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Blogger Suze of Miss Vinyl Ahoy was scoping ModCloth‘s selection recently and found a quirky, chunky necklace for $37.99. A quirky, chunky necklace at ModCloth, you say? What’s out of the ordinary? The problem is Suze spotted (and purchased) the same exact one about a year ago at Forever 21… for less than $10.
Before she weaves the rest of her terrifying account, she takes the time to ponder who’s being evil in this equation (I would just have a rage seizure, destroy my computer, then go down to the nearest Forever 21, punching indiscriminately):
My point? Who’s screwing who? Is Modcloth purchasing these necklaces at rock-bottom prices, only to resell them for 4x what they cost to purchase? Or is Modcloth’s supplier ripping them off?
Suze put up a few more examples of this possible ModCloth/Forever 21 conspiracy (one of them pictured above) in which a dress or skirt retailed at Forever 21 for a fraction of what it went for on ModCloth.
When she tried bringing her findings to the attention of ModCloth via their Facebook page, someone deleted it. She then contacted them directly (it’s worth noting that she goes out of her way to be patient and generous throughout):
It was on the page, with no comments, for about an hour. Then, as about six comments come in the span a few minutes, someone from the Modcloth staff chose to delete the entire thread and a subsequent comment left on the Facebook page about the post from someone else.
The link posted on the Modcloth page was not meant to create any controversy, but was a way to make sure someone at Modcloth saw it. I was hoping to get a response from someone, hopefully explaining that you were unaware of your suppliers selling the same merchandise to these fast-fashion stores.
And then ModCloth responded with this:
 | Feel Cheated By ModCloth? Share Your Story! |
 | If You Wear Knockoff Sunglasses, You Lie and Probably Also Kick Puppies |
| Designer Knockoffs Are A Crime? |
If an Indie designer, i.e. not famous designer is ever going to expand/make a living that will inevitably mean outsourcing production. Here’s where it gets dicey- with the economic crash people want 2 things: to save money and for everything to be American made damn it!! These two ideas clash, nowhere more acutely than in the fashion industry. For an Indie designer, with no capital, to place a small batch order to a US garment factory their wholesale prices would be higher than anyone would want to pay retail. I am not arguing that we should outsource to China, just stating the reality. A garment being manufactured in China does not mean it is not designed in the US or “ripped-off”. The photos of the two tiered skirts in the original article are VERY similar but unfortunately, very similar in fashion is different that very similar in writing or other fields. You cannot effectively protect your garment designs/intellectual property with a copyright or patent. And while I agree that fashion repeats itself… Forever 21 you’re getting carried away with your lack of ingenuity/ blatant theft of intellectual property. Designer’s inability to protect their intellectual property allows companies like Forever 21 (and allegedly modcloth) to thrive by ripping off couture and Indie designers alike. I don’t feel that solid evidence has been presented to put modcloth in the same category as Forever21. They were started in a college dorm afterall. I choose not to comment on the quality of Forever 21 or Modcloth’s products, but I do think you should get what you pay for. On Modcloth’s webpage they claim to carry and support Indie designers. These allegations, if substantiated, would certainly not be congruent with their claim. But, if they actually are supporting young artists who are creating original designs I would happily pay more for fewer garments knowing I was supporting the art of fashion. We all have so much stuff in our closet we hardly wear anyway!
if you’re going to buy cheap crap made in a sweatshop, better just buy from f21 or similar store because at least such stores acknowledge the fact that they sell cheap crap.
modcloth, however, tries to disguise their cheap crap as fancy and one-of-a-kind. no, sorry, it is all still polyester and rayon crap crafted by kids in third world countries for 3 cents/hour. great job, modcloth.
Yes yes yes. The thing I’ve noticed with Modcloth is that they’re really pro with descriptions and photography, and if you at the clothes on their website they seem pretty nicely made. But in real life the quality is really not good at all. (Urban Outfitters is a similar offender.)
I am a fashion merchandising student and it is textbook knowledge that a wholesaler/manufacturer must let the buyer/retailer know in advance if they plan on selling the exact same items to other reailers. If not, it could result in litigation, which indicated that Modcloth knows exactly what is going on here. There is a local store that I always visit for the exact same Modcloth products that I want, for half the price and no waiting time on shipping. Also, Forever21 is a store that creates their own items by sourcing designers and manufacturers. They are in a category of companies that operates by ripping off couture brands and are able to sell a look at lower prices because it is cheaply made and meant to last only a few wearings before being thrown out. Sadly, Modcloth is mostly the same type of company, but they charge much more than Forever21 and similar stores.
