The dupe economy, explained in 90 seconds

A decade ago, "dupe" was an insult. Today it is a search term with billions of views, a genuine driver of retail, and a moral maze nobody quite agrees on the shape of.

Where the line sits

There is a clean version of the dupe — a cheaper product that shares a silhouette or a shade — and a dirty version that copies a logo outright. The first is just competition. The second is counterfeiting, and no amount of "but the algorithm" makes it not.

A dupe is an idea shared. A fake is a name stolen. Know the difference.

Shop the first freely, skip the second entirely, and remember that the best dupe is often just the original brand from three seasons ago, sitting on a resale app for a third of the price.