Handbags, shoes, dresses, these are things we can never get enough of. We can
only hope we have all the money in the world to be spent on yet another pretty
bag. Marni, Anya, Marc, our best friends are certainly living at the luxurious
land of handbags. Being in China, it is hard to get yourself away from imitated
products of many of the world’s most luxurious brands. In Shanghai’s Fake
Market, you can bring home a Gucci bag with only 30 Yuan (approximately US$ 4).
At this rate, we can have a different bag of every day in the year and never to
wear it twice. But is it really worth it to spend this little? Or, why do we
spend a fortune for a bag in the first place?
Luxury brands are always housed at the most luxurious department stores in the
city. They also display the most beautiful ads on the most prestigious magazines
or most strategic outdoor billboards. Not to mention, their window display are
stunning. For these only, a brand will need a lot of money. But you can put that
aside for excellent craftsmanship, quality materials that will last your whole
life and envious look from your friends. It is always a good excuse.
I took a walk around Nanjing West Road in Shanghai to find most of the stores
are having their Mid-Year Sale. They have their Spring/Summer collection
together with their Autumn/Winter. The Spring/Summer consists of bright colors
of bright orange and purple, sea blue, and blood red. The Autumn/Winter has a
similar color but in chalky palette. The trend of big buckle, painterly brush,
weaved pattern, stitched and quilted are still the majority in most of the
collection. I also found the colors for this Summer are influenced by Indian
textiles. Hermes is displaying the Indian scenery in their products and Louis
Vuitton has a beautiful notepad with gorgeous watercolor paintings of India. A
little bit of animal patterns is also captured for some of the collections. My
favorite is the horse skin bag from Yves Saint Laurent.
Walking further away, I finally got to the 580 Nanjing West Road Fake Market.
After looking at the real deal, the fakes are just a pin on your eye. They do
have a very reasonable price for your everyday bag, but let me describe how $
20, 000 handbag is also a reasonable price.
10 Key Features in a Luxury Handbag
1. Weight
As soon as you hold the bag, you can feel that it is not heavy. Many of the fake
handbags look just like the original but they weigh as much as Britney post-Federline.
Luxury handbags are made for comfort, they are light yet gorgeous. You do not
want to look like you are carrying a stone as you stroll down Rodeo Drive for
sure.
2. Smell
When you have a leather bag, the smell should be very settle. Many of the
sellers for the fakes tell you to smell the bag while you can actually smell it
from miles away. It is too strong. Luxury handbags are not like these at all.
Most of the time, you even have to stick your nose on the bag to smell it.
3. Texture
Luxury handbags have a very nice texture. It is very smooth and very flexible.
Every step of the production has gone through a tremendous amount of quality
control to make sure every cut is flawless. Real leather costs a fortune but
processes like embossment can take you to the heaven of croc and ostrich bags
with fewer charges on your Visa. The process imitates print, commonly reptiles,
onto surface of alternative leather such as lambskin. On fake bags, the textures
are usually even and uniformed. Luxury handbags display a very organic texture,
it looks, feels and hard to tell apart from the real one.
4. Logo
These brands put their logo on the buttons, studs, buckle, feet, zipper heads,
also on the outside of the bag and the inside. The logo is done neatly,
proportionally and not tacky.
5. Zipper
A lot of the luxury handbags have special zippers. If you look at the back of
the zipper head, they have a coding. Bally has “riri M8” for most of its main
zipper, but not for the inside pockets ones. If not coding, they have numbers on
them, different numbers for different size of the zipper.
6. Spelling
Of course the real bags will definitely have a prefect spelling. Notice how fake
bags are often spelled differently using similar letters. Gucci to Cucci, or
Missoni to Msonni.
7. Lining
The luxury handbags mostly stitch their logo and drawings on the lining, not
printed like on the fakes. Although some of fake bags also have stitched logo.
They are also taking the whole nine yards in using leather for the lining.
8. Stitching
I personally think this is the best way to spot the real one from the fake.
Luxury handbags come from excellent craftsmanship that the stitches are very
neatly done. You should not see any stray thread, uneven stitches, visible
stitches between connected parts of the bags, or the knot from the thread. They
are also done in one direction. If one line goes towards the left then the line
aligned to that one is also towards the left.
9. Prints on the body
Any prints on the bag should be done neatly. It is not pixilated, jagged, or
looking like it is a rub-on letters on the bag. I would call it is like tattooed
on.
10. Details
Any details are on its best condition. Should there be a diamond, it sparkles.
If they have a bullhorn, it looks just like a real one. No excess glue on the
edges. Every lock and zipper works on every bag and the metals are all smooth
and shiny. No seam on the bag handle should be exposed.
So we can see, all the money that we spend go toward all these hard work. And
the hard work shows on every little detail of that Prada you take down the red
carpet.
Although it is not as glamorous as Chanel and I have not seen Jessica Simpson wearing it, I found the Matchpoint 2008 collection from White Capri to be so beautiful. White Capri (whitecapri.com) is a Berlin based company. The design is very simple, inspired by a Woody Allen movie, Matchpoint.
Some of the bags actually look like a tennis skirt. I can wear it to both formal occation and a drink with friends. I do not think that I will find the collection to be ripped of at some fake market. But if I own this, I know it is unique, I will not compete with a bunch of other people in People's Square wearing the fake ones and it is worth every penny.
Author: Admira Pustika (Want to become a Handbag Correspondent?)
| 1. | I think the MOST IMPORTANT fact to also know is that... when buying those fake bags you are supporting slavery, terrorism, and death. there are woman, and children (babies) that are sold and forced into factories in order to create these fake bags... there was a cambodian woman about 65 years of age and she died at the sewing machine, they put her body out with the trash.... and made sure to keep quota... think long and hard when wanting a fake bag...what price are you really paying? - Jaime Lynn from NYC, July 14, 2008. | | 2. | It is so true. Buy who from who you know and can trust. Anyone who buys the knock-offs knows that they can't show their bag with pride so why even bother? You are hurting more than your looks and reputation buy making that purchase. This is a great piece by Mira and one that we are proud to have as part of HBD101. - Emily from ny, July 14, 2008. | | 3. | My darling Admira! the magic Mira I would love to congratulate you on your first report for LaunchBags. Brilliant! Launchbags has headquaters in Shanghai and a first step of our training here is to educate employees on these points so we can produce a luxury product. I also would love to thank the comments below. For nearly 3 years now we have been working to ensure ISO auditing is in place and thoroughly upheld in our factories. We would be proud for any of our clients to visit them, they are clean, pleasant and staffed with healthy talented workers who work reasonable hours for a good wage. This is the only way to ensure a good product, and I have seen much worse conditions in Italy and London! Of course this puts our price higher than some other cheap Chinese or Asian, or even Mexica/US... - Joanna Scarrott CD LaunchBags from UK/Shanghai, July 14, 2008. |
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