According to a professor at MIT, forty percent of people who buy fake goods – whether bags, sunglasses or clothes – eventually buy the real thing.
Renee Gosline’s researching the effects of counterfeit product, without cooperation from a single luxury house, and study after study shows that those who end up with a fake get fed up with its flaws, realize it’s not a substitution for an actual lambskin Chanel and will, almost half of the time, cough up the money for the real thing.
One of the studies Gosline’s conducted involves posing both real and fake bags on a black background and again in their natural habitat; she finds that most of the time people can differentiate between real and fake based on the accompanying outfit. Apparently, there’s even a Facebook group called, “Darling I Can Tell by the Rest of Your Outfit Your Louis Vuitton is Fake.”
If most people can spot a fake and its owner will eventually splurge on the real thing anyway, than buying one’s even sillier than we thought.
Tags: Chanel, Facebook, MIT, Renee Gosline, WWD
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Interesting…
So true. And we all know, in fashion, quality reigns over quantity. So just an advice to anyone who’s stripped off of cash and would rather purchase one of those pseudo designer bags: Save that money for the real thing, or buy something more economical yet still screams chic. An original leather ZARA bag is way more legit than a CHANEL bag made out of who knows what.
Peace Out. :>
Renee sure must be glad for that E at the end of her surname.
Did she find 40% of the people purchase the designer version of the counterfeit item they bought? Or that 40% of the people who buy counterfeits later buy something (anything) designer?
To play devil’s advocate (I’ve never purchased a fake but I do buy “real” designer bags): If it’s the former you could say people were being savvy shoppers. Buy a $75 Bottega knockoff, carry it for a week, see if the color/design works with your wardrobe…and if you like it upgrade to the real $2000 one. If not, you’re not out $xxxx on a bag you won’t carry.
Even when I was a teenage, I thought fakes were gross (and it wasn’t like I had the money for the real thing, I just knew luxury was better than poorly made crap). But an acquaintance of mine had no issue with them. She had a penchant for Louis Vuitton and owned about 5 handbags total. 2 being fake 3 real. Which ones do you think she carried all the time? Those fakes hardly ever saw the light of day because they’re eyesores and were such a waste of money. I tried to warn her. Now she never goes fake and has realized it’s better to buy something from a lesser known brand that’s authentic than fake stuff which looks terrible.
PS- Laughing at that facebook group. I tried to explain this to people over and over again. Usually with a fake handbag it’s the rest of the outfit that alerts you to it’s fakeness. Louis Vuitton doesn’t look right paired with a North Face polar fleece.
It’s not really the outfit so much as it the person. If you look like you have good tastes, the bag, fake or not, is going to look real.
#5 again.
#4 put it better than me. If you are going out in a fleece, I’m having doubts as to why you would even try carrying a designer bag with that jacket. $2000 bags aren’t mean to carry to class just because.
Well that makes total sense. You buy the fake because of a desire to want the authentic but the truth is that you will never be satisfied looking down at your imposter and always knowing that it was thrown into the back of a truck and cared for badly…
http://layersandswathes.wordpress.com
#4, i don’t own anything fake or anything North Face but I need you to explain to me why I can’t wear this
http://img-1.h-img.com/media/img/s/t/h/e/the-north-face-denali-fleece-jacket-men–3396533.jpg
with this
http://www.louis-vuitton-review.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/louis-vuitton-taiga-dersou-for-men.jpg
by picking out a specific item of clothing that’s more function than form, your statement reeks of ignorance and prejudice. I bet you would change your tune if the polar fleece was Moncler, no?
#5, I look like shit 24/7 but I think I have good taste so tell me what a person with good tastes looks like according to you?
#7, those Chet Baker pics remind me of these ads, I think Miles was in one but I can’t find it.
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Images/jksm.gif
Also, L. Hutton and I once talked about our motorcycle accidents. She spent 6 months in recovery/rehabilitation and never rode again. Too bad, she rode a wicked BMW.
http://www.k-state.edu/udlearnsite/img/L2-Techno.jpg
How exactly are people suppose to dress if they carry a designer bag? I don’t see anything wrong with mixing
comfort and luxury.
i guess no one is going to mention the fact that the counterfeit trade is terrible due to the fact that it thrives on child labor.
No #11, aka Mother Teresa, because it’s already been addressed thousands of comments ago.
Britt is trying to take a different, behavior angle on the subject. It’s 2010, keep up.
Clearly you’ve never met sorority girls in the south. Those girls are definitely sporting the real deal, North Face jackets and (real) pearl earrings are part of the uniform.
No, I would not change my attitude regardless of the fleece. It’s still a fleece. And no I still think it looks bad. But hey, that’s just my opinion. Wear what you like.
PS – Rashface, your statement is written to confuse the hell out of everyone, wasn’t it? Looking like shit and having good taste? Oxymoron. Someone with good taste doesn’t leave the house “looking like shit”.
Can’t say I have Tyler (though I’m from Virginia) but I can tell you this, I have real pearl earrings and an old fleece in my closet. Doesn’t mean my handbag is real and it doesn’t mean theirs is either (I’d be willing to bet $500 most of them are fake).
I must’ve pissed off #15 so much as to get a postscript.
Etoilee8, in that example, I was addressing #6 who is #5 so let her/him speak for themselves unless you are both people which we’ll never know.
Now, if you refer back to #8, I’m addressing you, #4 who
“tried to explain this to people over and over again” but have yet tried to explain it to me or #10.
#13 seems to disagree with you too so I guess not everyone is confused.
Just admit that you just revealed yourself to be someone who only looks at people’s surface and judge.
RR, Thanks but I’m free to respond to whatever I want, just like you are allowed to.
Now while all this is open for interpretation, I have to ask, does Karl Lagerfeld look like shit ever? Nope. How about Kate Lanphear? Daphne Guinness? Kate Moss? Anne Wintour (hell we saw her wear jeans just recently for the first time)? Audrey Hepburn? Grace Kelly? None of these people have ever been described as looking like shit, but they are the people who many of us abide as having good taste.
Now you go ahead and admit that you’re kind of full of it.
PS- Come down off your high horse. EVERYONE judges on the surface (doesn’t mean we write people off immediately). But you of all people . . . who goes about talking about your amazing weight loss as if it makes you a better person for it, shame on you . . .
Having good taste is not the same thing as caring what you look like or what you are wearing. There are a lot of stylists out there who do a decent job at styling other people but who, imo, look kind of awful themselves. And for most normal people (who have to earn a living, and from something other than fashion) sometimes utility, or time contraints, or sleep, wins out over looking cute.
(and personally, I think Karl Lagerfield always looks awful)
You can wear utilitarian and still look put together. You can be a mother of four and still look button cute. It’s all about whether or not you care enough to. All I’m saying is the people we uphold as “style makers”, the general consensus is that these people do not look like shit 75% of the time. Even these stylist you speak of put effort into how they look (even if it isn’t your taste). But not everyone has the same style icons. One person’s Karl Lagerfeld is another persons “uuugh!”
Karl DOES always look awful. And if you ever get to Aspen you’ll see that it’s still OK to take out your real bags when you’re wearing a fleece.
I know you think your bag is special, but you don’t have to dress up for it. ;)
I know it’s ok but is it ugly? In my eyes, very much so. If I’m going to wear a fleece, I have a nice backpack that goes great with it.
PS- I think Karl looks cool as a cucumber.
did something happen to the Fashionista commenters? I've noticed a HUGE drop in comments after launching the new webstyle. I'm especially surprised on a post like this one..
It's especially obvious with Birkin bags..I mean come on have a little respect!
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