Some years ago a friend (who I've slipped out of contact with since) who was into fashion to the point it might be called an obsession, used the term “original

Some years ago a friend (who I've slipped out of contact with since) who was into fashion to the point it might be called an obsession, used the term “original copy” to specifically refer to side copies, made in the same factory as the actual original, likely by the same workers, off the record, with excess materials from the end of an official production run (or simply stolen, sorry “redirected”, materials). Sometimes items would have minor defects (maybe those were official originals that failed a QA inspection?), often there would be nothing detectable different from the “real thing” apart from maybe a missing care label or such. Sounds like the term has become a bit more general, going by the interpretation you've experienced.