Fake copies...

Louis Vuitton

On the left is a genuine Louis Vuitton 'Carryall' bag costing £595 and on the right a replica that is £158.

I have chosen Louis Vuitton, as it's one of the designer brands which is copied and replicated the most. If i saw someone, unless it was Victoria Beckham walking down the street with a Louis Vuitton bag, my first impression would be that it is fake, as so many copies are easily available. This i think has degraded the actual brand in a way and gives it a cheap feel.

Some of the copies are genuinely good quality and unless you are an expert, it would be impossible to tell if it was real or not. Even if a bag was genuine, because they are extensively copied, it wouldn't have the same exclusivity.

I think it is good and bad that you can get fake copies. I think it's good because like the examples above you can pay a third or less of the original price, so its available to a wider market and you don't have to be a celebrity to have the designer look. But the more copies and the cheaper these replicas become, the less desired and exclusive the real designs become. The price of some copies are still ridiculously expensive, the quality is not going to be as good and could easily break. But they are still cheaper than the real thing.

If they are not obviously fake i don't think its a bad thing. Although if i had the money i wouldn't like to know that someone else could have an almost exact replica, as it wouldn't seem as special, therefore i would stay clear of Louis Vuitton. Designer's don't like copies beacuse they lose custom, money and their exclusive status, so maybe designers should reduce the prices or do more collaborations with high street stores.