The WWD cover story for Thursday, February 3rd titled, Counterfeiting Attack: Luxury Retailers Unite In Major NYC Initiative reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is cracking down on the fakes around New York City. Being that New York is a major fashion mecca, it is Bloomberg’s duty to ensure that the fashion here is pure. And looking around, one can tell that it’s not always genuine. The article states that Bloomberg, in a speech on Wednesday, February 1, 2006:

… revealed an initiative, Madison Avenue Blue, involving major luxury goods and fashion retailers to help boost the financing of the city's anticounterfeiting efforts. The aim is to help stem the tide of counterfeit goods, which the International Chamber of Commerce estimates costs businesses $600 billion a year in sales worldwide.

While I am all for people having the freedom to purchase any item they desire, it is quite pitiful for a person to buy a knock-off bag, watch, wallet, jean, etc. These frauds may say that they don’t want to pay the full price for the real deal, but why are you trying to pretend as if you have the money to purchase luxury products in the first place, stick with the companies that are targeting you: If you have a Target budget, stick with Target; if you have an Aldo budget, shop at Aldo. Don’t degrade yourself and prowl Canal Street or Battery Park, looking for luxury, a “Prava” bag is not luxury! For one, they are tacky, and two, a person who buys a knock-off bag is a knock-off themselves. The article continues:

"If we permit large-scale criminal enterprise to keep operating in the middle of Manhattan, what kind of message does that send?" Bloomberg said. "Trademark counterfeiting robs legitimate businesses of their customers."

While I am sure that the fashion industry is doing well in the luxury sector, I do realize that for the most part it is definitely an elitist institution and people seem to continually aspire to the things that they don't and can't have. Therefore, counterfeit goods are a way for people to feel as if, or at least communicate their sense of luxury onto the world, but at the same time, I have purchased such bags from luxury brands as Louis Vuitton and Gucci, and its not in the bag’s brand itself that makes it a luxury product, it’s the work and detail that is put into every bag that makes it worth the money. Sure, you can get the same look from Canal Street, but you can't call it luxury.

ON a SARCASTIC NOTE...Only thing that I don’t like about the article is the fact that Bloomberg “proclaimed February 2006 as Anitcounterfeiting Month” and being half African-American, I can’t stand but to take offense to this. We only get one month to celebrate our heritage and educate people about our history and the contributions they have made to this country: Couldn’t he have taken the month belonging to Breast Cancer or Child Abuse? (Totally kidding)!