<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I used to live in New York City in my mid-20s, one of my favorite things to do when I had free time was go to Canal Street in Lower Manhattan.&nbsp; Canal Street is widely seen as the main artery of New York City’s historic Chinatown.&nbsp; There are lots of restaurants with amazing food and shops that sold touristy knickknacks. But the main reason I liked going there was to look at all the fake designer bags and accessories that I could actually afford on a student’s budget.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even if I couldn’t afford the real thing, browsing the “fakes” was aspirational for me and motivated me to do well in school so that one day I could afford the real deal.&nbsp; Because selling fake or counterfeit items is technically a crime, sometimes I would find myself in a hidden back room of a shop or in a difficult-to-find sweatshop on the third floor of a nondescript building in order to browse the latest fashionable “dupes” available at the time.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many people don’t know that the quality of counterfeit goods is actually on a sliding scale.&nbsp; You can have the obviously fake “Rolox” watches to Louis Vuitton purses that look so authentic, even an LV sales associate couldn’t tell the difference.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even back then, I knew buying counterfeit designer wares was “shady” and often funded horrible illegal activities like illicit drug dealing and even human trafficking.&nbsp; Despite my reservations, I justified it to myself based on the price point and my status as a broke, struggling student.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remember one of the first counterfeit designer items I acquired was a mid-quality Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami cherry blossom Papillon purse.&nbsp; I had a friend who bought the real thing for around $800 at the time, but the fake one I had was only $20 and from afar it could pass for authentic if you didn’t examine it too closely.

Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami Cherry Blossom Papillon, the style at the center of Lady Astrid’s story about counterfeits, quality, and authenticity.

<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wore that bag with pride in my heyday, despite it falling apart after a few uses.&nbsp; The quality of the canvas was obviously subpar, but the real fatal defect was the stitching.&nbsp; If you stuffed your bag with items like I did, the stitching of the purse handles could not accommodate the weight, and often the straps would break.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The good news was I only spent $20 on it and could just replace it with a newer style. The bad news was I loved that specific print, which was only produced for a limited time and for a specific season.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remember thinking, even if I have to buy 10 fakes of that purse, it would still be a better bargain than buying one authentic one based on the price point alone.&nbsp; Back then, as a young single woman living in NYC, I tended to prefer quantity over quality because I didn’t know any better.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remember seeing my friend use her authentic bag for years, and despite what she put in it, it was so well designed and constructed that it never broke.&nbsp; If anything, the purse’s vachetta would patina and darken over time and would make it even more beautiful.

<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I told myself that once I “made it,” I would only buy authentic luxury goods because when you love something as much as I loved that purse, you want it to last forever.&nbsp; You want to take care of it and pass it on to your kids like a treasured inheritance.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(44, 44, 43); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even though I’m older now and have substantially more money and resources at my disposal, I still live by the credo of quality &gt; quantity.

<div> </div><div> </div>Lady Astrid is an independent contributing writer to RETRO//VRS. The views and opinions expressed in Notes From a Founding Collector are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of RETRO//VRS.

A $20 counterfeit Louis Vuitton bag changed how Lady Astrid thought about quality, value, authenticity, and what makes luxury worth owning.

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Quality Over Quantity: The Counterfeit Bag That Changed How I Thought About Luxury