This vintage Louis Vuitton advertisement really surprised me today. I was shocked to see an ad that touted the craftsmanship and quality of LV goods, instead of Madonna posing and pouting with several bags scattered haphazardly about her. Of course, the standards of today’s advertisements are much edgier and artistic that they were in the 80′s. Modern luxury good ads strive to be esthetically pleasing, provocative, and above all, to create a deep longing for the brand. However, I wonder if this is why the biggest names in fashion are having so much trouble with counterfeits?When browsing blogs or online forums and the subject of counterfeit goods comes up, a common question I see is “Why should I pay $3,000 for a bag? Will it cook me dinner, do my laundry, and sing me to sleep?” Even though the commenter knows that ripping off somebody else’s hard work is wrong and of course she would never want somebody do to that to her, she is baffled by the lofty price tags of ultra high-end luxury goods  and this somehow turns into an excuse for the counterfeit. The person likes the bag, wants the bag, but cannot understand the price tag. The more “outrageous” the price, the more it legitimatizes buying a counterfeit.

I have to admit that I also sometimes fall into this way of thinking. Why is it that a basic Louis Vuitton bag, like the now-ubiquitous Speedy line, costs several hundred dollars? It’s just plastic coated canvas! With leather handles and trim, and nifty gold zippers and studs, and of course the fancy name. But in the end, it’s a plastic coated canvas bag. A slick advertisement in which  beautiful models pout while holding expensive bags pushes the glamour and status of the Louis Vuitton brand, and it does make me want a Speedy, but it doesn’t really do much to tell me why it’s justifiable to spend hundreds of dollars on it. “Just because I like it” might be reason enough for people with money to spend, but in today’s economy, even luxuries have to be justified.

To make matters worse for luxury brands, the counterfeit goods from China are much better quality than they used to be. Often times they even use “real” materials- real leather, real gold. A counterfeit LV bag is made of plastic coated canvas virtually indistinguishable from the authentic canvas and depending on how much you’re willing to spend, you can even get real leather trim. The same is true for many other commonly counterfeited brands. High quality counterfeit Chanel bags are made using real leather; sometimes you even get a choice between “caviar” (cowhide) and lambskin! So if the materials used for the counterfeit item are the same as the authentic item, what’s to stop a consumer from choosing the bag that will leave a lot more money in their wallet?

This is where the vintage ad comes in. It showcases the handmade nature of, in this specific ad, Louis Vuitton luggage. It stressed durability and strength of a Louis Vuitton trunk. The quality of the product isn’t implied by showing me how expensive it is; instead, I am told exactly what makes a real Louis Vuitton suitcase so worthwile. And it kind of makes me feel like spending hundreds of dollars on one wouldn’t be a waste of money.

One could easily pass judgment and say that if you can’t afford the price of luxury goods then you should save up your pennies and wait until the day that you can afford it. I think this overlooks the trend of the democratization of luxury goods, which is responsible for the boom of the luxury business in the past 15 years. With easy credit and good economic times, companies were more than happy to aggressively market luxury as basic necessity, no matter what a person’s financial situation. Now, Americans have a taste for luxury and even as their buying power plummets, they cannot let go.

Perhaps the vintage ad could be reprinted?

Vintage Louis Vuitton ad, 1986