Few can resist the temptation to save a few bucks, and much less a few hundred or thousand. When it comes to luxury wares, particularly handbags, frugal fashionistas flock to street peddlers and internet hockers to get their manicured hands on the season’s latest and greatest at well below retail. No matter how luxurious the leather, perfect the pattern or sturdy the stitching is there a crime greater than not having carrying the latest IT bag? The answer is obvious with global repercussions ranging from economics and security to humanity that put the price tag far beyond the imagination of even Louis Vuitton himself.
Faking it is big business and just keeps getting bigger. Consumer supply and demand has aided in driving it up over 10 000 percent in the past decade. With seven percent of world trade now in counterfeit goods, the International Trade Commission now estimates the market in illegitimate goods at least $600 billion and an enormous threat for the global economy.
In March of 2006, Washington acknowledged the need for international intervention with Bill 32, the “Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act”, the first threat to the Flendi bag in over 20 years. Revising federal criminal stature, this is setting a new international standard by adding the mandatory forfeiture, destruction and restitution of offensive goods not to mention increased prison terms by up to 20 years for the offenders.
Global response has stepped up significantly in the past year, with reports of hundreds of millions of dollars in seizures sending garbage bag toting vendors scurrying from Canal Street and Milanese marketplaces and lawsuits from Fendi, Tommy Hilfiger and Coach leaving retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club scrambling.
The economic impact can be startling when we take into account the depressed cycle created by counterfeiting that begins with decreased legitimate retail sales and ends in the loss of jobs in the manufacture, distribution and sale of legitimate goods. Equally concerning is that the FBI and Interpol estimated $250 billion in lost revenue caused by counterfeiting is money not paid into taxes and thereby schools and hospitals.
At the very heart of the issue is simply a matter of intellectual property. Though the idealism of recognizing and withholding the legally defined creative integrity of trademarks and copyrights can become cloudy when multi-billion dollar corporations are the benefactors, the principle remains unchanged. That LV Speedy bag was created by an artist whose monetary success shouldn’t jeopardize his right to exclusivity anymore than the fledgling designer in the studio on Queen Street.
This begs the question: if a bag isn’t making money for a luxury goods conglomerate, then who is it making money for? The answer is organized crime, terrorist groups and even dictatorships. Until very recently, the low risk of prosecution and enormous profit have built counterfeiting into an extremely attractive enterprise for criminal and terrorist groups to raise and launder funds. The China town Berkin is very often worth far more than its bargain basement price tag upon arrival, with illicit drugs smuggled in through its lining. The links between Al-Qaeda, Basque terrorists ETA and fake Rolexes, shampoos and high society handbags are charted in seizures containing terrorist training materials among the cheap couture and Montblanc pens. The business starts with imitation luxury goods and ends with narcotics, weapons, money laundering and grand theft which can leave us guilty of a crime far beyond simple thrifty materialism.
So criminals make the profit, but who makes the handbag? It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the answer is always child labour and in conditions far worse than any legitimate Nike sweatshop. The International Anti Counterfeiting Coalition reports that factory workers are often handcuffed minors in the most dire of all assembly lines. The metaphorical blood stains on a knock off often set the bargain basement price.
As a concerned consumer, is it possible to build a guilt free designer wardrobe at a fraction of the Holt Renfrew price tag? Not likely. The biggest rule in honing your consumer instincts to match your fashion sense is that when the price sounds too good to be true, it almost always is. This means closing your eBay account and coming to terms with the fact that the designer discount warehouse whose wares come out of garbage bags does not have a Louis Vuitton licensing agreement no matter how flawless its renditions. Yes it is true that authentic stolen bags can be found streetside from time to time but the moral dilemma remains unchanged. When haute equals hot, it also equals plain theft. End of discussion.
If you are in doubt as to the authenticity of a legitimately acquired purchase, check out the advice of websites such as www.mypoupette.com, which can help point out the details to investigate or take it straight to the source at an authorized dealer.
If you simply can’t resist carrying the silhouette of the season, make sure it’s a similar, or inspired by bag, which are entirely legal, very well made, inexpensive and obviously not authentic, despite familiar details. These are available legitimately at many retailers and will often only vary in the trademark pattern.
Sacrificing a season must-have for a clear conscience is an effortless feat and only frees up cash to be spent on the wares of local designers and other beautiful and legitimate goods that don’t rob lives, ideas, jobs and security to line their own pockets. Also, there is absolutely no crime in finding great deals in consignment shops that flog the cast offs of the privileged or simply modifying your tastes to match your budget.
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