Tuesday, February 14, 2012

cheap (knockoff?) dresses

how do you feel about sites like madeinchina.com?  they make extremely, EXTREMELY cheap dresses.  for example:

madeinchina.com

this thing is beautiful, obviously.  although i don't recognize the dress, the photos look professional, which makes me think they weren't done by this seller.  what are the odds they're just replicating this design, which they found elsewhere?  the chinese are REALLY good at knockoffs.

there's some line in fashion between finding inspiration and stealing.  it's not 'stealing' to make a one-strap, knotted, ruched dress with sweet buttons down the back after seeing this one.  but, is it stealing to try to make EXACTLY the same dress?  i don't mean legally.  there are some fashion laws, but they're hard to interpret and enforce.  the true question is whether it's morally ok, not legally ok.  if you don't often think about that distinction, you should!

consumers are sort of stuck in the middle of it.  we're faced with a serious choice - drop a couple grand on a dress, or spend $150 or less on one of these (and another couple hundred in alterations most likely).  a cheap one won't be as high quality, and may not last long.  but it really only needs to last one night.

what do you think?

2 comments:

  1. My dress came from madeinchina.com and I have not one regret about it. I did not need a single alteration, and I loved the dress (it was handed down to me for free, so the moral quandary was not really mine to be had) but I found it to be quite pretty. I would do it again, no question.

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    1. what if you'd had to face the moral quandary, though? do you think you would have chosen differently?

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