At first, it seemed like your average New York City meet-cute. A girl passes a boy in Soho. A girl goes on a first date with a boy, which leads to a second date. The girl eventually invites her boy to her own apartment, where the relationship is consummated.
And in the glow of the next morning, the plot diverges from brooding rom-com to mystery thriller, the loss of a $1,000 designer shoe, the public disgrace on TikTok, the fashion-obsessed internet sleuth, and a potential affair. , gaslighting, and dozens of incidents. There are many media articles and one very lucky little knitwear brand.
Alexis Douget, 25, social media coordinator for wellness company Chillhouse, said she met a handsome stranger’s eye while walking down downtown New York City. That night, a message appeared on Mr. Duje’s crater. The man was a 23-year-old man with a silver nose ring and a neatly trimmed mustache, whom he had previously matched. “Hey, have you seen me downtown?”
His name is Josh and he wanted to know if she was interested in having a drink. Duje answered, “Yes.” (Mr. Douge shared these and other details in an interview with The New York Times, but Mr. Josh declined to comment.)
Douge, who moved to New York to pursue a master’s degree at Parsons, said the two talked about their shared appreciation for fashion. During her pandemic, she launched her knitwear brand ‘Maddi and Dani’. The two particularly bonded over her luxury fashion house, Margiela, and her line of shoes, Tavis.
With its signature split toe, this shoe is polarizing. Either go crazy or think it’s ugly. Mr. Duje and Mr. Josh were among those who were possessed by the obsession.
After spending the night together, the two soon woke up in Dougé’s apartment. According to her Dougée, as she was preparing for her departure, Josh wanted to show her her Spotify playlist. She gave him her cell phone, but after looking for a bit he returned the phone and said he couldn’t find it.
A few hours later, Mr. Duje was working on his computer and when he looked in his shoe cupboard, he realized something was missing. “Where are my tabi?” Duje said in a later TikTok video. “I search under beds, in suitcases, in closets.”
she can’t find them anywhere. In the video, she said she didn’t want to point fingers, but the two were just talking about them and she wanted to ask Josh if he had seen them. “I go on Tinder to message him – one of a kind. He’s gone,” she continued on TikTok.
Ms. Dougé then accessed the call log and called him, but was unable to because he apparently deleted the number from her phone.
A TikTok titled “NYC Fashion Girls Beware” was posted shortly after the incident and ended with a rally full of taunts to avoid Josh on TikTok. This video got his nearly 1 million views and got some updates.
Within hours of posting the video, TikTok and Twitter users sent him Josh’s full name, Instagram handle and phone number, he said. They also sent her some surprising information. Josh has a girlfriend who recently posted a photo of herself wearing the same Mary Jane Tavis that went missing from Douge’s apartment.
When Ms. Duje confronted Josh about the text messages, he vehemently denied receiving the tabi. But he finally admitted it when she sent him a screenshot of his girlfriend’s Instagram Story showing her wearing the same shoes. “I hope she understands,” he texted her. “I’ll be in touch, please let me know the time and location. I’m just asking you to take down the TikTok.” He posted a meme, a GIF of a man shrugging his shoulders guiltily.
The two arranged for a tabi exchange on the street, and Dougee recorded it and posted it on TikTok. In her video, she is seen conversing with a young man riding a bicycle with her shoes on, but the man does not seem remorseful. “I asked him honestly, why did you do this?” “Then he said ‘I don’t know,’ but he just shrugged his shoulders and smiled and kept saying, ‘I don’t know, I didn’t expect you to catch me.
Like the West Elm Caleb story of old, the story of the TikTok tabby thief has gone viral in its own, very local way, as a niche stereotype among a certain demographic of young, chronically online New Yorkers. became. This story seems to have all the makings of a viral hit. A deliciously twisted, low-stakes scam. Potential cheating scandal. A satisfying ending (the story’s victim got his shoe back) leaves room for further intrigue (what does the girlfriend think about all this?).
Douge said he must wear sunglasses whenever he leaves his Brooklyn apartment. Because she is always recognized. “They’ll say, ‘I’m glad you gave me back my tabi!'” She also said she received a surprising onslaught. Of hatred online. “Maybe that wasn’t his full intention, but he understood that I was in a vulnerable position and used it to his advantage,” she said. “And even after the fact, the sluts shamed me and said it was my fault and no wonder I slept with random people and all that. I don’t know why they would say that. , and I really wonder why they would do that, “painting me as a responsible person.” ”
Internet abuse aside, Duje said he believed the whole story worked for the unwitting party Margiela. Since her post went viral, dozens of commenters have said they’ve been searching for Mary Janes.
Online store Ssense offered to send her a new tabi “just in case,” in a message seen by The Times. (Neither Ssense nor Margiela responded to requests for comment.)
What about the crater? Duje said he deleted the app.
You might be able to catch her at Hinge or Raya, but her shoe collection will remain under lock and key — Sandy Liang Salomons in particular are said to be next season’s most stolen shoes.