PHP Press Book 2016

193style magazine

t h e b e s t s h o p s

d e g l i e f f e t t i , r o m a

Quasi 40 anni fa la prima boutique. Non uno spazio tradizionale bensì un concept store: «A renderlo un luogo unico sono i nostri clienti».

Un percorso guidato fra le migliori boutique italiane, che nasce dalla partnership tra le testate moda del gruppo Rcs (Style, Amica, Io Donna e il canale moda di Corriere.it) e The Best Shops (thebestshops.com), l'associazione nota anche come Camera Italiana Buyer Moda che raggruppa i più prestigiosi multibrand italiani di moda d'alta gamma. Giacca, PHP Pihakapi. Sneakers, Carol Christian Poell. Giubbotto, Givenchy.

tutto ebbe inizio a Roma nel 1979, al 79 di piazza Capranica, tra il Pantheon e Montecitorio quando Massimo Degli

Effetti (foto sopra) trasformò la piccola drapperia di famiglia in una boutique. C.P. Company, Massimo Osti, Adolfo Domínguez sono alcuni esempi di marchi che si potevano trovare in negozio: quando il prêt-à-porter maschile rappresentava una scelta pioneristica Degli Effetti c’era. «Nessuno mi invitava

alle sfilate, ma io mi infilavo lo stesso mescolandomi agli studenti» confida. Il 1987 è l’anno della svolta: con l’arrivo di Jean Paul Gaultier la boutique diventa il punto di riferimento per il menswear italiano. Sul finire del secolo scorso viene concepito anche Neomillenium, spazio minimale creato con l’aiuto di Massimiliano Fuksas, che ospitava collezioni come quelle di Rick Owens e Carpe Diem by Maurizio Altieri. Nel 2009 questo viene sostituito da Apartment (l’appartamento di fianco

al negozio donna), spazio per eventi e showroom. Massimo Degli Effetti ha le idee molto chiare quando si tratta di dare consigli di stile. Qual è il must dell’autunno-inverno 2016/17? «Di sicuro il velluto. Un colore su tutti: il bordeaux». Vietato il gilet. «I miei clienti preferiscono gli stilisti giapponesi come Yohji Yamamoto, Comme des Garçons, Matsuda e Issey Miyake. Perché non sono vittime del fashion: la personalità, legata al mondo dell’arte e della cultura, fa del nostro spazio un luogo unico».

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harriet wears counterfeit zara: £30zara: £40

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F a l s eE v e r y o n e k n ow s t h e h i g h s t r e e t ‘ a d a p t s ’ l o o k sf r o m t h e c a t w a l k , b u t w h o k n e w t h a t h i g h - s t r e e tp i e c e s a r e a l s o b e i n g c o p i e d a n d s o l d a t e v e n

c h e a p e r p r i c e s ? H a r r i e t E l t o n r e p o r t s

e c o n o m y

alk into any Zara store and, like most successful high-streetretailers, its “borrowing” from other designers is plain to see.Studded wrap-around ballet flats à la Miu Miu, zip-up tracktops just like AW16 Marni, silky bombers like the Gucci onesslung over every fashion editor’s shoulder. In among them,I spotted and fell in love with a mustard-yellow fake-leatherbiker jacket for £40, remarkably similar to the yellow lambskinjacket by the emerging Italian brand Pihakapi, currently for saleon Farfetch.com for £900.

When I couldn’t find my size in any Zara store in London or online, I took toeBay to hunt down a second-hand one. More and more shoppers are lookingfor cult high-street items online, particularly since the internet’s obsessionwith “#thatcoat”: Zara’s £70 blue and white print jacket, which became soubiquitous, it spawned its own Instagram account. And while many will havetrackeddown the sold-out piece from legitimate sources— sellerswhoperhapsbought the wrong size, didn’t like the style, or just wanted to clear out theirwardrobe — others, like me, may have found themselves in a strange world ofhigh-street rip-offs.In the hunt formyyellow jacket,what I found on eBay didn’tmake immediate

sense. Several international suppliers, mainly in China — where a lot of Zaraproducts aremanufactured—were selling the identical piece, labelled as brand-new Zara, but for less than the high-street price. One seller listed only Zaraitems, all at a fraction of the cost. Anavy folksy dress, for example—adouble forVita Kin’s billowy kaftans — was on sale for £30, 50% cheaper than the officialke

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Zara piece (the originals by Vita Kin cost upwards of £1,200 atMatchesfashion.com). Another seller had a Zara top, dress andskirt, againat a50%discount.Other sellers listedevenmorebrands,such as brand-newAdidas andHunters, with prices just as slashed.Back on eBay, I clicked through on the cheapest “Zara” jacket

I could find—£30, plus £5 for postage— added to cart and awaitedmy shipment. Twoweeks later it arrived from China, wrapped in acheap parcel bag. It certainly looked like the real deal: the Zaralogo stitched into the collar, paper tags with the price on, properzips in tissue paper, the right colour, the right cut, even the rightwashing instructions. In the office, nobody could tell thedifferencebetween mine and the real one — and mine was still £5 cheaperthan the high street, despite being sent halfway across the world.Had it really fallen off the back of a lorry on its way out of the

