Knock-offs, fakes, replicas, and reals : a cultural supply chain of counterfeit fashion

This thesis attempts to uncover the emotional and cultural economics of material culture. What does it mean for material good to be "fake"? What are the salient aspects that are being copied and are those aspects purely material? How does counterfeit branded fashion function as craft, as commodity, and as idea? The first chapter, Productions, looks not just at how fakes are made but what makes a fake, at how fake branded luxury goods are produced, both materially and immaterially. The second, Exchanges, examines the three most common sites of exchange, street markets, online message boards, and purse parties, and how the culture of exchange at each site produces a value specific to that site. The final chapter, Ownerships, explores how owners and observers make meaning from branded luxury goods, real and fake, and how, more specifically, how emerging legal discourses misunderstand the nature of creativity in fashion. To conclude, it considers what it might mean, more holistically, to use branded objects made, bought, and used outside of authorized channels, to constitute everyday life.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Swartz, Deja Elana

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• William Uricchio.

• Comparative Media Studies.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/93049

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/93049