Safiya nygaard made a really interesting video comparing a designer dress with knock-offs of various price points. Seems like this issue of social media scam-dresses is really widespread atm ☹️ Imagining all the textile waste it causes makes me sad
I saw that video and a lot of the scam sites stole videos from influencers who bought the real dress and reviewed it and they put it on their sights on Tik Tok and on Instagram and when the influencers in the reviewers tried to complain nothing happened. So if the big social media companies don't give a crap and aren't removing the scammers how is anybody supposed to know or trust if what they're buying is real. I don't even trust half the stuff on Amazon. Have some company names are a bunch of consonants tied together and you can't really trust the reviews.
Can someone please link the video? I've been looking for it and am having trouble finding it. Or at least what to put in the search bar? Sorry if I'm an idiot, lol, I've just been wanting to see it for a while and can't find it.
@@MsSmontalvo I know this is a bit of an old comment, but if you're still looking for the Safiya Nygaard video, it's titled "I Bought The Same Dress For $4, $30, $60, and $200".
What you didn't mention is that the original designer doesn't even sell those dresses off the rack You have to place an individual order, so it is basically a custome made garment
@@magicalspacegiraffeI mean literally every single photo with a model in it is slightly photoshopped and the lighting will always be better than your own home. I personally don’t think it was that photoshopped just great lighting and camera work on their part. I think if you got that dress it would still look GORGEOUS ✨ ANYTHING you see on social media will never look as good as a picture of it in your house or the real world that doesn’t mean it doesn’t look good at all
@RaspBerryPies I would disagree, eg, wedding dresses don't look 1:1 like in magazines but they're still absolutely magical on the brides, you can tell the designer. Haven't seen anyone buy and show this dress, I'd think at that alleged price range they're not a startup.
I have seen some knockoff dresses that actually end up looking good but never ones that are supposed to have any structure. Most of the knockoffs don't even come with lining so the thought that they will be able to defy gravity in the way the originial does is baffling to me. And I don't even want to think about how poorly they must be packed and shipped off with the way they always seem to turn into wrinkly sacks of loose fabric.
I've found that knockoffs that admit they're knockoffs are usually better than ones that try to pass. There's an ad for a pair of ladies pants that flat out says, these are like the brand name XYZ, but more affordable. And there are well designed, well made and quality fabric. One third the cost of the brand name.
Ladies , listen to the host and don't be fooled by scammers. I live in Europe, in a post-communist country that was once literally flooded with fakes. That's why we know this topic and women don't fall for such "promotions". We know that a designer dress costs money. They are fooling you because this is a new topic for you! A country flooded with Chinese fakes. Please listen to the sewing master and either save up for something original or sew something from a loyal specialist. As you can see, it doesn't have to be Dior - there are plenty of talented designers who sew on a smaller scale. It pisses me off that so many wonderful women have their important events ruined by scammers and fake deals. So don't be fooled. Be reasonable - don't expect a miracle for pennies! Yes, you can only find it in a second-hand shop.
I now reverse image search and see if they are available on Ebay or ex hire shops . I waited 5 years for one garment to come up after buying a bad dupe. Also see if the models actually have vsisible faces - a lot of times websites will cut off faces or superimpose other faces on stolen designs
@@MondesThreads It was part of a runway collection and retailed for $3000 when shown and only a few pieces made. I finally got it for $400 dollars on EBAY. It is has been on my printrest for 6 years. I am still after two more items but have never seen them anywhere apart from chinese wbsites selling completely different items
This precisely why I either sew my own dress or buy it in a store. I've had customers bring such in and expect me to fix the issues for almost nothing...
I said this on your short, REVERSE IMAGE SEARCH EVERYTHING!!! Even review photos, if you’re extra suspicious. I buy a lot of clothes from indie chinese designers (I wear gothic/lolita) and unfortunately theft of images/products from those places is RAMPANT. It has basically become necessary for me to reverse image search everything I buy.
I see so many gorgeous dresses online and since my husband and I want to have a big vow renewal party since we got married at the courthouse, I ALWAYS hunt down the original designer! I've found a few really amazing designers in Europe that I have bookmarked and I see their designs ripped off all the time!
The reverse image search idea is a very important one. That has saved me a few times because I was able to realize the "link" on their website to the dress to me to a place that couldn't actually be found when I searched for it. I've stopped myself from three scam purchases at least with that trick.
