I just love these kinds of posts, guaranteed to bring out the judgmental lectures every time.

My girlfriend got some great, high quality Kate Spade knock-offs on Canal Street but I don't know the exact location.

Yes, it would be such a terrible shame not to support your multimillionaire designers by overpaying for their merchandise. I just read that Greenwich CT had to revamp its computer system to allow entry of a seven figure automobile into it's tax base so they could record a' rare Ferrari, one of Tommy Hilfigers fleet of autos.

By all means support the rich and buy their designer originals!

"Or do you just not care - as long as you have the opportunity to waste your time and your mind shopping for rubbish?"

It's her time and her mind, what she does with it is her business, not yours.

The bottom line is the majority of this stuff is cheap and will fall apart.

BTW, I have a lot of friends who are NYers (Manhattanites) and don't know one who has ever bought any of the fakes.

I love shopping at Century 21 (for the real thing), H&M, A/X, FCUK, Mexx, Bloomies, Sephora, Duffys, and Syms for inexpensive great stuff.

I <i>live</i> in Manhattan and have friends uptown, midtown &amp; downtown (ages mid 20's to late 30's), and just about all of them enjoy an occasional visit to Canal Street for whatever it is they particularly like to buy (be it handbags, watches, &quot;Burberry&quot; scarves, sunglasses, DVDs, shoes, etc.).

I buy 3-5 pairs of the oakleys every year, for running and the beach. If they break or get lost, at $5 each, who cares? My tourist friends really enjoy the watches and purses.

One note on the bootleg DVDs - about 50% of them don't work at all, about 35% are low quality pan-and-scan, and about 15% are pretty good, so buyer beware.

Oh, because you LIVE in Manhattan, then you must know what's trendy and the thing to do? And, I guess if you're in your 20s or 30s, then you must be doing the right [read that: trendy]thing! What bunch of bull!
No, I don't live in Manhattan and I'm not in my 20s and 30s, but I too have friends (of all ages) uptown, midtown and downtown...and they do NOT shop for fakes!

I will admit they I have bought a fake or 2 years ago when I first caught wind of them. One fake I bought was a tiffany heart bracelet. My daughter, about 10 or 11 at the time really wanted one. There was no way I'd buy her the real thng at that age, so I bought her a fake and put it in a Tiffany box for the holidays. When she opened it she knew it had to be fake, because she also knew I'd wouldn't get her the real thing. A couple of years later she received the real thing as a Bat Mitzvah gift. When she compared it to the fake, she admitted that the fake actually looked pretty good. In fact I still have the fake and it still is untarnished and looks fine although no one ever wears it.

I have some out-of-town in-laws that love these things. I'm not exactly sure why but they do. I also think the quality of the fakes has gone down hill.

Isn't being trendy all about being fake? I can understand the idea of people wanting to be trendy buying fake stuff since they can't afford the real stuff and want to be &quot;in&quot;. Makes perfect sense to me.

Good to know that some people are doing their &quot;civic&quot; duty but not providing more money to TAX paying designers so that they can give their money to the knock-off artists who don't pay tax.

I guess that's the difference between Hilfiger and a criminal. At least with the criminal the taxing authroity won't have to create a new account for them.

To add to the &quot;bottom line&quot; -- the area (Canal Street) is overcrowded, smelly (especially on a hot day), annoying (overcrowded = pushing and shoving), and just not worth it (to put it very mildly). Instead, you and your friend should pay a visit to Century 21 ( 22 Cortlandt St. Between Church Street and Broadway (212) 227-9092) where you can find the authentic merchandise at heavily discounted prices. You'll be able to choose from clothing to handbags to shoes to even make-up! Go early in the morning during the week and you'll have a great time -- I guarantee it.

I won't go into whether buying fakes is immoral or not but I will suggest that buying fake sunglasses poses some risk.

Being fake, how do you really know if they are actually 100% UV resistant as the label may claim. If they are not, then your eyes will be exposed to much higher amounts of UV rays since, due to the dark tint, your eyes will dilate allowing more light (including UV rays) into the retina.

Without real UV protection, you are actually exposing your eyes to more damaging UV rays than you would without any sunglasses at all.

A fake purse is just silly but fake sunglasses are a risk to your sight.

Yes, peterboy, but if your life revolves around what kind of image you're presenting by wearing only the trendiest of stuff, being half blind the rest of your life might be a small consolation to pay. Trendy people admittedly live only for the moment!

I had a Tiffany heart pendant with chain purchased at the 5th Avenue store that tarnished on me which was a tremendous disappointment. So that,along with my authentic but broken Gucci bag says authentic doesn't always mean quality either.

Sterling silver tarnishes.

A little toothpaste (non-abrasive, like Tom's of Maine) will take that tarnish right off! I have many silver pieces which require attention once they tarnish a bit (ALL silver tarnishes).

Didn't see your response, GoT! We obviously thought the same thing....

So true, GoTravel, and people should never mistake &quot;strength&quot; or &quot;durability&quot; for quality in fine things. A polyester blouse may wear like iron, but you must be very careful with a fine silk one. A molded plastic decorative egg could be dropped on the floor without damaging it. I wouldn't try that with a Fabrege one. The &quot;luxury&quot; of real silver is that it does tarnish. The servants will polish it for you. You want it not to tarnish -- get stainless steel.

Shouldn't the higher price indicate better quality?

An attorney told me once to &quot;never cheapen your product.&quot; After years of experience, you've learned how to do things in a fraction of amount of time that a greenhorn person. So you charge more per hour, per item, etc., because your customer is getting years of experience behind that product.

Offlady, you are a bit naive.

offlady, we've already explained that silver that tarnishes is NOT an indication of lack of quality. And as for the handbag breaking. Hey that can happen, but that doesn't mean the quality wasn't there, and what's more I believe as you've been told, they'll repair it. Let's see you take the cheap one in for a free repair.

Don't confuse quality with durability as I've already explained.

Silver will always tarnish (oxidize); however, if you use abrasives (like toothpaste) to remove it, you are taking off a deeper layer of silver than you need to. Polish small things with a soft cloth, try not to grind off silver with particulates.