If my bag is fake, what does that say about me?

It’s been said that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Not quite, if you ask the people behind luxury brands. Imitation has become their worst enemy, their foe in a fierce battle to take back what they have lost: revenue, brand reputation, good will and brand equity.

Counterfeiting has reared its dark, ugly head, taunting luxury brands with an in-your-face brashness, claiming an unlawful stake in the multibillion-dollar fashion industry and undeserved dominance over the rightful purveyors of luxury goods.

Counterfeit goods have existed since 200 BC. If you walk into the Museum of Counterfeiting in Paris, you will find fake wine stoppers used to transport wine from Italy to Gaul millenniums ago.

Today, it is no longer about wine stoppers. The stakes are much higher — about US$600 billion worth — and it has gone global, spanning the world from the Silk Alley and Old City of Shanghai in China to the Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy, to the Stadium Market in Warsaw, Poland, to Canal Street in New York City, where the fabulously fashionable quartet of Sex and the City were once filmed gushing over a knockoff Hermès bag.

According to a most recent estimate, the luxury brand industry has lost about $250 billion to counterfeiting. These past few years they have taken a very aggressive stance against violators and began working with investigators worldwide to put a stop to this black-market industry. Several raids initiated by luxury firms have netted sizeable confiscated fakes. One raid in Virginia led to the seizure of almost $300 million in fake goods. Another one in Canal Street involved a million dollars’ worth of imitation Chanel, Gucci, Coach and Cartier products.

Just this February here in the Philippines, almost $5 million worth of fake Louis Vuitton bags (28,000 pieces in all) were confiscated in retail stores and warehouses in Metro Manila. Even eBay was ordered to pay a fine of 38 million euros to the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) Group and 20,000 euros to Hermès for selling fake LV and Hermès bags and Christian Dior cosmetics.

Because of the staggering amount of money involved in this underground business, the people behind them have become more crafty and organized. It is rumored that mafias are heavily involved in the business, child labor and human trafficking are part of the system, and some proceeds from the sales are being used to fund certain terrorist activities. With all this disturbing information, who would want to buy these counterfeit products? Apparently many.

Faking It

Several years ago, I got invited to a “purse party.” “What is that?” you might ask. A purse party is a casual get-together much like a Tupperware party attended mostly by upper-middle-class women. But instead of comparing and buying plastic, women purchase fake, illegal designer bags over wine, appetizers and chitchat. While I didn’t go to the party because of my “buy only the real thing” stance, I found out that this social trend is apparently popular, especially in America where the idea took hold.

A researcher named Renee Richardson Gosline became curious about the phenomenon and conducted research over a period of two and a half years. She followed purse parties and traveled through social networks to document the attendees’ behavior. She found that most of the women didn’t seem to mind the illegality of their behavior because of the friendly atmosphere at the parties. But what she didn’t expect was, over a period of time, these women began checking out the brands’ websites and became converts to the real thing. They reconciled their dishonest public behavior with their positive, private self-image and the latter one won over time. In the end these women realized that nothing could substitute for the real deal.

If you’ve got purse partygoers on one hand, then you’ve got “counterfeit chic” on the other. These are women who can clearly afford the genuine products but opt to buy the convincing fakes because they find it cool and fashion-forward. They mix originals and knockoffs with ease when they go out and make no excuses for their choices. In a somewhat perverse way, they like the fact that they can get away with using fakes and be admired for it.

The “snobs” are those who have a double standard about wearing fakes. They have a very strong sense of entitlement and justify their choice to use fakes because they deserve to feel good about themselves and have the best in life.

While the motivation behind buying and using fakes may be varied, ultimately it is a personal choice.

Here are several factors that largely explain why people buy fakes:

• Price is a primary incentive for almost everyone who buys fakes. They feel that by buying the real thing, they are being ripped off. Not knowing the actual difference between the genuine and imitation, they believe that buying cheap means they are getting a great deal and not buying something of inferior quality.

