Why Do People Buy Fake Designer Bags Or Fake Designer Anything?

#3,631
From people I have met through the years that buy and wear fake bags they have thought that people are impressed because they own a designer bag even though many scream fake in every way. Some think the fake bag they were gifted or bought is real because they never went to a store to see the real bags in person and can’t tell the difference. Some don’t care and feel a 25.00 fake bags serves its purpose. There are a lot of wealthy people that carry fakes in bags and jewelry it is not limited to people who can’t affort to spend big money on authentic items.

My friends in high end retail told me many stories of quite a few of their clients carrying fakes and confiding in them the prices and how they can fool anyone because they were rich. My best friend was given a fake LV by her older sweet little old lady friend. She kept the bag because her friend made the effort to think it was her style and would like it. She basically wore it when visiting her friend and did not feel bad about it being a fake. Another person I knew had a rich nasty husband who bought her fake bags as gifts and she thought they were real. It look awhile for me to convince one close friend a plastic leather purse she received as a gift was fake. It fell apart with her first use. So some people can’t tell real leather and plastic leather apart? They just see a logo emblem so it has to be real.

While it is easy to think people need to be aware of the child labor, crime with fake products most people don’t care. And this happens more than one things in the manufacturing of many other products. Labor in other countries is bad for many people not just the replica industry.
 
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#3,633
Stumbled upon this old thread and thought to give my personal opinion/story.

All designer/luxury items I had were gifted or thrifted since i couldn't afford it with my measly salary. My dad would gift me Dooney and Bourke or Coach bags. My mom loves thrift shopping and has found a Stella McCartney tote and Gucci canvas tote which she gave to me.

But I have always loved designer bags. So when I moved overseas and finally had some mad money I bought a Ted Baker and Zac Posen bag.
I dreamed of owning a Chanel bag though, so I purchased a fake square mini to find out if I would really love the style and function of one.
I regret it, because it was such poor quality that there was no way to compare it with the real deal. Also after much research, I found out about the dark side of replica industry (funds other illegal trades)
I have now sworn off buying anything fake. I bought my 1st chanel last month, and also made a purchase today both from preloved sites.
 
#3,634
B. Jara said:
Perhaps some women just like the design of the bag...but could care less who made it? :idea:

Although often times the replica bags are made by what basically boils down to slave labor....but that's another whole ball o' wax.

Could your opinion be based on the fact that you sell designer bags?:suspiciou
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That’s so true, but in that case it’s better to look for the Amazon dupes, they are almost identical to the designer bags but unlike fakes they don’t use the name of the famous brand.
And there are thousands of nice options even in Zara, H&M or even Aldo has some pretty Ute ones. Or a higher level but not high end Coach, Michael by Michael Kors, Kate Spade. Rebecca Minkoff etc.

Sometimes what you need is just getting the style for a while and get the need of a certain designer bag out of your System.

A little nice anecdote I had with a Rebecca Minkoff love I had. I was at a dinner gathering with some friends from college and the girlfriend of one of our friends she’s had the real Boy Chanel and complimented my Rebecca Minkoff.

It felt nice hehe. Like I made a smart buy without going for a thousands dollar bag.

sometimes you just need to get that style for a long while. I latter re sold that bag on EBay after using it for a year or two. I also once had another Rebecca Minkoff which was quite similar to the flap classic Chanel with a similar chain with the leather in it.

So there is a way to get the style of that designer bag you love without spending thousands.
 
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#3,635
Dooneysta said:
People buy replica handbags because they desire status and for whatever reason (not being able to afford it being only one) decide not to pay for a real one.

Putting aside the bias you have on a handbag forum, replicas cannot be ethically justified. Sorry. They just can't.

I'm NOT talking about 'inspired' looks. That is a whole different category. Zara and H&M and Forever 21, etc, all exist in this category. If they sell a pair of pantaloons that look similar to some that Lagerfeld did last fall, it's not the same fish because Zara's not selling you a pair of pantaloons that say 'Karl Lagerfeld' on them. Quilted handbags are common. Everyone is not normally sticking the distinctive CC logo on them though.

When you manufacture and sell something that is meant to look EXACTLY like the original, you are stealing. Sorry if you think that's not the case, but I'm not sure HOW exactly you can argue that the replica manufacturer is NOT stealing from the designer. You're just trying to find a way to argue that stealing in this way isn't so bad, which is different.

Yes, it's very human to want something that's expensive for cheap. I mean, who doesn't!
And there's nothing 'wrong' with a person who can't afford a pricey version of an item.

But I don't think that's what people are getting at with the whole 'if you can't afford it then buy something else' line.
Nowhere else is 'if you can't afford it it's morally acceptable to steal it' acceptable unless you're...i don't know, stealing a loaf of bread to feed your dying toddler, Les Miz style.
If I want the new season of Game of Thrones but I'm of limited means, it doesn't then become okay to boost it from Target, buy a burned copy off a guy in an alley, or watch it on my neighbor's cable that I'm stealing.

