You might be like me and many others - you love fashion, but balk at the idea of spending $700 for one of Gucci's "Blind for Love" T-shirts.
You might also just want a pair of yeezys, or a supreme hoodie, but refuse to pay the absurd markups that resellers charge. How do you get to wear the clothing you want to wear, on a college student budget?
This is where Taobao, the online godfather of China, can be of assistance. Taobao has replicas of virtually every designer piece of clothing ever made.
[STARTING UP]:
When you first go on taobao you're going to want to make sure you have the region set to China. In the top left corner of site, you'll see a small tab with a dropdown arrow. Set this to "中国大陆" or 中国 whichever option you see.
As soon as you do this, you'll be able to SEARCH TAOBAO BY IMAGE, which allows you to find specific pieces much easily. If you see a picture of a sweater on a runway show, upload it to Taobao, and its virtually guaranteed to find what you're looking for.
This will help the purchasing step later.
the region setting tab
Here is an example of what I found by searching a piece of clothing I like:
[Sizing]
When looking at the sizing for clothing on Taobao, its VERY important to take your time and know your measurements. Remember, the sizes are made for Chinese people, and so their 5XL can sometimes be a north american XL.
Most of the time, sellers will have a size chart towards the bottom of the item page. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find it.
Here are the translations for sizing:
肩宽 - Shoulder Width
胸围 - Bust
衣长 - Length
[Agents]
Ok, so now that we know how to look for pieces, and how to pick the correct sizes, how exactly do we purchase these items? You might be eager to wear your items and flex, so I'll get right into it.
The easiest way to purchase items from Taobao are through agents. Now there are a number of agents that can provide this service. To name a few:
Superbuy
BaseTao
YTaopal
CSSBuy
[Shipping]
There are basically 3 main shipping options. - EMS - DHL - China Post
The general consensus is that for EU, use DHL, and for NA, use EMS. For UK, EMS is the go to.
Don't worry about seizures. If you search the word "seize" the majority of results will be people being scared of seizures rather than people actually getting their shit seized.
However, with that being said, there are some places with very strict customs, e.g. Japan, and France, off the top of my head, so be careful. Personally, I never ship anything over 5kg just to be safe, and never more than 2 pairs of shoes in a haul. Just be smart about it, although you'll see a lot of brave boys shipping 10kg and being fine.
This just touches upon the basics of buying replicas - stay tuned, as i discuss how to find the best prices, the best quality reps, and the best stores!