everyone loves a makeup dupe but shopping for them does have its cons. (Sama Nemat Allah/CanCulture)
With the various fashion and beauty trends that pop up daily, you can count on social media platforms like TikTok, Pinterest and Reddit to find affordable alternatives to make the exorbitant more accessible. This growing phenomenon has grown into what is now known as dupe culture.
Dupes are not a new concept, but with the quick pace at which trends and “must-have” products are popping up, more people are hunting for dupes. Dupes have become so omnipresent that they’ve devolved into an online parody trend. The viral “DOOP” trend on TikTok pokes fun at dupes and how there seem to be less expensive look-likes for everything seemingly high-end. It’s a lighthearted and funny joke but it begs the question: Are there too many dupes?
Because dupes offer affordable duplicates or copies of expensive, pricier items, and especially as we find ourselves feeling the effects of high inflation, finding dupes is useful. Hauls and shopping vlogs are very popular, and with the rate at which these videos travel, so does the hype around certain products. Therefore, finding dupes allows people to find similar products that work just as well as the ‘originals’ but for a better price that won’t break the already precarious bank. In a social climate where missing out feels dire, one can argue that dupes help us feel included in the hype.
Dupe culture has a few benefits, like normalizing the idea of not having name brands and allowing more affordable products to be put to a similar caliber as high-end ones. This, in turn, brings a positive light to different brands that are not only financially cheaper—and materially and physically equivalent— but also could be more accessible to the masses. Now, the “gatekeeping” of where to buy different products is slowly starting to disappear. Being “one of a kind” is not as important as it once was and instead promotes inclusivity and being money-conscious.
As a prime example, the Tarte Shape Tape concealer has been a “must-have” makeup product for years but it goes for $40 CAD. TikToker Sean Anthony made a short video asserting that the new e.l.f Cosmetics products provides consumers with similar coverage. Shafia Sohail also made a TikTok comparing the Tarte product with the L’Oréal Infallible concealer, demonstrating their similarities.
@shafiasohail @tarte cosmetics @L’Oréal Paris @SephoraMiddleEast ♬ SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY – Remix – Amaarae & Kali Uchis
Artizia is another brand that sells what they corporately denominated as “Everyday Luxury” fashion pieces but it’s really just Expensive Luxury. The Effortless Pant by them are very popular but are sold at $148 CAD. This TikTok by a creator named Sulva Ahmed does a ‘try-on’ video with H&M dupes of the pants, highlighting its similarities to the Aritzia ones. Brooke Christina, a Toronto TikTok creator, showed an Abercrombie & Fitch dupe of the pants and also the Contour bodysuit by Aritzia, another highly raved product.
@brookechristii don’t sleep on @abercrombie y’all🤍 #abercrombietryon #aritziadupes #effortlesspantsdupe #abercrombiehaul #abercrombiestyle ♬ Lofi Hiphop Chill – naoki osawa
Information like this can be found within seconds just by typing in the original product you’re looking for, followed by the word “dupe” into your TikTok, Pinterest or Reddit search bar. Even typing this into Google can bring forward several articles and blog posts about dupes.
Evidently, Dupe Culture is great for sharing affordable products to try out new trends. But these benefits are not without their ramifications. It brings up many ethical questions and conversations surrounding consumerism, waste and fast fashion.
“Who doesn’t love a good dupe, a cheaper alternative?” says Tiana DeFrancesco, a TMU Fashion student. Still, she says, “it’s not good for the environment and encourages fast fashion.” DeFrancesco notes that the increase in micro-trends creates fast attention that doesn’t last long and dually contributes to a climate of normalized overconsumption. This leads to the mass production of fashion pieces and contributes to the ongoing issue of poor working conditions and growing levels of waste.
Dupe Culture additionally brings to light matters of intellectual property, namely of copying small designers’ ideas —it’s one thing to make corporate garments accessible, it’s another to steal the designs of young creatives and unethically make and sell them for cheaper.
Hardship follows the infringement and ethics behind intellectual property, especially in fashion. An article in The Prospector cited Madeline Pendleton, a small fashion entrepreneur and designer, as she explained the harmful impacts of proliferating dupe culture on her recognition. She talked about how bigger companies like Shein, known for their cheaper, mass-produced clothing, stole her designs and provided no credit or financial compensation in return. Dupes can bring customers to new products they can enjoy for cheaper but it can have negative effects on designers and those who want to be recognized for their original work.
“Dupes are associated with ‘hauls’ and, while fun to watch, they promote the ethos of a ‘more is more’ unbridled consumption that is bad for the planet,” says sustainability expert Ashlee Piper in a Refinery29 article As much as we love finding affordable options, doing so creates a surplus of items being produced in smaller, more frequent bouts of time. This then creates issues of anti-environmentalism and morality.
In the beauty and cosmetics industries specifically, Piper points to the wasteful, non-recyclable materials that go into packaging and later on the shipping waste and many steps that follow to get the product to the consumer. According to the Recycling Council of Ontario, more than 81 pounds of textile waste is created by each person in Canada every year as of 2018. This contributes to the 10 million tonnes of clothing that end up in landfills in North America.
In fashion especially, the amount of waste produced to create clothes goes unnoticed. In the past, these production methods have been associated with poor working conditions and though there have been some changes, it is still not ethical. Companies like Shein, H&M, Zara, and Amazon, brands highly associated with dupes, have been called out for their fast fashion production methods. With that comes questions and concerns regarding just how much we should be buying into dupes.
To be clear, we should never discourage folks, especially those already struggling financially under a capitalistic and elitist state, to purchase affordable products, but it’s also important to know who you’re buying from. If someone does not have the disposable income to purchase high-end, pricier products, shopping ‘dupes’ is their norm so we should also be conscious of not overconsuming them as it can take away the products they may only be able to afford.
And as consumers, it’s also our duty to always be curious about the behind-the-scenes operations of the products we consume.
Social media is great but because it spreads information so widely and so quickly, the consequences of certain actions go ignored, and Dupe Culture is a salient example of this. The goal isn’t to completely eliminate dupes but to make people more aware of how various industries benefiting from them are operating.
In a Byrdie article, writer Bec Oakes attributes dupe culture’s fast growth to a younger generation that is both trend-driven and cost-conscious. As consumers actively look for new, alternative ways to shop, let’s get into the habit of reflecting on purchases. Taking a step back to ask ourselves, “how much will I wear/use this item?” can make a big difference.
