Advertisement

Diesel Fashion Week stunt pokes fun at knock-off artists

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Diesel Fashion Week stunt pokes fun at knock-off artists
Customers shopping at Diesel's opening of a real knock-off store on Canal Street during NY Fashion Week. Photo: Ann Presley/AFP

Diesel is ditching the catwalk to masquerade as knock-off merchants this Fashion Week, purporting to be a New York fake goods store only to flog customers the real thing.

Advertisement

It's a clever gimmick for the 40-year-old Italian label, which is using the fall/winter 2018 edition of New York's twice-yearly style fest to open a pop-up shop on Canal Street in Chinatown, the heart of knock-off city in the US financial capital.
 
Sweatshirts and T-shirts are stamped "Deisel" -- making the ruse believable. Hoodies cost $60, jeans $70 -- again believably fake. Except these clothes are limited-range, designer goods.
 
"We have so many counterfeit products all over the world I thought, 'Why can't we play with this problem that we have?'" Diesel founder Renzo Rosso told AFP, saying he believes that more than a million counterfeit Diesel goods are sold annually around the world.
 
"We created a fake product, a fake name, and we came to the counterfeit district."
 
The store opened under the radar last week and hundreds of customers have already browsed and purchased, with most of the initial buyers blissfully unaware that the joke's on them.
 
"People come and they think it is a fake product. When they discover it's not a fake product, they can sell it for three or four times the value!" said Rosso, 62.
 
Given the queue to get in, it's paying off. The store is scheduled to close on Monday, possibly even earlier if it runs out of stock.
 
Otherwise, customers can go down the street to buy fake Louis Vuitton bags or imitation Rolex watches.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also