A Short History of Copying: From Salons to Feeds
Section II: The System We Inhabit
Date: 05 January 2026 (Original data: 2018)
Filed under: The Archive / Look, Not Logo
The Brief
Fashion has always spoken in echoes. What feels like "piracy" today was once standard practice. This history does not excuse theft. It simply shows imitation as a structural part of the creative language.
The Shift: The urge to imitate hasn't changed. What has changed is the latency (speed) and the scale(distribution).
The Line: Law protects the source (who made it). Culture judges the speed (how fast you copied it).
1. The Core Insight: Fashion as Open Source
Why does copying keep returning? Because fashion is a language. Trends are sentences made of silhouette, proportion, and detail. If only one person speaks a language, it dies. Copying spreads the grammar so more people can speak it. Without diffusion (copying), there is no "Trend." There is only "Costume."
2. The Timeline: From Sketch to Screenshot
We can map the history of fashion not just by hems, but by how ideas were stolen and shared.
Phase 1: The Couture Era (The Authorized Echo) In the 1920s-1950s. Dressmakers from New York or London would tour Paris couture shows. They didn't hide cameras; they brought sketchpads. They paid a fee to attend, effectively buying the right to "translate" the look for clients back home. Copies were openly sold as "Line-for-line" reproductions or "In the style of." It wasn't seen as a crime. It was seen as distribution.
Phase 2: The Department Store Era (The Curator) In the 1960s-1980s. Buyers commissioned look-alike garments for the emerging Ready-to-Wear market. The label inside didn't signal the designer; it signalled the Store’s authority (e.g., Selfridges or Saks). The value was in the retailer's curation, not the original maker's ego.
Phase 3: The Logo Era (The Counterfeit) In the 1990s. This was the pivot point. Brands started putting logos on the outside of the clothes. Suddenly, you couldn't just copy the cut (which is legal); you had to copy the mark (which is illegal) to get the same effect. This created the split we see today: the "Clean Knock-off" vs. the "Dirty Counterfeit."
Phase 4: The Algorithm Era (The Instant Echo) The 2000s to Now. Global supply chains and digital moodboards removed the latency. A look appears on a runway or a celebrity. An algorithm identifies the silhouette. A factory in Guangzhou produces a sample in 24 hours. The issue today isn't that copying exists. It's that the cycle is faster than the thought. We consume the copy before we've even processed the original.
3. Structural vs. Moral
In fashion, legality and morality do not always align. The law protects Signals of Source (Trade marks). Ethics judges Intention and Impact.
The Guilds: Historically, industry groups tried to police "style piracy" through social pressure (shaming copyists) rather than law.
The Reality: The industry relies on a "permissible dose" of copying to function. High fashion needs High Street to validate its relevance.
4. How This Frames "Dupes" Today
"Dupes" are simply the democratised descendants of an old practice. They are the modern version of the 1950s dressmaker sketching in the back row of a salon.
The Panic: Moral panic rises when imitation crosses from Style (the shape) to Source (the logo, signature pattern, or packaging).
The Consumer's Role: For you, the question is not "Is copying wrong?" (It is inevitable).
The question is: "What is this copy doing for me?" Am I buying it to explore a style language (valid), or am I buying it to trick an audience (hollow)?
Takeaway
Keep: The understanding that copying is structural. Fashion is a conversation, and echoes are part of the acoustics. Let Go: The idea that all imitation is theft. Nuance matters. Look Elsewhere: We examine how speed weaponised this system in The Fast-Fashion Engine (Article 5).
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0.Preface: The Return of Sight
A 14-part audit of the scripts behind our purchases.
1.Knock-offs vs counterfeits: the plain-English line
A clean definition that stops "dupe" from fogging the legal reality.2.Money is the First Gate: The Economics of a Look
Price is a filter, not a verdict. Here is how to read it without snobbery.3.The field guide: original, dupe, or nothing
A practical test for your eye, before you commit to the cart. -
4.A short history of copying: from couture salons to TikTok feeds
Copying did not start online. It just got rewarded there.5.The fast-fashion engine: how speed industrialises time
Speed is the product. Clothing is the by-product.6.When stripes become trade marks: where style trespasses into source
The moment design becomes identity, and identity becomes a boundary. -
7.Emotions in the fitting room: guilt, pride, and the compliment effect
The mirror is emotional. The purchase follows the feeling.8.The buyer archetypes: a map of five inner logics
Five purchase motives, five stories we tell ourselves.9.Platforms and pressure: how feeds script our taste
Your taste is not pure. It is edited in public.10.Reading Quiet Luxury (Part I): cut, cloth, and composition
Quiet Luxury begins in construction, not a colour palette.11.Reading Quiet Luxury (Part II): the old-money filter
A status aesthetic that hides its own loudness.12.The minimalist’s paradox: when owning less becomes its own excess
Minimalism can become a costume. Let us make it a choice. -
13.What dupes do to brands: acceleration, substitution, and overexposure
Dupes do not only copy products. They copy attention.14.How we listened: the 13 interviews behind the insights
The method, the voices, and what people meant off-script.15.Limits, bias, and your next steps: the final action sheet
What this series cannot prove, and what you can do.
