When looking for a new purse you probably hit the mall, the internet, or just your local Wal-Mart. However, something has been feverishly growing and has been gnawing at me for quite a while.
Fakes. Yes, that dreaded word that takes the joy out of a designer purse. They are running rampant all over the world. From the big city top executive to the suburban wife, people with totally different lifestyles and income brackets are drawn into the same obsession, the now multi-million dollar industry: buying a knock-off designer purse.
The local flea markets used to be the hub for the vendors of these obviously made cheap imitation handbags. Now it has spread to the retail stores everywhere. Some people are actually proud to trot a fake handbag.
The differences from the authentic bag and those made in some sweatshop can be as obvious as the material to the least conspicuous detail like the stitching or the placement of the designer logos.
I began noticing this horrible trend when Jennifer Lopez began modeling for the French designer Louis Vuitton. Though I am not placing blame on the pop-singer, it seems Jennifer Lopez’s popularity only helped the imitations spread due to the low price tag associate with these handbags.
It seems everyone from the college student in debt with student loans to the hootchy mama on the corner street is now able to afford a look alike of a $1000+ handbag with the traditional designer logo.
I don’t know about anyone else, but this sickens me!
A “real” designer handbag can range from $250 to up to $5000. How can so many people suddenly able to afford such high luxury items? They can’t! They are all very well made fakes that cost anywhere from $50-$200.
You’re probably saying, “Well, if you can’t tell then what will it hurt?”
Actually, a “real” designer handbag is smoother and has a serial number stamped or stitched on the inside. It also comes with authenticity papers.
But this is where it really hurts. Awhile back the top news show “Dateline” reported that the fake handbag industry generates money to support terrorist groups. Yes, you read right! Terrorism!
As far as back as the summer of 2003 when Interpol Secretary General Ronald K Noble declared that the 450 billion dollar knock off industry was using the profits from these counterfeits to fund terrorism.
Did we help support the crash of the Twin Towers
?
People who buy fakes are harming our very safety just to save a buck.
In January’s issue of Bazaar, a magazine devoted to high-end fashion, has an article specifically targeting knock-off purses. It also describes the growing rate of child labor in less fortunate countries whom are made to live and work in horrible conditions only to feed American’s horrible appetite to show off a designer purse.
I realize that pirated items will probably always exist, but if people educate themselves enough to distinguish the fake from the real, then these knock off artists will lose money and will no longer be a billion dollar industry.
The police and even our government are cracking down on fake items and are busting people and slapping hard time on them. But it’s not just nasty criminals that are profiting from this type of business.
Everyday homemakers are buying these fakes in bulk and reselling them to make a profit for themselves. They make “house calls” to potential buyers and layout what they have for sale and encourage the consumers to buy these purses, even when they claim they are authentic.
If we are to stop this from continuing people need to realize that paying $150 for a knockoff isn’t worth the price of our freedom and safety. I would rather carry around no purse at all than carry over my shoulder a knock-off designer bag.