Travel broadens the mind, especially if the destination is the cradle of the Renaissance. However, the Florentine masterpiece on display that caught the attention of Harford Jr was not Ghiberti’s bronze baptistery doors, nor Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”, but some extraordinarily expensive accessories in the window of the Louis Vuitton store. Who would pay €2,000 for a bumbag? Or €500 for a baseball cap?
My son perkily explained to me that in Sicily he could get a fake Louis Vuitton cap for €12 and he thought that was a better deal. Out of the mouths of babes. The conversation raised questions. Does the existence of the €12 fake threaten the market for the real thing? Is the customer being ripped off by the fake, or by the genuine article? And who really loses when there is a flood of counterfeits?
Much depends on what luxury brands really convey. On one view, it’s a guarantee of quality for the purchasers. Expensive brands promise quality materials and craftsmanship, and the promise is credible because the brand’s hard-won reputation is valuable. In her book, Authenticity (2022), Alice Sherwood is embarrassed to realise that she nearly wore her fake Longchamp handbag to Paris’s Musée de la Contrefaçon, the Museum of Counterfeiting. The risk of awkwardness didn’t last long, though: “Ten days after I got home, my counterfeit Longchamp fell to pieces.”