I hate imitation bags

I was wandering around a shopping center today while waiting for my car to get finished with its service appointment, and I came across a store selling a ton of bags imitating couture lines. The tacky prints obviously meant to look like the signature patterns of high-end retailers like Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and Fendi. I really dislike low-end bags that imitate the look of haute couture designs. Now it's not that I think ridiculously expensive obviously branded status bags are so superior to any other nice bag. Those are all about the statement that the label makes you cooler, or announces to the world how rich, powerful, and chic you are. Bullshit. Style comes from looks, know-how, and quality, not two enormous interlocking C's over quilted leather on display for everyone to notice. Give me a handsome, well-made genuine leather bag over an ostentatious sack in a gaudy signature print any day-- I despise the Coach carpet bag, or the hideous LV patterm, and the knockoffs thereof look even worse. Cheap imitations are trying to give the illusion of the status conferred, not trying to be quality and stylish accessories in their own right. There are perfectly gorgeous, tasteful, well-made, stylish, high-end bags out there that do not make you pay out the nose because of their obvious label. Now if somebody gave me a simple, elegant leather Prada handbag I would certainly not turn it down, but just because there's a trendy label doesn't make it a chic piece, and I certainly don't believe I need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to find it. Truly stylish people only need flattering, well-chosen clothes and accessories, not labels, to make them appear to their best advantage. Don't buy an imitation just because you think it will make you cool. Buy a quality bag that you like and compliments your style, and you will look so much more chic than with your not-quite-Fendi or Cha-not. :-P