This dress at modcloth – $314.00
http://www.modcloth.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Dresses/City+of+Lights+Dress
This dress at a different online boutique – $258.00
http://www.efashioncentral.com/therosetree/detail.php?ProdId=2437622&CatId=35036&Page=CatOv&thisOffset=0&resPos=10&pSort=#subtitle
Why hike up the price by $50+?? Because they can!!
I like Modcloth, but I could never click “Checkout” after I went through the website. Now I know why – deep down I knew I was probably being ripped off! :(
I love visiting Modcloth but only buy items that are on sale. I have a few dresses from there and they are all cheaper (bad fabric, poor construction) than they look in the picture. I have a vest I bought from Karmaloop for $28 that Modcloth was charging $70 for. I also have an octopus necklace that I got at an aquarium gift shop (so you know it was already overpriced), and it was still less than what Modcloth charges.
Sorry I love “the gloss” but this article is seriously pathetic. First off the top photo from Mod Cloth is completely different from that stupid chain “Forever 21″ photo. If anything the Mod Cloth skirt looks better than the F.21 one. You guys are also comparing a $10 dollar difference. It’s ok… like the rest of America – KEEP SHOPPING AT WALMART!!!!!!!! The whole point of “bargain shopping” is to do your own research and should a store charge a different price that doesn’t fit with you… DON’T BUY IT!. Instead you waist your time complaining again about a $10 dollar difference. lol. This is why everything gets manufactured in China, because people like you complain about trying to get everything on the cheap cheap. However I never shopped at ModCloth but, reading an article like this just annoyed me. Just do yourselves a favor and should the price not fit your budget. – DON’T BUY IT!. hahaha trust me it’s really not that hard. HOWEVER – blogging about price is completely tacky!
I get your point but I think they are complaining about the fact that they are selling the same crappy material for a much higher price, I agree if you want the best then dish out the money but it has to be money well spent. With modcloth you’re dishing out the money but getting crap in return and that’s not fair. I purchased a top from there for almost $40, seen it on a different website for $20 less…shirt is now garbage thanks to an unexpected tear.
I’m saddened but not totally surprised. If there’s a Modcloth item you like and it’s either sold out or somewhat pricey, Lulu’s and Ruche (shopruche.com, I’m pretty sure) sometimes have the exact same model for somewhere around $10+ cheaper. I’m fairly sure Ruche is much smaller than Modcloth.
I’ve always wondered if it was a deliberate decision on Modcloth’s part to rarely list the brand of an item. It makes it that much harder to figure out where the best deal on a dress is.
They’re quite good at ducking questions (although quite good at the superficial aspects of maintaining their image: giving/naming stuff after bloggers for good press, active Twittering, things like that). I’m hoping a perfect storm of negative publicity will finally get them to crack a bit and respond with something real.
Just confirming: Ruche is definitely much smaller than Modcloth. I’m pretty sure it’s just one person–at least one person always responds to my emails.
Ruche sells clothes wholesale to ModCloth, so of course they sell them cheaper on their own site.
Also, there is a list of brands ModCloth carries on the side bar.
I found earrings from Target that were $3.99 They were little brown buttons that looked exactly like for Modcloth ones for much much more. Now, I do admit that they were a little bit smaller so I believe that they were not from the same designer. However, I love ModCloth, but I have learned to check around and search similar outfits before blowing my money and regretting it.
How much do you know about wholesale? How much do you know about how and where the clothing is made for these big chains, how they are distributed and end up on your body? If this article suprises you, you seriously need to do some research. It is disturbing that so many care only about price point, instead of the socio-economic results of your consurmerism. Today, with the internet and unlimited sources at your fingertips, ignorance should not be an option.
SO TRUE! i bought a knit headband from forever 21 for $8.99 about 3 months ago, and a month later, EXACT same headband on modcloth for $27.99. I wrote them a note, no response.
some of their dresses are cute but overall modcloth is kind of tacky.
So true! A skirt I bought earlier this year but returned for $65 was found at a local boutique for $35. Later I purchased the Indie Darling dress for $45 at shopruche as opposed to the $55 on modcloth. And yet another example today: this black dress:
http://www.modcloth.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Dresses/After+Darkness+Falls+Dress
appears of fine quality on the website and is sold for $40 but when you see the EXACT same dress on urbanog.com here
http://www.urbanog.com/Love-Fantasy-Dress_129_11117.html
it looks like the cheap $20 they sell it for. At least they’re offering it in more than one color…
Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be purchasing anything else from modcloth unless I’m desperate. For now it just serves as inspiration.
