Popflex’s Cassey Ho is taking dupes of her viral skort and turning them into DIY fashion kits
Cassey Ho, founder of the Popflex Active apparel company, is taking steps to make sure dupes of her viral products aren’t winding up in landfills.
This week, she’s launching the Popflex Upcycle Project that pairs a downloadable dress pattern with dupes of her viral Pirouette Skort for people to deconstruct and create something new. The kits come in two dress styles created by independent designers, Kiana Bonollo and Tracy Garcia, who are known for their upcycling and patterning work. Profits from the kits benefit Bonollo and Garcia.
“I felt like this was such a great way to talk about sustainability and bring light to what actually happens to products when companies don’t want them anymore,” Ho said. “This project is a good way to talk about the dirty parts of the fashion industry, which I think the average consumer does not know about.”
Ho, who has more than 19 million followers across social media channels, is outspoken about how bigger brands and e-commerce operations have copied her designs. Some have used her own product imagery to promote their copies, while others have used versions of her images manipulated with AI. In response, Ho now holds 10 patents to help protect her designs.
Ho said she started collecting the dupe skorts herself following legal negotiations with larger fashion brands. She has a patent on the Pirouette Skort, which was quickly copied after being spotted on Taylor Swift in the spring of 2024. One brand told Ho they were going to throw away all their infringing designs — but Ho didn’t want to see her IP fight lead to more fashion waste. Instead, she had the company send her the infringing skorts, and she’s been paying monthly fees to store them in her 3PL warehouse ever since.
Beyond pointing out fashion waste, Ho said it was also an opportunity to highlight other designers known for using thrifted items to make eco-conscious designs.
“I hope the reaction will spark a lot of different conversations. And I hope people help me deplete my warehouse of the dupes,” she said.
Beyond the fashion waste angle, the project also underscores the increasing interest in repurposing unwanted apparel or upcycling old or worn items. Leather brand Coach launched its Coachtopia line in 2023 that repurposes leather scraps. Earlier this month, Levi’s launched its Wear Longer Project for digital and in-person workshops on clothing repair.
Lexy Silverstein, a sustainable fashion influencer who once spent a season working at a leather upcycling brand in Italy, said repurposing older clothes is becoming a more popular craft for at-home sewists. She personally started upcycling more items from her wardrobe during the Covid-19 pandemic and follows a blossoming crew of thrifters and crafters who show off their upcycled designs on social media.
“Upcycling is a great way to extend the use of garments, and the idea is becoming more popular,” Silverstein said.
From an industry standpoint, Silverstein said more companies are becoming creative with how to use their excess products or waste. There are resale programs for returned or repaired items, as well as sub-brands like Coachtopia. At the same time, the explosion of dupe culture means some shoppers are buying cheaper clothing that may not get much use before being tossed out.
Silverstein said the Popflex Upcycle Collection is “an important way to take back the narrative” by putting waste to use. “The biggest brands in the industry are often the ones that create the most waste or don’t have the best supply chain,” Silverstein said.
Popflex’s Ho said the project is a test case as she becomes more open about conscious fashion and sustainability with her fans and customers. She doesn’t necessarily know how many of her followers sew and craft, and it may be something that Bonollo’s and Garcia’s followings take more advantage of.
Behind the scenes, Ho said her team takes into account the popularity of different colors and sizes at launches to help avoid over-ordering. In turn, some launches may sell out the day they’re announced — like her Festival Dress launch this week that sold out two colors within hours of hitting the site. While that can frustrate some customers or lead to missing out on potential sales, Ho said she and her COO, Sam Livits, aim to make predictions based on what they know they can sell.
“Larger companies can have these numbers to hit, and if you don’t have enough inventory, you can’t hit the numbers, and they can’t afford waiting for a restock,” she said. “But, I mean, it’s too much stuff.”
Back in 2023, Ho introduced a forum for customers to swap or sell clothing on the Body by Blogilates app, her official fitness app for workouts and challenges. This year, Ho is also exploring the options for getting into branded resale on the Popflex site.
So far, Popflex has collected skorts from several brands since last fall in the pale lavender color that’s gone most viral. But Ho knows there are more colors and styles out there that could be funneled into materials — there are at least three other manufacturers she’s waiting on to send dupes.
“This is a new project and a test, and I hope it does well,” Ho said. “Because if it does, then I can definitely keep collecting all these skorts and then vending them out as fabric.”