From videos on TikTok to the Baiyun World Leather Trading Centre in Guangzhou. Here you can find a ‘perfectly legal’ Chanel bag that isn’t Chanel, but screams CANELH. China is back to making its voice heard in the counterfeit industry. This time, however, it could really deliver the coup de grâce. In other words – and sadly – we could say: Hello fakeness, my old friend
by Domenico Casoria
We didn’t see them coming, helplessly basking in the ruins of European luxury, which retains only a few European coats of arms and its entry in the register of the world’s oldest trademarks. A bit like fallen nobles. That’s why we’re losing the battle against Chinese fakes. In fact, that’s why European luxury has decided not to engage in a battle it would lose from the outset, moving to another level.
Hello fakeness, my old friend
We had already had a taste of the hybrid war waged by the Chinese fake industry with those videos on TikTok of Chinese ‘suppliers’ who, in April 2025, launched their attack, posing as the real producers of 70% of European luxury goods. Carnage. The mask is off. Nothing will ever be the same again. The brands immediately began to tremble because the Chinese had responded, at the time, to Trump’s tariffs by targeting handbags, clothes, and accessories (European, coincidentally) at their very foundations.
It all ended in a Gattopardesque silence, despite the self-styled manufacturers having been photographed inside, in front of, and incorporated into factories bearing the Chanel, Hermès, or Louis Vuitton logos. Or even holding products that are passed off as genuine, costing €1,000, and then resold, according to them, for tens of thousands more.
It was no joke
It almost seemed like a joke but it was not a joke. It had a real purpose: to destroy (by putting it in a bad light) European luxury. At a time when it was not held in high esteem, there were costs and investigations into illegal hiring practices. At the time, there was general outrage or something similar. Nothing more. A few weeks ago, however, the Glitz.Paris portal went further, denouncing the longa manus of Chinese institutions in the counterfeit industry. An industry that has been cleaned up and is now completely incorporated into shopping centres that are not only tolerated but even sponsored.
All in broad daylight
In Guangzhou, for example, you can buy exact copies of the most famous handbags on the market in broad daylight. Exact copies, because smugglers have another advantage. They have easy access to authentic models, since luxury boutiques in China are less constrained by things like ‘a two-year waiting list to get that Birkin bag’. All you need to do is spend a few tens of thousands of yuan, and you’re done. And that’s not all. Many of the fakes sold in these large malls even end up in the luxury second-hand market, further polluting the wells. And so, if 1+1 (still) equals 2, from five-second videos to large shopping centres, the attack on European luxury is now accepted.
Something that cannot be replicated
Of course, there is a ‘but’. What cannot be replicated (at least for now) is the experience, the sweet talk disguised as a welcome that every brand of a certain level gives to high-spending customers. But also to those who spend less, because you can’t help but feel welcome in the strongholds of luxury. What cannot be replicated, therefore, is the experience in both the figurative and literal sense of the term. In other words, Chinese customers who buy a CANELH 2.55 at the Baiyun World Leather Trading Centre are not told about when Mademoiselle Coco decided to launch a bag to replace those useless clutches, a legacy of the previous century, which were uncomfortable, had no handles, and were small. In short, the substance is missing.
The materials, the techniques, the history, and the privilege of buying a piece that tells a story are all missing. But one rule always applies, and let’s face it, European luxury has not yet understood how damaging it is. The ‘as long as people talk about it’ approach has ended up becoming a sharp boomerang, bouncing straight back at those who thought they could dominate the narrative. And now that fakeness is no longer a shadow but a guest of honour, European luxury would do well to ask itself what its priorities are.
Images generated with Artificial Intelligence
Read also:
- They are not fakes, they are ‘dupes’: they appeal to those who say they are green
- The power of Artificial Intelligence against counterfeiting
- The grey area of luxury in China and the two words that define it