So Garrett and I did it. We went to the mall where Prada and Luis Vuitton go to die. Yatai Xinyang Fashion and Gift Market is located inside the subway station at the Science and Technology Museum stop.

Everything is fake, cheap and everyone speaks English! Whatever it takes to make a buck right?

There through the dirty store front windows are all the bags that clutter the pages of Vogue, Harpers Bizarre, and Vanity Fair. But those masterpieces now look like sad pieces of fabric, wrapped in plastic, squeezed onto a shelf with millions of others. I had been to one of these malls before in Shenzhen but I had forgotten how depressing it was.

I guess presentation is everything because Dior looks amazing when it’s on the shiny, well-lit tables of Bloomingdales. Now, they just look like the bags at the grocery store.

And frankly they aren’t that cheap. Yes a real one could cost you $2,000 but paying $100 bucks for a fake seems fairly over priced. I mean I could rent the same bag for a month at that price from Bag Borrow or Steal and have it be real! Genuine! True I would only have it for a month but a fake one would probably fall apart in that time anyway.

It doesn’t help that the mall is so dingy either. The floors, the walls, the lighting, it looks like a dirty flea market. And I refuse to spend $100 bucks at a dirty flea market. I refuse! The fluorescent lights blind you as you try to make your way through the massive compound, the smell of cold wet towels lingers and the voices of the sales people chants throughout…

“Just looking, pants.”
“You need watch?”
“DVD…. DVD…”
“Prada, Chanel…”

LEAVE ME ALONE.

I do love how they chase you with “just looking” as they show you things and follow you around. It’s like they’ve taken what they’ve heard and turned it into a sales tactic. Given better circumstances, I am sure these people could rule the world.

OHHH and the most exhausting part of this whole experience… it’s not that the place is huge (which it is) or that I spent about 15 minutes going up and down the same two aisles, passing the same purse store about 50 times because I got completely lost and couldn’t find the exit. (Which, by the way, happens to be the number of times you should walk by a store in order to get them to leave you alone. By the 50th time they don’t even bother with you anymore.)

The most exhausting thing about shopping at malls like these is the negotiations. Don’t get me wrong… it’s fun but after a while you crave an actual price. Not the “special price,” the “friendly price,” “best price,” or “final price.” JUST GIVE ME THE CHEAPEST POSSIBLE PRICE where I get a good deal and you still make a profit. I don’t have time to be playing these games. I thought I was done with games once Garrett and I got together. Turns out my desire for designer bags made that un-so.

I have decided that instead of spending my money at these things I am going to save it and buy a REAL Jimmy Choo bag… because Jimmy I Choo-se you!! =D

Then again, here in China you could be carrying a one of a kind YSL clutch and everyone would assume it was fake. Why? Because why would anyone spend $2000 on a purse they can get for $100 bucks? (Personally I think the feel, weight, and smell of the bag are reason enough and they bring a certain confidence to their owner. But I also have an addiction to fashion that teeters on being a problem.) At the end of the day a bag is a bag, and you can find great ones at H&M and thrift stores. People want designer bags because they’re designer and that says something about the person carrying it. I have Prada = I am successful and fashionable. If someone is going to buy designer and pay for it, they want the world to know. Otherwise, they would be glad to carry their H&M bag just like an Hermes bag.

But think about it, most girls who go out and spend a month’s rent on their very own Louis Vuitton monogram purse do it so that the world knows they own an LV bag. If they did it because they TRULY loved the bag they wouldn’t need it to say LV all over it. So if appearance is what it’s all about, why not just go fake?

Don’t get me wrong there are girls who just LOVE bags and who JUST want beautiful things. But these girls have no problem frolicking around town in their H&M bag and they don’t shop at Fake Malls. There is a reason why these places don’t have aisles and aisles of fake Oscar De La Renta dresses (which don’t advertise the brand), and why 90% of the bags they sell have the brand pasted everywhere on them.

The sales that are made at a Louis Vuitton Store, or at a fake mall are probably made for the same reason… they want someone thinking they are successful and fashionable. And if having a logo will make you feel those things then I say go fake. Take the money you save and laugh all the way to the bank.

Just saying.

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4 Comments »

1. 

   ok I love fashion so I’m totally digging your fashion posts!

   Comment by steph — April 2, 2009 @ 11:07 am

2. 

   just randomly passed by your blog while searching for yatai. but just an fyi, if you’re paying 100 usd for a knockoff bag, you’re getting ripped off. they go for no more than 300 yuan depending on the size

   Comment by tom — May 14, 2009 @ 7:59 pm

3. 

   interesting stories you have there

   Comment by louis vuitton — May 28, 2009 @ 3:53 am

4. 

   I agree with Tom. The lowly fake mall clerk who speaks Engrish (and probably 5 other languages) made you pay 400% more than the bag was worth. Did you say “laugh all the way to the bank”? Indeed. I’m sure they are.

   Comment by YSL — July 10, 2009 @ 10:18 am

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