This is excellent advice. Everyone who shops for clothes online should hear this message. And there is another consideration here as well. If a website is selling you a $2000 dress for $300, then you need to ask yourself, "Under what conditions was this dress made?" This type of fast fashion is usually made in unsafe sweatshops in which women are working 12-hour days and getting paid a pittance. These companies are going for volume of sales. Just sell as many as possible until buyers finally wise up. And where do all those nasty dresses--invariably made of polyester--end up? In landfills where it will take thousands of years for them to finally decompose. These online companies are a nightmare for the environment, for their labor pool and for their naïve customers .
Well said!!! Knowing this kind of thing is so rampant in the world just hurts. Especially the sweatshops, they "employ" children often, as well. Tragic and just disgusting, the things people are willing to do to others and the environment for greed. 😢
They often steal the design and the picture, too. Bernadette Banner had a few beautiful dresses up that she made for herself, and some company flat out stole the pictures to use for their scam site. So she bought one and did a side by side comparison.
I remember watching that video. It's sad that the designs are so easily stolen, but somewhat satisfying when they can't even recreate a decent dupe. I hope it doesn't negatively affect people's perceptions of the quality of her real work though.
She did take a humorous approach to the video on the theft of her red medieval dress. It was really badly done with such a cheap material. Fast fashion is such an environmental nightmare in a complete theft of really good work from artists.
@@gravyz2cute4u She has scoliosis (she posted a vid about it), so she has to custom sew her clothing to make it fit. May have changed since I binge watched her vids, but from what I gathered it's more of a useful hobby that she does primarily for herself and not so much for outside sales due to the amount of work involved making them true to period. So other people's perception of quality wouldn't affect her, it just gave her an opening for an entertaining rant about fast fashion that overall benefitted her channel, given we all still remember it and are talking about it. 😁
@@HallsofAsgard96 I sewed a fake one for my wedding dress nearly 20 years ago off a Simplicity pattern. Got mad respect for her skills. If I'd known then what I do now about historical fashions, I would've just made an underskirt instead of trying to center the middle panel, which ended up off-center d/t it being my first major project which was ADHD'd at the last minute. Even that still ended up better quality than the ill-fitting fast fashion pajama version in Banner's vid.🤣
@@rebecky5ever oh yeah absolutely, but I've seen great artist have their work accused of being AI (or asked what prompt they use) and that just feels like a different level of sad imo
@@LostStarzOfTheSkyhonestly the whole "it's too good to be real it's ai" is such BS because AI uses real art to make an amalgamation like of course people can make stuff like that
You might be interested in Sofya Nygaard’s latest video. She talks about this same thing very in depth. It’s the one with the title “I bought the same dress…”
The original dress and design is gorgeous. The structure and fit is amazing. And I like the originality of it. I'd just be mindful of buying a lesser priced version and the sizing. I've actually seen clothing from a U.S fitness influencer that designs active wear. When I went to her website she listed a size 12 as XXL. So we should be mindful of looking at the sizing and size charts (which include measurements) no matter what the item of clothing is. But when it comes to gowns and dresses I'd want to see them in person aka in store.
When I saw the picture I was like “WAIT, OMG I KNOW THIS MODEL. THAT’S ELLIE. I worked with her. what is she doing in this video??” I even tried to image search to know for sure it’s her, but then failed and returned to the video to find out that it is indeed her. She was our local go to commercial model and a very good one. I didn’t expect to see a Russian brand VESNA (it’s also pronounced vesnA aka spring) here. Nice surprise🌸
What goes into most garment costs (basic general overview): - the labour cost of the garment/print design team - the labour cost of the pattern drafter - labour cost of person doing the tech pack (basically, blue-prints & material specs to send to factories for EACH garment - cost of raw materials (fabric, thread, embellishments like beads, etc) - the cost of garment construction labour (fabric weaving/knit factory staff, dye factory staff, cutting staff, sewing staff, etc) - cost of shipping samples back to design company to do quality checks - cost of shipping to wholesale and/or direct retail warehouses - 2x markeup of final cost for wholesale or retail - AND then 2x markup of cost again if there's a wholesale to retail pipeline.... It's usually the labourers in the garment dyeing/construction facilities (& often the farmers of raw materials, like cotton) that get hardcore shafted for pay to ensure that us consumers can afford the price point of a brand's clothing....so you can imagine what the garment workers who make a $150 prom dress were paid. Every. single. garment. in your average mall retail store has to go through this process. Every one on the rack. As a general rule, the more seams a garment has (and the more external decorative elements it has, like embroidery, beads, or pleats) the more costly it is to make. Indie designers who produce most of the labour in their locale tend to get creative to off-set labour costs. Made-to-order and local material sourcing to (reduce shipping costs) are popular work-arounds, to keep the price-point reasonable. Sincerely, a fashion design student.