• Attitude. Several studies have shown that people with a high level of moral judgment are less likely to buy fakes for personal consumption or as a gift for another person. But people who wear fake items are more likely to behave unethically and participate in fraudulent behavior.

• Status consumption is the desire to fit in a social class wealthier than their own or an expression of who they think they are to others through the products they use. People who often do not have the financial means but aspire to belong will purchase a fake regardless of their ethical standing. They don’t value the functionality of a product; instead they buy them to project the “image of status” or “having arrived.”

• Abject materialism is the view that wealth is the only way to achieve happiness at any cost, even buying fake. At times, it serves as a life goal for certain people because they view worldly possessions as a gauge of their wealth and social standing. They believe they are sending positive signals to the outside world when in fact they are sending negative signals to themselves.

Now, if you are none of the above and just want to be able to spot a counterfeit, especially when buying via the Internet, here are some practical tips that will hone your fake-alert button:

1. Buy only at the boutique, the brand’s website or an authorized website (in this case, www.eluxury.com) and an authorized dealer. Don’t buy at flea markets, purse parties, street vendors or unauthorized websites.

2. If the price is too good to be true, chances are it is. Unless you buy at a by-invitation-only brand-sponsored sale or an in-store limited sale, you will not find original products marked down considerably elsewhere.

3. Luxury brands are proud of their craftsmanship; they pay careful attention to design details. So if you see sloppy stitching in less visible areas like the lining, inside pocket or the underside of the bag, then those products are most likely fake.

4. Luxury brands put a premium not only on their products but also their packaging, so they come wrapped in tissue paper, cloth bags accompanied by authenticity cards, product care information, superior-quality boxes and paper bags. If you come across an item that is wrapped in plastic or bubble wrap, turn around and walk away from the poseur.

5. Conduct a spell check. Since most fake products are made in non-English-speaking countries, there is always a chance that fake product logos and names are misspelled. Check for letters that are swapped or a letter that is in capitals when it should not be.

6. Look for the logo hardware. If the logo is not embossed or engraved on leather or directly onto a metal piece such as zippers, latches, snaps or buckles, then they are imitations.

7. Inspect the labels. If they are not delicately stitched on and are just printed on a hangtag, it is a fake. Look at the country of origin as well; you might be surprised to find that upon careful inspection, it bears a “Made in China” label.

8. Be informed. If you want to purchase a particular type of product, research it, go to the official website, take photos of celebrities using the product, look at the ads and the catalogs or better yet, visit their store so you get up-close-and-personal enough with the product that you won’t get fooled by an impostor.

‘Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, baby’

I confess to buying counterfeit once in my life, eons ago on a trip to Taipei for a fashion show at the Asia World Hotel. I wanted to impress a boyfriend so along with the other models, we bought up a vendor’s entire inventory of fake Cartier and Dunhill watches and proudly gifted our boyfriends and loved ones with the bogus timepieces.

I was young and naïve, I didn’t even think for a minute that what I was buying wasn’t the real stuff. I was just happy to pay so little for such famous brands. Of course, no sooner were we sporting them on our wrists than the face started to tarnish and the hour hand stopped. So much for the deal of a lifetime!

Truth be told, I have only been to a tiangge once to look for uniforms; I have never set foot inside the 168 Mall. Both places hold no fascination for me and I would not be caught dead bringing foreign visitors to either place, even if others rave about the so-called “great deals” there. I don’t always associate “bargain” with a great buy or “cheap” as a great find. I do not pretend to be the moral compass for fashion. I am just a smart, practical and responsible consumer.

Today there are many wonderful and affordable fashion labels to choose from, so there is no excuse to resort to fakes or depend on luxury labels alone to create a unique fashion style.

Fake is fake and there are no two ways about it. If you can’t afford the real thing, don’t buy the lowly imitation. You may be able to fool some, but you definitely cannot fool yourself, so as the Bard said, “To thine own self be true.”