Fashion has always been an essential need for many. However, is fashion a means to fit in society? Or is fashion simply for self-satisfaction? Big brands and small independent brand designs are being sold for a cheaper price but with a lower quality.
People are now increasingly supporting these fake fashion industries by purchasing a copied design or counterfeit fashion apparel from the markets.
Eva O’Hare, an independent Irish jewellery designer, who has bought some fake branded fashion herself, said that she does not prefer fake brands but rather something old, cheap, and not fake.
She explains sheepishly that “the quality isn’t great. They tend to pull fast and kind of fall apart basically and the fabric was very unbreathable.”
She mentioned three online sites; Shein, Aliexpress, and Nasty Gal where she has ordered from, and felt that “the quality was really mediocre but the stuff was really cheap.”
O’Hare said: “lockdown is making me do a ludicrous amount of online shopping but I would have bought things regardless.”
She admits however, she has been taking more consideration in weighing things up when buying online. That way she would not buy something irrationally.
Real brands are for those who can afford them. But what about those who can’t afford and like the fashion design of that brand?
O’Hare said that “some things are ludicrously priced like the whole Supreme brand is ridiculous and how they price things. When you get like a very basic T-Shirt and it’s for like a grand. It’s the limited edition quality of things.”
“That [Supreme] is a massively ripped off-brand in the market. When you go there and they have Supreme everything because they know it’s popular and that people would want to buy it. I wouldn’t strive to get something that has labels printed everywhere but if something looked nice.”
The overly priced fashion that cannot be obtained by those who cannot afford led to the current rising trend in fake fashion. However, is this wise? Is this satisfying people’s desires in an affordable way and how does this justify the effects on the designer?
She asserted that this is affecting the designers and said that there were independent fashion brands being copied by these other online sites.
An example of an independent brand that was ripped off is While Odin Sleeps store, which can be found on Instagram, sells designs by Lauren Lester, a jewellery designer from San Francisco.
Many of this shop’s designs were ripped off and sold for a cheaper price and of lower quality and this, in turn could affect the sales of that store. It might even create bad reviews for jewelleries that were not made by that store.
“I’ll often see that they rip off very small designers. Like that is terrible! That’s really, really bad. They would literally, directly copy their ideas. When I see that kind of stuff it makes me very sad.” expressed O’Hare.
She also claims that counterfeit fashion is an issue. She said “because it’s just going to the landfill which is crap”.
According to the Trends in Trade in counterfeit and Pirated Goods report, “The People’s Republic of China emerges as the top producer of counterfeit goods in nine out of 10 analysed categories.”
Meanwhile, counterfeit leather goods, foodstuffs, and cosmetics that enter the European Union (EU), appear to be conveyed by road from Turkey.
O’Hare feels that the fake fashion industry is affecting the design world but she assures that there will always be people wanting to make new designs. However, she can’t guarantee that there won’t be people copying designs and reselling them for cheap and with lower quality.
Purchasing fake fashion may allow you to fit in the high and luxurious lifestyle in society. However, purchasing fake fashion comes with great consequences, not just for the consumer but for the designers and the sweatshops.