Wjhen they cut off people's faces you know is a stolen photo or review. I have never purchased a good dupe so now I just reverse search get the designer and wait for it to come up pn Ebay , sales or ex hire. I have 5 fav designers and they are all copied and frankly the dupes can cost more than Ebay provate sellers or genuine store sales.
I just had this happen with a ring I wanted! I had it favorited on Etsy for a very long time and then saw it pop up at a couple more shops. I figured I should do a reverse image search and make sure I was buying from the original site. Well the original turned out to be a $17k diamond ring, not the $500 moissanite ring I wanted. My husband and I agreed to save up for a few years and reach out to the original brand to get a quote on getting that ring made with moissanite instead of diamond. I'm braced for it to still be multiple thousands of dollars, but at least it will be the beautiful ring in the picture.
Yep I saw that with a Halloween dog costume the same photo was being used for multiple listings that were stolen from an original Etsy seller!! The original was about $60 the knock offs were about $10!
I think the main issue with sizing is that in Europe we use metric system, so when you order you should keep that in mind. For me is the same with crochet patterns from USA - I need to reverse yards to meters to know how much yarn I will need for the piece of clothing I want to crochet.
Another thing to look out for is replica websites selling the fake product. Read the Internet address to make sure you are dealing with the original manufacturer/designer.
Personally I only shop expensive dresses on site. I would never risk to shop them online. There are so many scams and by buying it in a shop and trying it on, you really know what it looks like in your body and they actually offer adjustments for free oftentimes.
I've notice wht the women paid the dupe dress and I've point it out dat the dress doesn't have a tulle underneath to make the dress look big. Thanks for pointing it out.
I love the original dress. I have it saved in my photos and I for one can’t afford it so me being a designer will make it for myself lol but I never understood why ppl think they will get a product heavily discounted and it will look like the original.
Look out for the wires and clips used in the photos. Sites like Timu use pix provided by the mfg, and these simulate a wind machine by having the models hold wires attached to the hem. I would fix the yellow dress by underlining the all the fabric with stiff net and finishing all the hems with horsehair or even wire. It isn't heavy satin or silk, but it might look ok.
if you cant afford the designer dress (I am in the same boat as you girly) try and look second hand (also second hand online!). Trust me a second hand high quality piece is much nicer, more sustainable and will give you way more joy than a brand new fast fashion polyester knock off ! Don't let them take your hard earned money
The first one is so architectural, why would anyone think they could get that for under $1k? I’m pretty sure $1k is too low, but there’s absolutely no way you can get a dress like that for even $500. So much form and shape and careful design around light theory! Stunning original piece, tbh the knockoff was better than I expected. How do people think a dress like that defies gravity??? 😂
I am currently looking for my wedding dress and was wondering if anyone could answer my question, please? I know that wedding dresses require alterations to be made to make the fit the best it can be. Should I buy a size up to give the person doing the alterations some extra material or would that create extra work that isn’t necessary? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
I would suggest go into a bridal store and try dresses in sizes that you may be. That would give you an idea of what size to get. Size up if it may be a different brand dress that you want to get. Hope this helps. Also know your body measurements. Bust, waist, hip and that helps to match against a size chart if ordering online..
