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It was William Shakespeare who said it best, "What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." In our materialistic society, names matter. They define who we are, our status and our mentality. Designers help us with this way of thinking by making their items the "must haves" of the season. To own something, especially handbags, with the moniker of Versace, Coach, Louis Vuitton or Burberry, shows the public that you are trendy and care about what is "in" and what is not.

It seems that everyday, more and more people walking down College Avenue have fashionable new handbags. At the same time, the handbag phenomenon leaves us to wonder: why do so many people have designer handbags that cost well above what the typical college student can afford? After all, the average sized Coach purse cost about $158. The answer is simple: designer knock-off handbags, of course.

The explosion of the handbag industry gives many knock-off companies the freedom to make replica designer purses at a much lower price. With our materialistic society rapidly growing, people are buying in to the industry and instead of paying $158 for the newest Coach purse, people are paying street vendors on Canal Street in New York City $30 for bags that looks somewhat identical to an authentic Coach bag, or paying $50 for a Nine West handbag that assimilates a Coach purse. People even throw "Fake Purse Parties" in their homes where their friends can look and buy the newest fashions in knock-off purses.

Professor Vasilios Christofilakos, Professor of Accessories Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, believes that the sale of knock-off handbags is both positive and negative to society. Christofilakos warns all handbag fans not to mistake knock-off handbags for those of the black market. Knock-off handbags are better defined as the imitation purses that are sold in retail stores such as Macy's or Walmart, while black market bags are those sold illegally (namely by street vendors) that are copies of originals by such fashion houses as Louis Vuitton and Gucci.