Designer Offenses

I see in the news that the French and Italian governments are proposing to prosecute tourists who buy counterfeit designer goods.  I’m not sure if this means that you will be prosecuted if you buy counterfeit goods in Paris or Rome or Milan or wherever, or if you’ll get nicked at the airport when you ome back from the Far East with a fake Gucci handbag.  Either way, it’s what we in the real world call bloody stupid. 

My own view had always been that people who spend hundreds, or even thousand, of dollars (or pounds or euros) on something because it has its label on the outside, have far more money than sense.   Guess what – your five thousand dollar watch and my twenty-five dollar watch both tell the same time.  You just stand to lose a lot more when all that wasted money you have strapped to your wrist gets lost or stolen.  On Judge Judy recently (yes, I watch that show every day and I’m not ashamed to admit it – much) there was a case of a young man who had a Luis Vuitton bag stolen in a nightclub.  It was worth fifteen hundred dollars.  What could that overpriced bag do that one a tenth of the cost couldn’t – except proclaim the owner as an idiot?

We often hear that counterfeiters are costing the fashion and jewellery industries tens of millions of dollars a year.  I often wonder how this figure is reached.  I bought a fake Rolex in Bangkok many years ago for the equivalent of about twenty-five dollars.  The real thing would have cost me ten thousand dollars.  Now, does Rolex claim that they were swindled out of ten thousand dollars when I bought the knock off?  Do they really believe that if I have not been able to buy a fake, I would have bought a real one?  Bollocks!  If I ever even contemplate spending that sort of money on a watch, please have me locked up in the nearest loony bin.

People who buy fake designer goods do so for fun, devilment, many reasons.  What they are not doing is buying fakes when they have the money and inclination to buy the genuine articles.  People who want t buy fakes, buy fakes. People who want to spend a fortune on genuine designer goods will do so.  They are two separate types of person, and never the twain shall meet.  That’s why these proposed laws are a stupid idea, and it seems I am not alone in thinking this.  One thing you can be sure of – the enormous counterfeiting industries in East Asia won’t even blink.
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Comments

[PJ]

I'd better be careful when I go to Paris tomorrow and not pick up any 'Versacci' handbags in the market.

I'm not a label junkie, but I do like the occasional expensive item. Sometimes you do get what you pay for.

[Hill]

Amen!

I cannot fathom some people paying the equivalent of another's yearly salary for a designer purse or watch or whatever.

It's really obscene.

Jeans and T-shirts, baby!

:)

[Affordable Designer Bags]

Handbags are a good stuff to show urself smart. and here is a big range of handbags available these days.

[handbag wholesalers]

Thank you for providing the perspective. I just read a part of the article, so I don't know much what to say. Good luck for the new member!