Luxury fashion brands are often considered as a status symbol but are ludicrously unattainable by the common man. This prompts the growth and success of the counterfeiting industry. Though the counterfeiting is common in all sectors, the fashion industry is the hardest hit. The fashion industry is ruled by constantly changing trends and the fashion houses need to constantly revamp the deigns to stay relevant. The shopping savvy society’s fascination for such new trends while balancing the price, attracts counterfeiters to the fashion world.
Counterfeiting is referred to as the act of imitating the brands, from the designs and style to the packaging and logos. The counterfeited goods, though resemble the original goods, are of lower quality and reliability. The crux of the fashion industry is its creativity and uniqueness in terms of style and designs and counterfeiting is termed as the theft of these styles and designs and selling at a lower price. The existence of counterfeiting markets has caused huge losses, both monetary and loss of reputation. While one cannot overlook the negative impact of counterfeiting in the fashion industries, many fashion houses are of the opposite opinion. They consider it a way of ascertaining their success. Further, it encourages creativity as designers are forced to ameliorate their designs to distinguish themselves from copycats.
Fashion brands have now transcended the process of searching and complaining about fake goods. Rather, they confront the whole counterfeiting issue with a new and dynamic outlook. Inspired by the counterfeiting issues, brands like Diesel created their own set of fake ‘Deisel’ products and sold them at a pop-up store at the New York Fashion Week.[1] On revealing the news of creating their own fakes, buyers rushed to buy these “fake Deisel products”, whose prices surged from 30$ to 500$. The brand, with its bold step, was able to prove that nuisance of copying can be converted into a creative opportunity while minimizing the loss.
Further, the advent of blockchain technology has provided a verification solution to the brands. The verifier will upload the details of the luxury article, for instance, a designer handbag to the blockchain as a digital asset, which can be accessed by the potential buyer as a proof of authenticity. Fashion brands even tag unforgeable QR codes to the designer goods to keep a check on fake and authentic goods. The designer, Christian Dior, to prevent his designs from being copied, used an invisible ink on his final sketch which could be seen only under a black light. These alternative and techno-based solutions have proved to be viable solutions to tackle the problem of counterfeiting.
Another approach was to resell unused luxury goods. Brands like Stella McCartney would give their customer a 100$ voucher in return for their unused Stella McCartney goods to the RealReal.[2] Reselling of goods allows consumers to buy authentic goods at an affordable price who would otherwise opt for knockoffs. This problem of counterfeiting exists since the time couture is in existence and will continue until the very end. Even though its adverse effect cannot be ignored, brands can use this problem to their advantage. The dynamic approach of converting the issue of counterfeiting to creative opportunity, combined with IP laws and technology can help combat the issue and give the forgers a hard time copying the brands.
[1] Katrina Megget, ‘Fashion brand launches authentic Diesel fakes’ 12th February 2018 https://www.securingindustry.com/clothing-and-accessories/fashion-brand-launches-authentic-diesel-fakes-/s107/a6910/#.XxG_WigzY2w
[2] Mario Abad, ‘Why The RealReal And Stella McCartney Are Calling For Luxury Brands To Embrace Reselling’ 19th April 2018 https://www.forbes.com/sites/marioabad/2018/04/19/realreal-stella-mccartney/#5ddf893f17a8