Fake Luxury: To Indulge or Not to Indulge?

A topic that I’ve always found quite interesting is the phenomena of the craze behind #luxury goods. What causes people to yearn for certain goods that are way more expensive than others? Is it the public pressure, the desire for admiration, or something else?

In today’s society, there are many answers to that question: social media, high standards, pressure, and more. With platforms such as #Instagram, the desire to wear what our favorite influencer’s wear; expensive clothes, bags, jewelry, etc., is at an all-time high. The hazy concept of “clout,” influence stemming from money or connections, only further emphasizes the desperate feeling that many may get when they look at their own wardrobe and realize that it’s nowhere near as decadent or expensive-looking as others'. Even as someone who never really cared about trends, I found that as luxury items got popularized, I started to take a liking to the look of them as well.

Almost anyone would love a decadent wardrobe, but there’s just one problem in achieving that decadent wardrobe: prices are absolutely astronomical. Even the lowest prices for a decent sized bag will set you a few thousand dollars back in your wallet. To make it even worse, the luxury market is soaring with social media, which means price increases every year for already extreme-priced items. #Chanel, for example, may increase up to 10 percent every single year. Especially with Covid-19 this year, luxury brands are majorly increasing prices to make up for lost sales. And with how quickly trending luxury items go out of style, one always needs to buy more to stay “on top” of the trends.

So where does one go when they want luxury items, but not the luxury price? That’s where another topic I find highly fascinating comes in: fake luxury markets. There are fake markets located everywhere; from the man selling bags in front of your local supermarket to huge stores all the way in China. The trick is seeing how bold they are. Where there are more enforced laws, markets may be concealed deep within normal-looking stores, or special webpages. In places like Hong Kong, known for its fake luxury markets, there are huge clusters of vendors selling fakes right next to the real stores. There was even an incident where Costco was caught selling fake Louis Vuitton bags.

With all these markets, fakes are more accessible than ever. Fake luxury goods can go from looking like a cheap knock off, with all the wrong logos, to almost indistinguishable from the real item; it all depends on the price. In fact, if you see a Gucci belt or a Chanel bag in public, there’s quite a large chance that it may be fake. The accessibility of these lower-priced “luxury” goods is great for those who want the look but don’t want to spend the money, or simply don’t have the money. However, this brings the controversial topic of whether or not this should be allowed.

According to originality laws, these practices are, of course, illegal. However, these laws are very loosely enforced, which results in barely any penalty for fake markets. The public opinion of these fake goods, on the other hand, are a much greater debate. The emphasis on the argument against fakes is highly focused on creativity, artistry, and originality luxury companies proudly place into their items and that buying fakes is basically a slap in the face to the craftsmen and artists. However, many defenders will counterargue is that the ridiculous prices that luxury companies charge are very likely a rip-off, so you’re really only paying for the brand.

There’s also a strong argument against fakes in that the materials and labor that go into the production of them include sweatshops; barely-paid workers slaving away in horrible conditions as well as sketchy sources of leather and other materials. However, there’s also a counterargument that almost all companies today participate in those practices, they’re just hidden better. As of now, nothing has been strongly proven nor disproven, so the choice of taking the risk to support unfair practices is up to the buyer.

Ultimately it is up to you whether or not you want to indulge in these fake luxury goods, or indulge in luxury at all. It depends on what you care about most; the authenticity, originality, pride and craftsmanship of the real items or the look, money conservation, and accessibility of the fake items.