Have we really sunk so low that we even have to argue about that???
What if you had to deal face to face with the real cost of your bag..?
Although not every single fake is, it's settled fact that a huge piece of the fake market supports and or/is the fruit of organized crime (ie mafia, yakuza,etc), terrorist organizations, drug traffickers and human traffickers.

People who kingpin fake manufacturing are making them with slave labor and using the proceeds to buy and sell other people for labor, the sex trade, etc. Some of the people they're buying and selling are children.

If you had to walk to the back of the warehouse and be handed your replica meekly by the abused cowed child who sewed it and you had to hand the money directly to a guy who then tells you he's going to use it to buy teenage girls in Thailand to resell for sex, are you actually still going to feel positive about it??

To each his own is not really a proper reply, in my opinion.
Yes, in a perfect world, if we really weren't hurting anyone to buy a replica, I might do it myself and I sure wouldn't care if anyone else did. If no one ever used the money from manufacturing fakes for abusing other people, and if the designer didn't get hurt in any way, then okay.
Except, well, they do. It's also shocking how many people justify it by saying, Michael Kors is filthy rich already; what difference does it make if I buy something someone stole from him?
If you saw a guy shoplift a wallet from the boutique and he offers to sell it to you when he walks out, would you buy it? If you would, you have a problem. If not, are you able to articulate why it's not the same thing if he has a booth set up next to the boutique door and he's selling nice looking fakes?

Right, not everyone will buy from him. But enough people will that that store's numbers are gonna go down. And down.
Eventually what are the options? Let's assume they cannot for whatever reason evict his booth.
To keep the store open, they have to cut costs since they are making less. They could do something easy at first like close earlier, save on utilities and payroll. Eventually they'll have to cut more hours or lay people off altogether. If they don't do that, they could raise prices...but that'll just encourage more people to check out the cheap fakes, maybe. So they can cut back on materials or move to a cheaper manufacturing market. Prices don't go up but they kinda do cause your REAL bag is lower quality than before.

And so on.

Plus, you know, there's just the principle that taking someone else's idea is wrong. You don't like it when the tool you work with presents your idea as his, or takes credit for work your team did. If he gets a raise because of the work he stole from you, won't you be EXTRA steamed off..??
Why does Michael Kors have to take it and you think he doesn't deserve the same common courtesy you're asking for?

There is NOTHING WRONG with people who can't afford expensive stuff. I wanna say that again. But 'I can't afford it so I'm going to buy stolen goods' is NOT a morally justifiable stance unless you're talking about something way more vital than purses and Blu-Rays and sunglasses.

I suspect that's what the people who said 'I look down on/can't respect people who buy fakes on purpose' mean, not that they judge 'poor' people for being broke. I mean, I HOPE that's what they mean...

Sorry to write a novel about it, but this topic has interested me for twenty years. It's fascinating to read the expanse of opinion.
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:clap:
:goodpost:
 
#3,637
[QUOTE="oshinex, post: 35139693, member: 146705"

Im going to stay on the topic of the article because I think this is worthwhile discussion, but I just want to highlight this straw man argument.
[/QUOTE]

The real difference between people who insist on buying authentic and those who buy reps is the value they put on the brand. There are lots of reasons to value that brand differently. Someone may value the way an authentic bag signals your wealth, and therefore feel like people with fake bags are sending fake signals about their economic status. Somebody may really enjoy the chase of a bag via Hermes and be willing to pay for the pleasure (which makes the authenticity of the brand valuable for them), while somebody else enjoys the risk and thrill of buying reps (which makes the fakeness of the brand part of the value for them, since the underground nature of reps makes them more exciting). The article itself shows that the TPR crowd and the RL crowd have radically different social and emotional relationships to brands.

The argument about Hermes labor conditions is a straw man argument, though, if you don't care about labor conditions more generally. I love Hermes' labor conditions, and think everyone should have the same. But it's a bit thin to claim that as a motivation for buying a $20K handbag, if you don't care that you also buy things made by workers who don't have the same conditions.
 
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#3,638
Insecure teenagers knowingly buying fake bags is one thing, but I've never understood adults buying a counterfeit. It isn't like buying a faux fur where you're not fooling anybody and everything is legit. On the other hand, some men (and women) buy counterfeit watches. I think it all boils down to insecurity if one knowingly buys a counterfeit item. Or maybe as a joke. I don't think the "average" person even knows what a Birkin is, plenty of affluent people I know haven't heard of "Hermes" period but pay for luxury cars and/or real estate in cash. I can understand somebody buying a fake bag of any sort without realizing that it's a copy of a famous brand, whether it be Hermes, Gucci, LV, etc. To us bag enthusiasts it looks bad, but I'm sure some of the buyers just see them as no-name bags and flat out just don't get it.
 
