There’s an anxiety about friends or coworkers catching on, Gross says. The majority of people that buy counterfeits do it secretly, an almost guilty pleasure. There’s a catch though: you wouldn’t even be able to tell. Some of the most faked bags are often status symbols at different price points: the Louis Vuitton Neverfull, the Hermès Birkin bag, and the classic Chanel flap bag. In a world driven by overconsumption and trend cycles, to have the latest It-bag, at times costing more than the downpayment on a car, is essential. Studies show that a 1/5th of all luxury goods you see on your timeline are fake, a head-spinning number that makes all too much sense considering the social media landscape. Nowadays, the majority of counterfeit items are bought online, whether it be through word-of-mouth groups on messaging apps like WeChat or Instagram sellers boasting about how their products are ‘exactly like the real thing.’ In the digital age, one could certainly argue that social platforms have a responsibility to curb illegal activity, fake bags being no exception. When there are millions of packages going through customs every day though, it gets tricky. ![]() Customs and Border Protection halts thousands worth of replica bags and goods from entering the country every year. Brands can only assure items bought in-store are real, oftentimes refusing to authenticate anything bought outside. Successfully or not, fashion’s juggernaughts have had a hard time squashing the black market.Īlthough the luxury goods sector has seen some wins, like Louis Vuitton winning a million dollar lawsuit against private counterfeit sellers in 2017, there hasn’t been much activity. The union between Gucci and Facebook is one of the first of its kind between a luxury giant and Silicon Valley - in the past, designer brands have often resorted to disputing counterfeit claims on their own. Michele previously played around with the iconic G logo in 2016, flipping it upside down and misspelling the brand name to reference the booming fake market. It wasn’t his first tongue-in-cheek reference though. ![]() On the menswear Fall/Winter 2020 runway, the Gucci’s creative director debuted his ‘Fake Not’ collection, a bold riff of counterfeit culture constantly cropping up on social media feeds. When you look at the way the Italian house used to poke fun at fakes, the stride towards legal action is a bit meta.Įarlier last year, the enigmatic, maximalist Alessandro Michele abandoned Gucci’s ’70s-inspired silhouettes, silk scarves, and pearls for his most in-your-face memeable collection yet. Gucci and Facebook have just filed a joint lawsuit against a digital ring selling counterfeit handbags and other accessories on the platform. While fakes and fashion have been in a nasty custody battle since the beginning of time (one can thank Dapper Dan for exposing us to the world of non-designer designer), it hasn’t gotten this ugly in a while. In the midst of lockdown, and Gen Z having too much time on their hands, the dupe floodgates have inundated social media sites like TikTok and Instagram. Over the past year, counterfeit fake goods have rocketed the digital luxury marketplace.
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