I’m a victim of influencers pushing ‘dupes’: fashion designer

Marcelo Gaia describes himself as “one of the world’s biggest fast-fashion designers” — but he says it’s entirely against his will.

Gaia is the owner and lead designer of the womenswear brand Mirror Palais, a trendy upscale label. But he claims that his original, proprietary designs have been cash cows for fast-fashion brands like Shein that allegedly rip off his styles — and for the influencers who make commissions promoting them.

“Independent designers are the unpaid R&D department for these companies,” he told The Post. “I did the leg work. I created this style. I invested the money in making it and then putting it out there. And then they just see what worked for me, and they take it.”

Gaia, 35 of New York City, launched Mirror Palais in 2019, and his brand has been picked up by premium online retailers like Revolve, FWRD and SSense. Mirror Palais tops, dresses and skirts tend to sell for around $500, with some styles reaching $1,500.

But the cheap, low-quality knock-offs — often advertised with his own photography, taken from his website, Gaia claimed — can go for as low as $20.

Mirror Palais sells a sheer bedazzled “Starlite” dress for $995 on the brand’s own website. A Google search for “Mirror Palais Starlite dupe” pulls up multiple sponsored options, including a $32 version from Shein and a $139 knockoff from Mermaid Way.

“Predatory companies see that, if this could sell at $400 and get so many people’s attention, just imagine how many you can sell at $20,” he said.

Gaia’s “Ballet Russes” gown, a tiered and ruffled strapless dress, sells for $1,195. OhPolly allegedly knocked it off with their Selene dress, which sold for only $142.

And his limited-edition “Baby I’m Yours” pajama set, which sold for $395, was knocked off on TikTok Shop by dozens of distributors for under $30 — using his own photos, Gaia claims. It’s impossible to tell who knocked off the style first, but large manufacturers often send fast fashion merchandise to many distributors, who sell on platforms like TikTok Shop.

He said he has seen influencers on the app flouncing around in their copycat getups and providing followers with links that earn the influencers a cut.

“It’s you, the everyday girl, who’s posting their finds from TikTok Shop to earn a small commission or the bargain shopper who is an accomplice to a deeply unsettling, unethical, and just dystopian ecosystem,” Gaia said in an Instagram video about the issue.

While TikTok Shop did not address Gaia’s complaints directly, a spokesperson shared that the company removes counterfeit products from the platform, both by proactively finding them and responding to reports. They also pointed to a legal distinction between counterfeits — products pretending to be the original — and dupes.

The Post has also reached out to Shein and OhPolly for comment.

Since TikTok displays the number of total units sold on its Shop listings, Gaia claimed he can see that 5,000 cheap fakes of his pajama set were sold by one distributor.

“Because I designed this little set, 10,000 plus of them have been made, but I didn’t consent to that,” he told The Post.

After launching Mirror Palais in 2019, Gaia said, the spoofs were instantaneous. He alleges that knockoffs of about 20% of his products — around 50 bestsellers — have popped up on TikTok Shop and various fast-fashion websites, like Shein and Amazon.

“It was pretty mortifying at first,” Gaia said. “I was living and working out of my studio apartment and just trying to get my business off the ground, and so seeing a large corporation steal my IP was very dystopian. It just felt upside down.”

While he can’t quantify the direct loss of income, Gaia thinks the dupes have contributed to a cheapening of his proprietary work: “When fast fashion comes in and takes the style themselves, then it can start to become oversaturated. It’s like, oh, well, now I’m seeing everyone wearing this thing, and so it’s less appealing to me.”

Gaia said has had “very little” recourse because the companies are based in countries outside of American legal jurisdiction. He has so far sent out demand letters to several retailers — and only one settled.

To make matters worse, copyright law does not typically apply to useful things, like clothing, meaning designers are usually not able to sue over an article of clothing because it serves a basic function.

Estimates of the scale of fast fashion vary, production is thought to have doubled in the 2000s, surpassing 100 billion garments created annually in 2014, according to McKinsey.

The industry employs 75 million factory workers, 98% of whom are not making a living wage, according to George Washington University Law.