Zara factory, or did I now own a very good Chinese rip-off? I wentback online to dig around. I spotted Zara’s name on fashion forumswhere consumers expressed concerns about authenticity. Thegeneral consensus was that they couldn’t be fakes — who wouldmake a copy of something that’s so cheap anyway? “They actuallymake fake Zara stuff?” balked one user. “I mean, I love Zara, butit’s not exactly Prada.”eBay doesn’t allow the sale of counterfeit objects, and has

rigorous checks. “Counterfeits are illegal and not welcome on anyof eBay’s sites,” it says. “eBay has consistently been the internetindustry leader in working to stop the online sale of counterfeitgoods, running several anti-counterfeit initiatives including theVerified Rights Owner [VeRO] programme.”So how did mine slip through? I messaged the seller, posing as

an innocent consumer, to find out how they managed to sell thejacket so cheaply.The reply was evasive: “This is directly sent fromthe factory, so the package is like that and cheaper, thank you,”and “We get all our items direct frommanufacturing factories. They are all genuine.”Hmm.My jacket came with all the right Zara

tags and labels, but I soon discovered plentyof other listings for similar items that wereunbranded. When I messaged these sellers,they acknowledged their similarity, butdenied all links to Zara.This, it seems, is wherethe legal grey area arises. I spoke to CharlieAbrahams, senior vice-president at thebrand protection and anti-counterfeitingagency MarkMonitor, who said it wasentirely possible my jacket was made in thesame factory as the Zara original, as my sellerclaimed, but that, as it hadn’t “passed thebrandowner’s quality control”, it is technicallya counterfeit, because it is sold with theintention to deceive or defraud.The unbranded “Zara” jackets may be made

in the same factory, too; however, they don’tget called counterfeits because they’re notclaiming to be Zara. This is why they’re“rampant online in China and even easier tofind”, according to Liz Flora, editor-in-chief

of Jingdaily.com, which reports on the Chinese luxury market.She tells me that the popular trade website Alibaba has a record ofselling unbranded items. Although Jack Ma, its founder, hasacknowledged that steps must be taken to stop fake products, hehas also claimed they are better quality. I looked online andspotted my yellow jacket on Alibaba for just £13 a piece — thoughyou have to buy a minimum of 500 — and the Vita Kin-like dresswas there, too, advertised using Zara’s photos. I checked otherwebsites and found similar unbranded jackets being sold bycertain sellers on Amazon and Chinese favourites Sheinside andRomwe, all using their own images and not Zara’s.Some of the copycat manufacturers don’t even see the original

garment—Abrahams says they use Zara’s photos to replicate outfitsbased wholly on the pictures. They even sometimes then use theZara images to sell the unbranded products (which Abrahams saysis intellectual property infringement) as buyers aremore convinced.None of this is good news for Zara, of course, as the grey

market — the sale of branded products through channelsunassociated with the brand — can flood the market with muchcheaper pieces. I approached Zara about all of this. Does the brandknow? Does it care? It declined an interview, but emailed back aperfunctory response: “To guarantee customers genuine productsthat uphold our stringent quality and production standards,Zara exclusively sells its products in Zara stores. Zara takes thenecessary action to protect our customers from purchasingcounterfeit products that might not offer the high standards behindthe original Zara brand.”A quick check on eBay shows my seller is still in business — eBay

says it has not “triggered anything suspicious on our system”. Italso says that Zara has a team of people patrolling the auction site inan attempt to stop fraud, but they didn’t flag my seller up as

suspicious either. Alibaba still has tradersselling unbranded Zara copies in bulk — forobvious reasons, searching by specific retailers(for example, Zara navy folk dress) won’t takeyou to that item, but more literal, specificterms such as “long-sleevedvelvetmaxidress”will. Once you’ve found one seller, you canclick through all their other knockoff pieces.Flora suggests that the increasing pace of

high-street “drops” is in part a reason whystopping these fakes is getting trickier. “Fast-fashion labels are producing clothes inmassivequantities and at cheaper prices than theluxury brands, so it’s much more difficult forthem to keep control over their factories,” shesays. Designers such as Ferragamo andMoncler have started using RFID microchipsthat give each item a unique ID number toprove authenticity, but these protectionprogrammes come with a hefty price tag. Is itall a dose of karma for retailers creating high-street versions of luxury designs in the firstplace? Either way, if you’re still trawling eBayfor #thatcoat, read the box to brush up on howto spot a high-street rip-off. l

Had i t rea l l y fal len of f the back of a lorry on i t s way out o fthe Zara factory, or d id I now own a very good Ch inese r ip-of f?

How to spot a fake on ebaya fake product

l If a new and in-demand item that isstill being sold in stores is listed

cheaply and not by the brand.l If large quantities of the same itemare for sale (sometimes this can behidden across several auctions) with

terms like “new collection”.l If the piece is being sold by a lotof sellers all claiming the same thing.

a fake sellerl If they are operating a “shop” ofnew items from different brands.l If, in their feedback, peoplehave queried the authenticity and

condition of the goods.l Beware original brand imagesbeing used to sell unbrandedproducts — what you buy may

not be what you see.

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