#3,640
I've seen multiple posters on other threads saying that people buying reps must be poor and billionaires don't buy reps, and my takeaways from are that:
- There seem to be an awful lot of people here who are either billionaires or who are well acquainted with them
- "Rich" people are clearly a homogenous group with no distinction for culture, wealth vs income, and different levels of rich (say net worth of $XXm, $XXXm, $X,XXXm+)
- "They / You can't afford it". This seems to be an almost automatic response when one disagrees with their opinion, almost thrown out like it's a virtue. Being rich isn't a virtue and rich people are often not virtuous.

I've worked for (only with the older generations) / socialized (mostly with the younger generations) with some of each "tier" of rich. People at all levels can be super cheapo. Also for most part, women who "belong" to any of these tier usually don't control the money. Their husbands do. So that full amount actually isn't at their disposal.

I don't think anyone at the $X,XXXm+ and $XXXm levels gets reps. These women almost never do real work and their main sources of identity usually stem from being featured in Tatler / heading some acceptable organization (that gives them prominence and multiple more chances to be featured in Tatler) and basically socializing with other rich women, who can be pretty *****y. They would rather die than besmirch their reputation by owning a rep of any mainstream "luxury" item. Also it is literal pennies to them.

$XXm. Here's where it gets interesting because I'm pretty sure that women at the lower end of this range do buy reps. Yes they can afford it, but everyone tends to: (1) loves a good bargain (2) loves to feel smarter, whether real or not. If you've ever bragged about snagging an awesome designer item at 80% off, this is in the same vein. A few anecdotes:

- Cousin in law's mum, their family is at least in the low $XXm. This lady is a shopaholic and I've hear that her European holidays are basically planned around outlet locations. She buys both real and fakes. It irritates the heck of cousin in law, who once took an item gifted by her to the boutique only to be embarrassed when they were told it was a rep

- Relative's boss in HK. White* and head of a "small" (ahem, private) Swiss private bank. Obviously earns alot. For her birthday she received a package delivered by ?auxiliary police? type couriers because inside were individually selected diamonds for her to make a full bracelet. Courtesy of her very rich, very much older boyfriend. Yet she also made frequent trips across the border and came back to the office bragging about all the cheap reps she got there. She dressed in reps head-to-toe

*There's this stereotype that reps are common in Asia when it seems that most of them are actually made for export... I've heard that Chinese society self polices for reps. The joke was, when it rains, see who shields the handbag and who uses the handbag as a shield.
 
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#3,641
Kfka_btsea said:
Also for most part, women who "belong" to any of these tier usually don't control the money. Their husbands do. So that full amount actually isn't at their disposal.

I don't think anyone at the $X,XXXm+ and $XXXm levels gets reps. These women almost never do real work and their main sources of identity usually stem from being featured in Tatler / heading some acceptable organization (that gives them prominence and multiple more chances to be featured in Tatler) and basically socializing with other rich women, who can be pretty *****y. They would rather die than besmirch their reputation by owning a rep of any mainstream "luxury" item. Also it is literal pennies to them.
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Nope just nope.

Plenty of women in tech (not as many as there should be), media, Hollywood, fashion making a great deal of money.

Plenty of women with a great deal of money who do have a sense of identity.

Excluding late in life trophy wives, women whose husbands/partners made the bulk of the family money absolutely do have control of spending.

And plenty of billionaires/wives of billionaires do carry reps. I'm not a fan of it but it's absolutely a fact.
 
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#3,643
QuelleFromage said:
Nope just nope.

Plenty of women in tech (not as many as there should be), media, Hollywood, fashion making a great deal of money.

Plenty of women with a great deal of money who do have a sense of identity.

Excluding late in life trophy wives, women whose husbands/partners made the bulk of the family money absolutely do have control of spending.

And plenty of billionaires/wives of billionaires do carry reps. I'm not a fan of it but it's absolutely a fact.
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Oh I completely missed this. If it's not already obvious from my post, I'm in Asia. Different rules apply here, I guess. No billionaire's wife wants to be caught dead with a rep here.

Also for women in tech to be in the 9 not 8 figures range... how many are there anyway?
 
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#3,644
Kfka_btsea said:
Oh I completely missed this. If it's not already obvious from my post, I'm in Asia. Different rules apply here, I guess. No billionaire's wife wants to be caught dead with a rep here.

Also for women in tech to be in the 9 not 8 figures range... how many are there anyway?
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Yeah, coming back in a bit late, but still wrong with the stereotypes...

1) Of course no one anywhere wants to be "caught dead" with a rep. So, they buy reps that are impossible to catch 🤷‍♀️

2) Women centimillionaires? There are more than you apparently think, I could name a few hundred off top of my head 🤷‍♀️ There are quite a few on this forum :giggle:
 
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