Supreme, Off-White, Balenciaga, Palace, Nike—I could go on and on naming so many brands that have now become most known for their die-hard fans; hypebeasts. A hypebeast is defined by the slang dictionary as “someone who follows trends in fashion, particularly streetwear, for the purpose of making a social statement.” Originally introduced as a derogatory term, it is now a common way of describing this new kind of fashionista.
For most new gens, it’s all about wearing the latest garms, the latest collab—to cop or not? Whatever that means. But when you try to live up to the hype of the term ‘hypebeast’, especially when you’re a teenager, your budget can easily be spent on one pair of trainers. That’s where replicas come in to save the day. Also known as knock-offs or fakes, replicas have become another big part of the fashion industry, one that, until now, was taboo.
FashionReps is the subreddit that might change the way we perceive knock-offs. With 313k ‘RepFam’ worldwide (or members), the community based on the discussion of the replica culture and where to find the best fakes is big, to say the least. The forum contains everything you need to know before buying fakes, from a how-to guide on where to order replicas from, to members sharing videos and pictures of their latest purchases and how legit they look.
So, okay, going online to create a community around knock-offs is not that groundbreaking, but the fact that some of the FashionReps members are actually proud to say it out loud is something new. Screen Shot spoke to Quentin Caruso, one member of the subreddit also known as Tripping on Instagram and YouTube, about the perfect replicas and why there shouldn’t be any shame buying and wearing them.
“Replicas have gone a long way. With almost any products being released by a streetwear or designer brand, there will also be a spot-on replica out on the market about 4 months after. For example, Supreme released Bandana Box Logo hoodies at the beginning of December, and there are already near-perfect replicas out now. This doesn’t just stop with Supreme, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Balenciaga replicas will all be replicated to near perfection,” tells us Tripping.
In November 2019, Tripping posted a video on YouTube where he talked about his experience telling his fashion class he owns many fakes. According to Tripping, when he revealed that, his teacher asked him how that made him feel. “I’m fine with it,” he answered—and why shouldn’t he? Well, that’s where the catch is. As much as being honest about not spending ludicrous amounts of money on clothes and taking pride in it should be celebrated, replicas also come with problems of their own.
Counterfeit fashion is an industry that has to operate secretly because, obviously, it is illegal. This means that there’s a complete lack of transparency about the workers making those knock-offs. Are they being paid enough? Probably not. Are they working under good conditions? Most definitely not. Counterfeit fashion also contributes to climate change by using non-sustainable fabrics, but then again, so does Nike and other big fashion brands.
Talking about climate change, Tripping shares that “I’ve never put much thought about climate change when I buy clothes, be that replicas or not. I feel like there are bigger factors that affect climate change.” This is a contrasting answer to the one that Ariele Elia, an assistant curator at the Museum at FIT explained in a Complex documentary about the flourishing bootleg industry, where she said, “One of the worst stories I read was where they had raided an illegal factory and the children were actually handcuffed to the sewing machines.” In other words, yes, there are bigger factors that affect our environment, but counterfeit fashion still plays a big part in climate change.
Climate change and working conditions aside, the question is still here. Why are people buying replicas, and why are they more honest about it? It’s all about keeping your money, even when you’ve just missed the latest drop. “Replicas are cheaper but the same quality. There should be no shame in wearing replicas, people wear them to express their style without spending hundreds on one piece. The replica market and community is growing and growing with many people wanting to buy them. It is only going to get bigger over time,” predicts Tripping.
Whether his prediction will come true or not, we can’t be sure just yet, but the future of counterfeit looks bright. In the meantime, there’s one point everyone will agree on: people who sell replicas as authentics are the worst.
The fashion industry celebrates many things, such as beauty and creativity; ageing is definitely not one of them. While different ethnicities go in and out of style and curvy models appear here and there—ageing remains the biggest fashion taboo. Until now, the power of older generations has been completely ignored by most fashion brands, simply because ‘old’ is not trendy. Now, it turns out, the fashion industry might be in big trouble as the International Longevity Centre’s (ILC) research showed.
The research, titled Time for the fashion and beauty industry to wake up to the potential of an older customer, revealed that between 2011 and 2018 there had been a £2.9 billion growth in spending on clothes and shoes by older people. In the next 20 years, spending on fashion by older people will increase by £11 billion. By 2040, people aged 50 and over are expected to be this sector’s key consumer base. Back to 2020—the soon-to-be ‘key consumers’ are hardly represented or celebrated in the oh-so-open-minded fashion industry.
Fashion’s obsession with youth is representative of our own society’s obsession with it. If you’re young, then you must be prettier than an older person, at least that’s how most of us think. Western cultures fetishise youth and ageing tends to be seen in a negative light because, yes, death is scary, but also because we associate shame with being old.
This mentality is exactly what is stopping the fashion industry from making even more money than it already does. The research showed that brands are particularly good at making older people feel out of place, and therefore, women older than 75 stop spending on fashion altogether. That’s why elders’ savings that could potentially go into stylish clothes are not spent on any of the big names of the fashion industry.
But there seems to be a slight shift happening. Since Demna Gvasalia’s arrival at Balenciaga, the brand’s runways have included more and more older models (or should I say ‘mature’ models) and the same can be said about his other brand, Vetements. Celine’s previous creative director Phoebe Philo had the genius idea of featuring the author Joan Didion in a 2015 campaign for the brand. Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana have also featured older women in some of their advertisements. Iris Apfel is one of the few older fashion icons that made it into the very carefully chosen elite. As good as this all sounds, however, advertising and runways have not become the norm.
Photographer and author Ari Seth Cohen is also the creator of Advanced Style, a project devoted “to capturing the sartorial savvy of the senior set.” On his website, he says, “I feature people who live full creative lives. They live life to the fullest, age gracefully and continue to grow and challenge themselves.” Cohen is doing exactly the opposite of what fashion brands have been doing, he’s not ignoring them but instead celebrating them.
Screen Shot spoke to Cohen about the shift that is or at least needs to be happening in the fashion industry. “I have definitely seen a huge shift in how age is being represented in fashion advertising since I started featuring photos of stylish older men and women in my blog and books over 12 years ago,” he said. It seems that the industry is slowly realising the potential of older generations. According to Cohen, they were “almost completely ignored by the media and fashion brands, and if they were shown it was almost always in a stereotypical and patronizing way.”
Yes, there are older models walking the runways and some even become quite successful but as Cohen shared, “older models are oftentimes featured alongside younger models as a sign of tokenism by brands as a way to appear progressive and inclusive without really considering the older consumer and how they want to be represented or what kind of products they want and need.” Some of you might wonder what brands can do to accelerate this shift. Easy, explains Cohen, “listen to their customers and consult and work with older people to hear what they would like to see.”
It is time fashion makes growing older something trendy. But do you know why fashion is still so obsessed with youth and why it still hasn’t tackled its ageism problem? Just like art—it takes our society’s views and desires, and replicates them times ten. So maybe we should try to alter the way we perceive older generations for fashion to actually start doing the same.