Did you guys know that Forever 21 produces all of their own clothing? And there was an article on The Cut a few months back about the fact that Forever 21 is in the middle of many law suits from designers such as Diane Von Furstenburg for copyright infringement. Forever21′s business model pretty much involves them producing knock-offs at much lower prices, and they’ll admit it. Also, I would pretty much bet that the indie designers that are selling clothing to Modcloth wouldn’t sell them to stores like Zumiez or other cheaper stores since they wouldn’t be able to sell them at such drastically lower prices and still make a profit. And its the fashion world– designers get inspired by other pieces they see and end up making one just like it. It happens. I can’t afford Modcloth’s clothing but I’m sticking by them! :)
I’ve seen a number of the exact same dresses/accessories at fredflare as well for much cheaper. I’ve always felt like their prices are definitely way marked up.
I saw a Delia’s dress dyed a different color on ModCloth, too.
yeah, from now on I will try avoid shopping there. It’s not worth the price. I never got anything there that was good quality or worthy of its price.. I’ve sold all my dresses I ever bought from there on ebay except the ones that were too unpopular…I’ve seen plenty of the same dresses on F21 for half the price, as well as at small boutiques!!
This is how retail works. If you’re pissed about the prices you pay *stop paying them*. Stop spending outrageous amounts of money on accessories. If you want your look to be easy to assemble and straight out of a glossy mag then get over the prices you pay. If you’re that upset start shopping local or thrift.
I too have had some mishaps with Modcloth. I found a pair of heels and a jacket that I loved, but they sold out on Modcloth with about a week and a half. Luckily I was able to find the shoes on another website and found the jacket at Zumies. Each item was about $10 or $15 less, in addition to having cheaper (or no) shipping charges. I also believe that they edit their photos, ever notice how they almost never have a picture of the product on a real person? The jacket was, in reality, much shorter with longer sleeves than it was in the ModCloth picture. The only item I’ve ever seen that included a picture of the item on a human was a swimsuit that they’ve carried forever.
ModCloth is a small company, and models cost money, so of course they don’t use them often.
Well, Ladies–if it is, in fact, true that Forever 21 was getting things made in 3rd world countries, for much less, this must be the reason. If you are not aware, this was made known months ago. Look it up. That stinks….
as someone who works in wholesale, i know for a fact that smaller sized companies, when unable to commit to the gigantic quantities of large chains, can end up paying a higher price for the goods, meaning they have to resell at a higher pri…ce to cover their costs. this is what is killing the boutique market in the USA – large chains buying up everything out there at quantities that independant businesses cannot match. go to philly, boston, chicago and try and find independently owned boutiques. what you’ll find is Zara, H&M, Urban, etc.
as far as removing a comment from the fb page that linked to another retailer, that’s a common practice. and why not? you want to protect your company, especially when you are an online retailer.
i guess i know this topic from the other side and my support is for independently owned businesses. it’s not that they are purposely trying to rip anyone off. it’s that they cannot control who their vendors sell to and at what prices.
I would buy this argument, except
a) There’s a comment below (from Alex) mentioning finding a ModCloth item for less in an even smaller store, and
b) Is ModCloth really such a small business? They have plenty of items on their site with hundreds and hundreds of reviews, and I can’t seem to go anywhere even vaguely fashion-related on the Internet without running into one of their banner ads. They are EVERYWHERE. What’s more, many of their items sell out very, very quickly, which leads me to believe that, if they are purchasing such small quantities in spite of what I suspect are pretty consistent sales, it’s deliberate. What better way to encourage people to impulsively buy items they might not have if they’d thought it through than to create a market culture of “if you don’t grab it right now, it won’t be there later”? It’s the same clever marketing idea behind companies putting out endless “limited editions” of things.
Plus, none of that justifies how badly-made the clothes they carry are.
Yep, what you said.
Also, to the commenter below, I have also been involved in online advertising. What you probably don’t realize (and this may upset you even more, I don’t know) is that you have likely been pixeled or, in more colloquial terminology, cookied by ModCloth, Google (which will show up as Doubleclick), Yahoo (which will show up as RightMedia) or some other warehouser of users and advertisements. When you visit a page that has ads provided by these folks, your browser tells the ad supplier that you have previously visited the ModCloth site and that they should show you a ModCloth ad to get you to come back. It is called “retargeting”. That’s what makes you think that the ad is “all over the web” but really, it’s just all over your web. Another person would visit the page and get a totally different ad.
A lot of people find it creepy, but it’s just how business gets done online. If you don’t like it, use your browser’s “in private” capabilities all the time and turn off Adobe Flash since the more underhanded pixelers use a self-regenerating Flash cookie that repopulates itself even if you delete it.