Ho Chi Mama Says: Fakes For Real

Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon (yes, if you have a date in HCMC, she'd be waiting in Saigon), the denouement of America's fight against the iron curtain.  Like Shanghai, there is not much to see in HCMC but what it lacks in history it makes up well with the trifecta (eating, drinking and shopping).  

The Ben Thinh Market sells just about everything you could ever need and everything you would never need.  It is also the mecca of fake luxury goods. I'm almost positive I saw a couple of American tourists drop to the floor five times and pray facing the Louis Faux-tton stalls. I know all designers hate the counterfeit market but I have to say, it's really a milestone in the longevity of your brand to have made it into the hallowed stalls of Ben Thinh.  No one is rushing to copy Girbaud jeans. Ho Chi Mama didn't raise no fool here. 

Conversely, the designers left out of this race to authenticity must feel pretty shitty.  Do they berate themselves for not being good enough for PVC and the shoulders of an overweight British lass? Any designer worth his French seams know these days, it's not about the 1% profit margins of the haute couture, but about mass merchandising. And what better way to reach the masses than through stall number 1024 at the Ben Thinh Market?  Not to call myself out but oftentimes I rely on the bag hawkers on Canal St. in Manhattan to keep me in the loop of what's trendy now. Those motorcycle bags with the tassels from a few years back?  Walked into Saks one day and exclaimed "Oh my god, I've seen those on Canal and West Broadway!"  Didn't know Anya Hindmarch from the moving musak of Enya until Auntie Wang started selling those fake I'm not a plastic bag totes.

What I don't understand are the people who rush past the imitation l'ombre Prada bags and beeline straight for the embroidered signature Coach totes.  Those glorified Nine West bags sell like Pho after a late night of partying.  If you're going to support child labor and organized crime, dream big!  It's not like that Coach is any less fake than the Gucci.  I think it's a believability factor.  No one back at home would believe you went from Jaclyn Smith to Balenciaga overnight but a good Christmas bonus and that 65 Year Anniversary Coach bag is all yours.