Fake Fendi and dupe culture

I bought a faux margaux...does that make me a bad person?

Wearing a fake designer bag without anyone being any the wiser is one thing, but to admit owning a replica designer bag feels a little bit like standing naked in a front of the fashion crowd, especially when you write about style.

I’ve been thinking about writing this piece for a while because I think there’s a lot to unpack, so much so there will most likely be a part 2 (stay tuned).

I can’t help but think of that SATC scene where Samantha buys a fake Fendi, only to be outed by a playboy bunny later in the episode (who she thinks has stolen her ‘Fake Fendi’ only to realize the bunny has the real deal).

Earlier that same morning (before all this happens), Samantha excitedly shows the girls at breakfast her new ‘Fendi’, which none of them could tell was fake until she proudly, and without apology tells them so. They assess the bag, the smell passes the test, the leather’s good, and Carrie decides she wants one. But it’s not until she sees the bags lying there in the trunk of some guys car, that the spell of $150 the Fendi is broken. She describes the bags as looking sad, and not special. They leave and she doesn’t buy the fake Fendi.

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But in today’s world, you don’t have to go to strangers house with the risk of a guard dog attacking you and buy a bag out of a trunk, or go down a back alley. No, you can simply search the copy of the bag you want, and buy it online. Whether it’s Etsy, Ebay or one of many site’s online selling replicas (some bad, some mediocre, and some that from afar look strikingly similar to the original) pay securely with paypal and await the delivery of your new bag in the post. I couldn’t help but wonder… (sorry I couldn’t resist) would Carrie of bought a fake Fendi if she could have ordered it online?

The morality of dupes in relation to their likeness

If you are someone that see’s designer bags, irrelevant of your motivations for wanting one, and want something as close to, if not a replica, does it make you immoral to buy one? From the discourse surrounding fakes and dupes, it often feels like the general consensus is this:

This is where the nuance comes in (ah my love language)!

It goes without saying, I do not want to buy items that have been made in sweatshops, using forced labor, made by children or that contribute to potential human trafficking or terrorism. When I was earning significantly more than I am now, I prided myself on being able to buy genuine designer pieces specifically for this reason with the belief I could never be contributing to the above, or doing any harm. I believed I was always paying for quality, craftsmanship and safe conditions for workers who earn above a liveable wage. I was aware the amount I spent on a bag put me in some people’s head ‘out of touch’ but I took solace in a naive belief that somehow all those zeros in the price tag meant more people were being paid fairly and treated well.

But the more i’ve read about fashion, the more I question certain designer brands, especially those that purposely disclose very little about who makes the clothes/bags, where they are made and under what conditions? Especially when you see articles like this surface. The amount you pay for a bag is no longer a guarantee of quality, let alone a guarantee that workers are being treated fairly.

To say an item is made in Italy, no longer requires the entire piece to be manufactured there. A bag can just as easily be made in China, and finished with a tag that reads ‘made in Italy’ when a zipper or finish is added there for example. (I highly recommend reading ‘Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre’ by Dana Thomas for more on this). I found her book fascinating.

This brings me to dupes, items that are ‘inspired by’ a designer/higher cost piece.

Am I any ‘safer’ buying a bag that is inspired by a designer item than a direct copy with regards to feeling good about who made it, and under what conditions? Is the dupe less ‘dirty’ than the replica? Given that most dupes generally fall into fast fashion (vs say an alternative that could be closer in price to a designer piece or still mid range) I don’t necessarily think so in this current moment of time we’re living in.

While I do try my best to shop local, thrift, and promote independent designers/small business I love, I still buy things from amazon. That cheap toilet roll holder I bought, the toothbrush heads I buy, the linen bed sheets I love and recommend to my friends. Of more than half of the items I’ve purchased I have no idea where they are made, by who or under what conditions. I’ve never once checked to see who made my iphone and under what conditions. And if you have, then good on you. In a world where the majority of decisions are made, influenced, or are the result of Giant Tech companies, Board members, shareholders and Oligarchs, is anything ‘good’ anymore? Is anything ‘worth the money’?

Is it possible to feel good about my purchases without buying a cow, growing my own produce and making my own clothes or buying everything second hand? What about the fabric, the cotton? How would I know that hasn’t been made using child labor? And let’s not forget the time it takes to live off the land, to make your own clothes, to learn a new skill. Those things take time, time that many of us do not have in this modern world that keeps asking more from us just to keep our heads above water.

