The insight: Consumers are embracing dupe brands like Quince and Italic as they look for a middle ground between ultra-cheap fast fashion and ultra-expensive luxury labels.

• Affordable cashmere brand Quince—which achieved social media notoriety with a campaign comparing its $50 sweaters to competitor Naadam’s $100 offerings—aims to triple sales to $1 billion this year, after tripling sales in 2023, sources told The Business of Fashion.
• Likewise, Italic—which sells products that mimic the quiet luxury aesthetic of brands like Brunello Cucinelli—expects to grow net profits and sales by 50% this year.

The landscape: These companies are exploiting a definite opening that has widened as luxury brands like Ralph Lauren and Burberry shift their focus to the ultra-wealthy, leaving aspirational shoppers with fewer affordable, high-quality options.

• A similar opportunity opened up in the athleisure market, where lululemon athletica’s failure to stock products in the colors and sizes shoppers want benefited cheaper brands like Gymshark and AYBL.
• It helps that Gen Zers have fully embraced dupes: Seventy-one percent say they sometimes or always buy cheaper versions of name-brand products, according to a survey by Business Insider and YouGov, as they look for ways to stay on trend without breaking their budgets.