Comments on: A Sad Day for Fake Designer Handbags: Chinatown’s Purse Vendors Close

By: Carol Puley

Carol Puley — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:24:59 +0000

I just got back from Chinatown and the knockoff business was thriving. First time there. The experience was interesting to say the least! My daughter wanted a Coach and Chanel purse. This was an inexpensive way to get her a “designer” purse that if it falls apart as some one said in a previous comment will be just fine because her taste will have changed by then! Those of you who have teenagers can relate. I am not into flashing a designer name but I did find a cute purse and matching wallet that I bought. If this is illegal how do they get away with it so openly?

By: Chris Maggio

Chris Maggio — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:18:40 +0000

@ Lily I would say there is no garauntee that the real shit isn’t made in sweatshops. Gucci doesn’t give a fuck about da kids. They all at least have some shady ties. That’s how you become successful. You are right though that most people want labels, not irony. I do, however, feel as though people that buy the real shit want the same thing, but that they can afford it, while the poseurs cannot. To me that is pretty much the only difference.

@ Cecilia let’s get serious you were valorizing these brands at the expense of their knock-offs. i mean you wouldn’t be mentioning “the fashion police” if you weren’t. or not i guess…

@ Josh whatup cutie.

By: Cecilia T.

Cecilia T. — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:16:16 +0000

@ Claire, I heard about the same counterfeiting process over there in there in the motherland and I wonder just how near-perfect it can get…. until I go there myself, I guess I wouldn’t know….

By: Cecilia T.

Cecilia T. — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:14:25 +0000

@ Chris, I never once mentioned that the brands I listed were “cool”.

By: Claire Brooks

Claire Brooks — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:24:08 +0000

Or go to Wu-Mart– much better alternative to Walmart. And no risk of death by stampede during the sales.

By: Henry Chan

Henry Chan — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:03:18 +0000

Or just forego all the designer brands and buy $10 purses at a Wal-Mart.

By: Claire Brooks

Claire Brooks — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:59:19 +0000

@ Cecilia: True Chinatown replicas aren’t that great. I used to think that if I couldn’t get the real thing, then too bad.

But then I lived in Beijing for a bit and my thoughts on it changed quite rapidly. For one, buying a knockoff in China is a whole different game. I was told that basically someone in a factory will organize a way to steal some patterns, an actually copy of the product, and (sometimes the fabric if its a good bootlegger) pass it off to some crooked factory owner who then employs some more cheaply paid people to make pretty much identical shit and sell it for less. So my thinking was that… if the same people… are using the same patterns…with luck the same material… to make it for 30$, there’s just no way I’m gonna buy it for anything more.

Instead of buying some thousand dollar purse, get a ticket, go to China, have an amazing and also cheap ass vacay, and leave with a whole wardrobe that probably could fool Anna Wintour.

By: Lily Q

Lily Q — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:23:42 +0000

@chris: untrue. yes, you’re still buying a label, but the real label comes with a warranty and no pleather. you’re buying something that’s well made in factories full of sweaty adults, not perspiring children.
as for the whole irony of fakes thing, i guarantee that a vast majority of people buying them aren’t going for irony, they’re just desperate for the logo.

By: Chris Maggio

Chris Maggio — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:07:00 +0000

@ Lily buying reals is not any less label whoring. it’s just more expensive. and less funny.

By: Lily Q

Lily Q — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:35:31 +0000

Buying fakes is the ultimate in label whoring, it just makes you look like a moron. That said, it’s not as if the fake trade is going away so it feels like a waste of money for NY to have a massive “crack down” every year only for the whole thing to start over within weeks.