Be careful! Some bridal studios pick the largest measurement and then send a dress that is just a standard size with that measurement, not a custom job with all the measurements that you sent. I have altered SO many dresses where that happened: they thought the gown was bespoke, but no, it was just "off the rack" size even though the fabric may have been custom dyed. Find out what you will get! Also a fine quality gown will have huge seam allowances. If the seams are narrow and serged, beware! order a size up.,
To be fair I wouldn't buy anything from Russia these days anyway (and at the moment it's nigh impossible anyway due to the sanctions), but this seems more like an attempt to get a luxury dress for far far less than it's worth and then being shocked that the quality is shit. (Also, picture reviews can be spoofed. Stolen instagram pictures or taken from the original site reviews. Unlikely with luxury goods that's hard to get a hold off, but it happens)
@@Essiggurke-r2h please learn to read. There's nothing I despise more than the temu & Shien garbage. I merely pointed out that this dress probably wasn't buyable from the og designer anyway & that might be why this person sought out alternatives, but also that I HIGHLY doubt that & they would have gone for any fancy dress no matter the origin if they thought they could get it for cheap.
Sites like Shein and Fashion Nova ...even Amazon have warped people's expectations and understanding of true fashion and QUALITY!!! They dont even KNOW that theyre probably looking at a knock-off of a knock-off of a knock-off!!
I have a question? I a person is buying a dress/gown heavily beaded, should a person order a size up, especially if the order is being made overseas? Aren't overseas measurements different than what the US measurements are?
Hi it is time for you to sell Mondi's fix. I want to go to a fabric store and actually be able to buy your lace ups. They would be with the zippers in the same area as an alternative to a zipper that I could sew your lace ups into my clothes. What do you think?
This blows my mind… obviously it was not the original designer, but to think you are getting the “designer “ version for a fraction of the cost would be laughable if it weren’t such a nightmare end result. On the other hand whether the dress is a knock off or custom design who is measuring these gals??? Even before I schedule an appointment I ask a few questions as you did. Like does it fit / zip…. Etc. And what size do you normally wear/ what size is the dress. Just to get a heads up. And request pics as you & most of us in the biz would do. But even a custom dress “is a size”. It might be a 20, with curves… top, bottom or both, shorter waisted… etc. I’ve had gals tell me they wear a med/ lg. depending on style but they weigh about 220+ & very curvy… (By the way I never ask their wt) but can usually come pretty close. If that’s the case they do not wear a med anything!! Only curious do these girls guess their measurements??? No designer/ seamstress/ specialist could be that far off that the dress needs a ft added to it so the wearer can actually breathe let alone zip up…. Just a thought?? As far as the dress … I think you said it was from Africa. It was beautiful fabric, and a very nice design… a little bigger gal w/ curves but she chose wisely & and looked great!! I think the solid color for the corset back seemed an odd choice of color. Obviously not my opinion that counts but the other fabric was such a beautiful color/ print . I would’ve thought that they would’ve picked a color in the print for the back panels and corset. ❤ love your channel… You are a great problem solver❤
Have everyone who buys a knock off sew a dress. Then you understand the time, talent, fabric and vision it takes! If you wannabe paid for your time and creative energy you should pay others as well. Also-buy used!
I want to point out that there are a ton of AI generated designs out there right now, designs that have not actually been made into a sample garment, let alone being offered for sale.
True BUT advertising something and sending something very different is FRAUD. Many online shops do it but that does not make it right. Also, pinching a photo of a designer item is in breach of copyright.
Due to the fast fashion explosion over the last 20 years, people got "quality blind". Like barley anyone know what's the difference between a knit and a woven fabric, what's good workmanship, even what "looks" expensive (like here in the video) and the actual costs of making clothes.
From Sesame Street: One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others By the time I finish my song?
Do you have any tips for researching the original designers? I've tried to reverse image search for some gowns posted by fake sellers. The search feed fills with other fake sellers.
Do you think that's horse hair hem? I've got some but haven't used it yet because I'm sure it'll show where hemmed very far up there skirt. Any advice? (Advice from anyone familiar with horse hair hems.)
Im not saying this to be rude, but all of these is just play stupid games wins stupid prizes. ITS DEFINITELY MORE THAN OKAY if youre using cheaper alternatives, or like dupe bcs thought of $2k is just too much for a dress, its okay. Its NOT OKAY when yall keep buying things out from the official websites with MUCH CHEAPER than the og price (when you know yourself that how much it is cost originally) and then comes forward with how yall not getting what yall want. Yall be paying for $200 for a $2k dress, what do yall expect tbh?
She has no regard for the lives of the people who sew the inexpensive garbage she bought, who are often enslaved, nor the environmental impacts of fast fashion, so I don’t feel a bit sorry for her.
