Counterfeit luxury goods move further upmarket in China

When people in China carry designer bags bearing the logos of Louis Vuitton or Gucci, they are often asked whether they authentic or counterfeit. Now the country’s makers of counterfeit luxury goods go a step further by offering “tailor-made” services and have even opened “high-end private clubs” on social media sites, our sister paper Want Daily reports. Little Min, manager of a luxury bag shop in Haikou’s Top United, sells various levels of counterfeit luxury bags and even offers tailor-made counterfeit bags priced atmore than 8,000 yuan (US$1,300), or even 10,000 yuan (US$1,650) each, according to a Beijing media report. Min said her shop can offer a tailor-made Hermes Crocodile Birkin Bag, a genuine edition of which is sold for more than 100,000 yuan (US$16,500), but the counterfeit she sells is such a fine imitation, complete with identification certificate, that not even experts can tell the difference, she says. The counterfeit bag sells for less than half the price of the genuine article.