Genuine Wolex watch anyone? Our love of a fake fashion bargain is back on the rise but how bad are those sartorial skid marks imprinted on the industry and in-turn, why the hell are we still faking it??
 
“Touis Vouiston”, “Georgia Armani”, “Auls Boutique”, these are the oh-so luxurious brands which have prevailed over the Brit car boot market since the early 90’s. Their popularity declined in the early naughties (as our ever expanding disposable incomes instead were stuffed into genuine designer purses) however, in the wake of our doomed economy counterfeit designer goods are back, baby, BACK!

British Customs reported a 60% increase in intercepted counterfeit booty coming into the country this year.  Does the cost to the plagiarised brands really add up? Copious numbers of reports confirm that they do in fact lose millions in sales. For every illegal bag found, this is one sale lost to the stores (British Trading Standards Report, (2010))  Is this a sensible assumption? Would these consumers, if fakes were not available, buy the real deal?

So here’s the rub: British customs this year seized around 6 million fake products, that’s a lot of bags, and that’s a lot of potentially people frontin' inconspicuous labels - counterfeit or not. All exposure is good exposure, right? We ask, has a back-handed compliment ever really been a bad thing…?

Posted on December 01, 2011 at 4:10:18 by Daisy Davidson