How to be sure not to buy fake ''Lacoste''

[ALHOLK]

Hi!

 

 

 

I have baught lots of fake LaCoste shirts that I have worn for years without any problems. The one thing I have learned to look out for is very bright colours like red and blue, the won't maintain their colour for more than a couple of washings.

 

 

 

regards

 

 

 

ALHOLK

 

 

[Guest]

I've got agree with pro-fake buch here. I bought a fake Ralph Lauren dress shirt (very authentic looking) and it outlasted my real one by a year.

[Guest]

You know, a burlap sack with arm holes cut in it might last even longer. Since you don't mind looking like an cheap doofus in a fake Polo shirt, perhaps you should just make the move to burlap.

[thalenoi]

PvtDick,

 

 

 

"I got news for you...I can tell a Bangkok suit from about twenty paces away, same as I can tell a Patpong "Lacoste" shirt from the real thing in about two seconds. Perhaps your eye for quality is not quite as sharp."

 

 

 

Who cares in a gogo whether it`s a 200 baht or 2000 baht "Lacoste"???

 

 

[Guest]

I guess it doesn't matter.

 

 

 

But by the same token, what difference would it make if you wore a tank top (or singlet, if you're a Brit) with "Keep on Truckin" written on it, a Speedo swimsuit, knock-off Birkenstock sandals, and white socks?

 

 

 

I guess if you don't mind looking like a classless, tasteless oaf, it makes no difference. So be my guest.

[ThaiGirlLover]

Hey PvtDick,

 

 

 

I have to argue your point here because I do have an eye for quality.

 

 

 

I have quite an extensive wardrobe (I am bit of a clothes hound) with several high-end suits (Armani, Boss, etc.). I took a chance and had a custom one made in LOS. This suit fits me better that my high-end ones - the tailoring is better, the finishing is better and the material is better. I think it depends on the tailor, the materials that you choose and the number of fittings that you insist upon.

 

 

 

Just because the price is relatively cheap doesn?t mean that you can?t find quality.

 

 

 

By the way, if you check some of your high-end suits you will notice that a large percentage of them are made in SE Asia.

 

 

[Fiery Jack]

PvtDick,

 

 

 

LOL but I'm also with the pro-fake brigade, for similar reasons to ThaiGirlLover, as long as it's prime quality fake. Few years ago, I bought a Boss suit in New York that cost me a fotune but made me look so good (or rather pulled me so many birds) it was worth every penny. I got 2 copies made at the Asia Hotel tailor in BKK and both were so identical that nobody has, to this day, ever rumbled that they are fakes (quite the opposite: the fakes have proved equally effective as the real thing so far as the "fanny magnet" factor goes). And the fakes are standing up to wear and tear as good as the genuine whistle and flute is.

 

 

 

Anyway, long story short, the other reason I reckon fakes are worth it: I was in Seoul a few months back as part of a winter business tour of Asia. In my suitcase, the real Boss suit plus one fake Boss suit. I head off to Itaewon for a night of boozy sanuking and, randomly, stick on the fake Boss suit. Later, in some Country and Western bar, a drunk American bloke puts a huge cigar burn right in the middle of my left lapel . Suit ruined, but it's the fake so I've only lost a couple of thousand baht (and can get another copy made if I like next time in BKK) as opposed to my mortgage had it bee the real McCoy I'd been wearing.

 

 

 

I ramble. Long story shorter. I see nothing wrong with fakes as long as they last and look no different to the real thing, even to the discerning eye.

 

 

 

The fact that you "can tell a Bangkok suit from about twenty paces away" is more a compliment to your skill than an insult to the suits, if mine are anything to go buy. Nobody else I've met can tell the difference. (The cheap Patpong shit ? rubber Prada belts and tin Rolexes ? screams "fake" and, yes, loudly declares its wearer to be an arsehole, but the copy suits, if you pick the right tailor, are a different matter.)

 

 

 

J

[Guest]

OK, FJ and TGL, point taken. If it looks just like the real thing and lasts just like the real thing, go for it (my same policy with katoeys, but the way).

 

 

 

Maybe, though, you can let me in on the secret of which Bangkok tailor can do the job? The couple things I've had made over the years ended up in the dustbin after just a couple wearings.

 

 

 

PS: there is also a bit of an ethical difference between having a tailor copy the style of a famous-designer suit you like, and buying something with fake trademarks all over it. You can't trademark, copyright, or patent a style. But I think it is pretty low to feed the counterfeit t/m and copyright industries (even if they do produce a decent quality item).

[Fiery Jack]

"Maybe, though, you can let me in on the secret of which Bangkok tailor can do the job? The couple things I've had made over the years ended up in the dustbin after just a couple wearings."

 

 

 

PvtDick,

 

 

 

It's hit or miss, and little point in recommending a hotel tailor because almost every time I visit there's a different team running the shop, whichever hotel you pick. (There was a thread ages ago where people were recommending sidestreet tailors though which you might want to dig out.) What I craftily failed to mention in the previous post was that, like yourself, I have had clothes tragically "copied" (couple of hilarious pairs of trousers that, had they been an inch or so shorter in the leg, would have made great beachwear, and had they been any tighter in the crotch I could have joined the Bee Gees ) that have gone straight into the dustbin: I just struck lucky that once with the Asia Hotel dude but who knows if he's still at the helm? Probably not since it was years ago. Furthermore, they don't stitch and sew the stuff in-house anyway so it also depends on which sweatshop they're using this season.

 

 

 

Also, on the ethical front, I agree with you re. copyright. But the Boss suits I had copied didn't claim to be Boss suits i. e. no fake labels on the inside pocket, so I guess I can sleep easier even though I am indirectly bootlegging the cut of the cloth? Hmm. Tricky one. . .

 

 

 

Good luck . Good gag about the katoeys too .

 

 

 

jack

 

 

[adikgede]

I don't suspect that Thailand is any different than Indonesia when it comes to branded clothes. You can certainly tell a cheap copy made by a roadside tailor, but these people just can't produce the shirts in quantity or cost compared to a Korean or Taiwanese factory. The vast majority of fakes sold in Indonesia are no different than the original because they come out of the same factory.

 

 

 

I recently had a fellow approach me that is in a JOA with a Taiwanese factory in West Java. They produce a $BRAND of athletic clothes that are common with fashionable crack dealers. Why anyone would pay USD160 for a pair of metalic white running britches is beyond me. Well this fellow was offering them to me for less than USD2 a pair in lots of 1000's. The clothes were production over-runs no different than the original except in the case that QC is done overseas, a strategy that bankrupt Marks & Spencer in Indonesia. He said they typically produce two or three times in excess of the numbers they were contracted, and then sell locally or ship to Eastern Europe. This is why Adiddas decided not to manufacture WC footballs down here.

 

 

 

We go to Bandung several times a year to by childrens clothes, mostly seconds, with US mail order and thirty something brands like Lands End, Banana Republic, and Old Navy, In my contrarian view I like to by seconds that are marked as such, that way I can identify the flaw before I buy rather than discover it later. I am not very brand concious so I rarely buy clothes for myself, as so many have an advertisement embroidered somwehere prominent. That is certainly going against the grain down here were a very prominent cabinet minister likes to were suits with the collar tag sewn on the cuff, KAMPUNGAN*

 

 

 

*hillbilly, bogman..........