TikTok Counterfeit Hauls Have Made Fake Designer Goods Acceptable

“DHgate is super notorious — you either love it or hate it,” said Jeffrey Huang, a 28-year-old luxury lifestyle and travel influencer from Boston. “It ruins luxury for influencers because we work hard to be able to purchase these items and there are people who buy dupes or fakes and claim it as authentic.”

But is it maybe OK if luxury is ruined? Influencer culture has supercharged consumerism and promoted the idea of having a personal brand for online presentation, with expensive, high-end label items often a part of the desired look. But fake products look basically the same in photos.

From “Black girl luxury” to the “old money” aesthetic, appearing affluent is aspirational — and influencers are hacking their way into the trend with the help of counterfeit goods.

Today, the world of knockoffs has elevated beyond ticking Rolexes or Ralph Lauren polos with a donkey logo — they’re far more sophisticated and come with a cleaner finish that competes with the real deal.

The taboo of wearing counterfeit designer clothing still carries a certain weight of shame in some cultures, as Song Ji-a, an influencer and the breakout star of Netflix’s Korean dating show Single’s Inferno learned, after a few fake pieces of Chanel and Dior prompted outrage to which Ji-a responded with a handwritten apology note.

But the volume of the counterfeit designer industry is estimated to be worth between $400 billion and $600 billion by the US Intellectual Property and Counterfeit Goods Office. This has been met with the need for an authentication industry to distinguish between what’s real and what’s fake.

For advocates, who proudly flaunt their fakes, buying a counterfeit is primarily about being financially savvy, especially at a time of economic uncertainty.

Just a year before finding fame on Season 5 of Love Island, Molly-Mae Hague was another YouTube influencer directing her subscribers on where to find designer knockoffs and look “boujee on a budget.”

Young consumers want to tap into the credibility of these brands but avoid plunging themselves into debt to try and keep up appearances.

For some consumers of high-end fake designer clothing, their purchases are considered a small act of defiance against an industry that has thrived on scarcity and being exclusionary of specific demographics.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for people to use it as activism and say, ‘You know what? You don’t make clothes for me, but I still want to wear your stuff,’” said Brett Staniland, a model and sustainable fashion creator. “‘I don’t care that this is fake because I deserve to wear clothes that look good and make me feel good and celebrated regardless of whether they’re real or not.’”

The normalization of counterfeit items is a point of contention for traditional luxury lifestyle influencers like Huang, whose videos include $17,000 hauls at Louis Vuitton. Unsurprisingly, he considers this counterfeit trend harmful as, he said, these fake items are now entering the secondhand retail space. A viral TikTok alleges the problem also extends to department store shop floors.

“This hurts people who can’t afford to buy authentic luxury goods brand new,” Huang said. “So they buy preowned, and these fakes end up infiltrating the used market. So people unknowingly spend their hard-earned money on fake thinking it is real.”