If you’ve ever been to New York’s Canal Street, you’ve undoubtedly seen countless counterfeit designer bags, scarves, wallets, and jewelry. It seems like street vendors do a brisk business peddling knock-off Kate Spade purses, Coach handbags, Prada wallets, and other popular “designer” goods. Some knock-offs are incredibly easy to spot, what with the misspelled logos and cheap zippers, while others may actually look real.

Seth McCormick/Fashionising.com
But despite the “great deal” you may feel like you’re getting when buying a fake, is it ever really in fashion?
It’s easy to look at a season’s It Bag and think a fake is just as good if you can’t afford the luxury good. But is it really worth the price? And how do you spot a fake when you’re online shopping and attempting to break into the eBay vault for a great deal on the real thing?
Identifying fakes may seem like a daunting task — many knock-off producers provide equally fake “certificates of authenticity” — but there are a few tip-offs you can keep an eye out for.
- Packaging. If your bag arrives wrapped in plastic or paper it’s probably a knockoff.
- Price. If it’s an unbelievable deal, it is probably unbelievably fake.
- Construction. Look at the quality of material, stitching, zippers, and labels. Crooked stitching, unmarked zippers, and slightly off-center tags are indications of a fake.
- Where you find it. The best way to avoid fakes is to buy directly from the manufacturer or boutique, or reputable consignment shops that guarantee authenticity (like Portero.com). Unauthorized dealers are hotbeds for counterfeit sales.
If you’re looking to buy a fake, just consider that your $25 deal comes at a much higher cost. Child labor, sweatshops, and human trafficking are a few of the social costs of the black market, and a few of the most obvious reasons fakes are never in fashion. It’s easy to overlook the fact that your cheap knock-off comes at the expense of a designer’s intellectual property (who cares if Louis Vuitton isn’t earning your money?), but that’s not the only thing sacrificed in your pursuit of a deal.
Child labor and atrocious working conditions, not just for the bag but its parts (fake leather, lead-laden metals, labels, etc.), are high costs to pay. And what about the effect fakes have on the economy?
With that in mind, Harper’s Bazaar’s Fakes are Never in Fashion campaign takes a look at the numbers:
- $512 billion: global sales lost to counterfeit goods
- $250 billion: annual losses to American companies from intellectual property theft
- $20 billion: estimated losses to American companies from counterfeit products
- $1 billion: estimated annual losses in New York City tax revenues due to counterfeiting
- 750,000 jobs: lost due to intellectual property theft in the United States
When considering not only the labor practices, but the economic hits the country takes from so many people supporting the counterfeiting industry, it’s hard to make a case for them being in fashion. There are plenty of inexpensive (and stylish) accessories out there by smaller-name designers that can still fulfill our fashion whims without ripping off someone else’s design.
Don’t get us wrong — there are certainly luxury manufacturers who have taken advantage of cheap outsourced labor, downgraded the quality of their goods while raising prices, and committed other social sins. It’s not always public knowledge when luxury manufacturers are guilty of this, but keeping your head up will help keep your conscience clean.