TARGET Acquired.

So recently some of you asked for more affordable fashion finds in my Marketplace round ups - a request I fully understand. Inflation is sucking everyone dry, and even the most conscious among us need to find a little ease in the budget somewhere. Good news is, I do have one budget brand to show you that is absolutely killing it in the high-end-dupe department - TARGET.

Now, I have a very complicated relationship with DUPES, or copies of higher-end designs. Fashion intellectual property (designs) are almost impossible to protect legally, so the fashion industry operates off a very tight code of conduct towards respecting each-others designs, and when these codes are broken (and they often are) it can reak havoc on people’s livelihoods. The one area this is usually overlooked however is with high fashion - aspirational items that the vast majority of us will never own, therefore “copying” to a degree at an affordable price, is acceptable on an industry-wide level. Personally, I don’t like bending rules that are in place for protecting others. However, I also strongly dislike this idea that “good design” is only for the wealthy. So within reason, I will offer you all really good dupes to consider, only when the purchasing would not hurt anyone in the making of the original high-end product (taking sales away from, say, Dior and their employees).

So lets take a look at TARGET this spring. Target has been on a dupe campaign - targeting (pun intended) everyone from Dior, Hermes and Ralph Lauren; to J. Crew and Castaner. Their dupe designs are uncannily good (for the most part), offering a point of entry into sleek, stylish fashion for those who can’t afford to blow $300+ on a single pair of shoes. So today I though it might be fun to play a game of “guess the dupe” - I have linked the Target items below, alongside images of their high-end inspiration. I have also included a few extra items I saw at Target that I felt were a good quality fit. Enjoy!