The Sincerest Form of Flattery? Forever21 Knocks Off Mansur Gavriel's Bucket Bag

Mansur Gavriel (L) and Forever21 ?

Nothing says you’ve “made it” as a fashion label, quite like having your wares knocked-off, whether the culprits are found on the streets of Chinatown, or at any of the fast-fashion stores that cater to the young and penniless. Usually it’s the big name designers that find themselves the “inspiration” of the wares that fill these stores, but this time, it’s small luxury bag label Mansur Gavriel’s turn.

The company, which was founded in 2012, is known for their sleek, minimalist, and purposefully “anonymous” design, which is of course what makes it so identifiable. The label’s signature satchel is also notoriously difficult to get your hands on and a cursory “Mansur Gavriel” search on Twitter yields many results of women BEGGING retailers to re-stock the bags. I even have a friend who was on a wait list for almost a year! Their bucket bag, which is partly responsible for so many “return of the bucket bag!” pieces in various fashion outlets, costs under $500 — not a lot of money for “It-bag” standards — but still not a price tag that most people can afford, so now Forever 21 is offering their version of it for $30.

The debate over knock-offs continues to rage on despite the fact that by now we know that this is how companies operate. They take a look at high fashion trends, interpret them in their own way, and sell them to millions of people around the world. Unfortunately, sometimes they interpret them a little too closely and find themselves in legal trouble — a trouble they are willing to take on because they have millions and millions of dollars and so are not preoccupied by lawsuits.

While it sucks for the small designer to have to see their hard work made in some cheap material and sold to the world for a fraction of what it costs them to even produce, the truth is, that these cheap knock-offs do not actually take business away from them because no one that wants to and can spend hundreds of dollars for a bag is doing it for the way it looks alone. They are paying for the name, they are paying for the status, they are paying for the highest quality Italian leather, and for a product they know will last a lifetime. These consumers aren’t even interested in the $30 dollar version that will fall apart in six months. Is it cool to get ripped off? No. Is it ethical? No. Should Forever 21 and other companies be held responsible for stealing intellectual property? Absolutely. But really all this means is that the women behind Mansur Gavriel have captured a specific moment in the zeitgeist and they should be proud of this. Demand for their original bags will only go up from here.