Knock, Knock, Knock-offs

They say that imitation is the best form of flattery.  If this is true, then the designers behind luxury label Celine should feel very good about the love that J. Crew is showing them.  On the left below is a bag from Celine's Spring/Summer 2012 collection.  On the right is the J. Crew "Tillary" tote from their Spring collection.  Curiously the both have similar handles and shape.  I wonder who copied whom?!?

  

The fact of the matter is, there are lots of middle of the road labels that "knock-off" styles from luxury designers.  Case in point is Ivanka Trump modeling her shoe collection after Derek Lam's designs or the Kardashians biting on Balenciaga's moto bag (and others!) for their Sears collection.

As much as I love that us "regular folk" can enjoy goods that look designer but don't cost as much, I was taught from a young age (as many of us were) that stealing is wrong.  This goes for stealing someone's math homework as much as it applies to copying designs that cleary take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to come up with.  It is opportunistic and just plain wrong.   Personally, I will never buy anything from Jessica Simpson or the Kardashians...they aren't real designers, they just pay people to create cheap knock offs so they can make more money.   And what do they do with that money?  Well...they likely go out and buy from the same designers they steal ideas from.