I once thought I wanted to be a handbag collector, you know with the big handbag room’s you see on YouTube. But honest to god, the most exciting bag I ever purchased was my first Chanel replica when I was 22. I wore that bag to death and I didn’t care who thought it was real or not. I recognise what it symbolized to 22 year old me, and i’m not mad at her. Of course she wanted to fit in, to impress people and to own something that acted as a symbol that the real one was on its way. Many years later in my thirties I was sat in a Chanel Boutique looking at the real version of the bag I had been manifesting, and honestly, I could not tell the difference in leather quality to that of the copy I purchased when I was 22. Like Carrie and the fake Fendi, they just didn’t look special. I sat on the fancy stool in Chanel, and I said ‘no thank you’ and I walked out. It was one of the most underwhelming luxury experiences in my entire life. While I do own other pieces from Chanel, the bags (vintage excluded) just don’t do it for me.

It’s funny how we build things up in our head. 22 year old me was ready to hand over $8,000 that day and all she could think was I liked my $200 copy more! It’s complicated, for much of what i’ve already spoken about, but given that craftsmanship isn’t a guarantee with every luxury brand anymore, and quality continues to decline while the price increases, I understand why more people will choose a dupe or a replica.

With the increase in influencer marketing, and social media it’s become harder to trust our own likes and desires because we are told day in day out what we should like, and what we should buy. We don’t live in a world where we buy things from a place of need, but more often than not, it is a place of want. So why wouldn’t you buy the replica if it costs the same amount as the inspired by bag/the dupe, and we can’t say for sure that the dupe/the inspired pieces or at times even the designer pieces themselves are not made under the same conditions by the same people?

Why I bought a Faux Margaux

What’s been fascinating about my no buy (which I did for a year) was my brain has had time to see trends in particular come and go. I’ve had time to sit with what would I buy now if money was no object? What do I still want, even though the fashion crowd have moved onto the next big thing, coupled with the fact I can’t afford the original now anyway?

I’ve also had time to witness how I use my things. I could save up for the Row Margaux, but knowing I want it as a bag to travel with, to shove under my economy seat….do I really want to pay $6,000 for that? No, the answer is no. But I still (even though I don’t technically need it) want it. I desire it. I’ve looked at so many bags on Ebay, Poshmark, The Real Real, to try and find something similar, a dupe/inspired by piece but in the end I bought a copy, it’s real leather and is cost me $165. It hasn’t arrived yet, hence why I plan on doing a part 2. I have no doubt the quality will be inferior to that of a real Margaux, but after buying several bags many of which have cost thousands, I think i’m done with buying bags with three zeros on the price tag. I want now to enjoy the pieces I have invested in, to wear the hell out of them, that, and I want to save the money I do have to build my dream reading nook.

Who knows if this would change again if I was suddenly earning more? Rest assured, if that happens, i’ll probably write about it! If I won the lottery tomorrow who’s to say I wouldn’t care about putting the $6k margaux under my plane seat. The first time I flew business class, I was mortified to learn that my Hermes Kelly would still have to go into the overhead bin. I only flew business for kelly I thought to myself as I handed it over to the flight attendant. (joke, well kind of).

But what about Intellectual property?

There is a brilliant scene in the Gucci movie where Lady Gaga’s character finds out people are selling fake Gucci bags and she is outraged. When confronting the family members about it (presuming they will fight it with lawyers, and put an end to it) they casually laugh it off and remind her this isn’t problematic. There is an insinuation this is a sign of their cultural significance. In other words, this could actually be a good thing, good for sales…good for business. The character Aldo Gucci says: "They're not fake, by the way. They're replicas…..Quality is for the rich. If a Long Island housewife wants to live with the illusion that she’s a Gucci customer, why not let her?"

When you consider that some of these huge global brands can afford the best legal teams in the world, does it not make you wonder whether they might have the same approach? For example the ‘Walmart Wirkin’ did not hinder Hermes sales, it actually boosted it’s visibility, it increased discussion around the brand…with Q1 2025 seeing an increase in sales according to this press release. If they really wanted to end the possibility for people to replicate their bags, would they not have done it already at scale? Especially if these brands have the means and the money to do so? It is not up to the consumer to enforce the law. (Out of curiosity I googled the Walmart Birkin and at the time of writing this I still see Birkin ‘inspired’ bags on their website.)

To conclude

We all have different places we want to prioritize our spend, at different times in our life, yet it’s become so easy to villanise consumer choices, more often than not publically. Does owning a genuine Dior bag that cost $2,816 to buy and only $57 to make, in sweatshop like conditions (source) make you better than someone who buys the replica?

When my Faux margaux arrives, i’ll share the part two of this essay.

I hope we can keep the comments a kind and constructive place because that is what appreciate most about Substack, so with that being said, i’d love to know your thoughts?

Speak soon

Harry x

P.s You can learn more about The No Buy Styling Course here.