I was passing through the middle of town earlier, on my way from a conference (of which more later) back to the office, and I saw a stall beside the road selling knock-off designer bags - you know the kind of thing. Fake Lulus and baguettes and Hermés galore, all yours for the bargain price of some insubstantial figure, and guaranteed not to fall apart at the seams in the first few hours, at least.

But also festooning the rails at one corner of the stall was a cluster of those Anya Hindmarch “I’m not a plastic bag” shopping tote bags.

Now, given that these were almost certainly knockoffs of dubious provenance and quality, an interesting scenario emerges, in which

– a designer makes a bag to encourage people to be environmentally conscious
– which is later revealed to be not so environmentally sound itself
– but which is coveted by fashionistas (and Heat readers) so much that the item sells out entirely
– which means that knockoffs are created to cash in on the effect
– which are probably made for cheap in sweatshops in order to maximise the profit
– which potentially ends up doing more ethical damage than if the bag hadn’t existed in the first place.

Fascinating, really.

On a related note, I’m very tempted to get Tom his very own knockoff t-shirt…