With the economic downturn, counterfeited goods may seem like a cheap and easy alternative to help stay stylish. Consumers spent hundreds, billions of dollars on counterfeit goods. Everything from watches, running shoes, to DVDs. And thanks to the Internet, finding fakes is easier than ever. An iconic double platform Yves Saint Laurent heels are just a fingertip away!
They are not aware of the horrifying impacts they are facing with. Criminals recruited unsuspecting youngsters to travel from China and beyond to so-called a better life. The innocent girls are sold into sexual slavery, and young men are chained to machines like the one in the cigarette plant, forced to do the work of criminal endeavor.
It was like something out of Dickens, Oliver Twist in the 21st Century, as how Dana Thomas describes it. Two dozen sad, tired, dirty children, ages 8 to 14, making Dunhill, Versace, and Hugo Boss handbags on old, rusty sewing machines were the first sighting when she walked into a warehouse in Guangzhou, China.
Clemence Gautier, a Bangkok attorney with Tilleke & Gibbins, a prominent law firm in Thailand, explains, “People think, ‘Oh, it’s just a T-Shirt and it’s no real harm,’ but we try to explain where the money is going. What if a 10-year-old girl is working every day to make those T-Shirts?”
Consumers must start opening up their eyes! I hope we can all finally acknowledge and understand why and how such cheap prices happen to be found.
Thanks to Harper’s Bazaar’s movement towards their fight against fakes, activists has been working for years to expose the criminal activities connected to the sales of counterfeit products. The Harper’s Bazaar Fakes Are Never In Fashion™ campaign is dedicated to exposing the criminal activities connected to the sale of counterfeit luxury Thinking of buying a fake? Get real.
"I am a firm believer in that if you can’t have the ‘real’ thing, then you should find something equally as fashionable at a price point that you can afford. I can honestly say that I completely agree with and support your campaign that ‘fakes’ are never in fashion." - Holly, Huntington, NY
