La merce nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità contraffatta. Un’analisi economica e socio-culturale

In the light of the new configuration of luxury goods production, this paper discusses the relation between consumers and brands, and focuses on a particular interaction with the objects: Buying a fake product. What does the word “original” mean, today? Surprisingly, at the base of the process of degradation of the goods, we find the luxury goods industry itself. The logic behind the luxury goods, with reference to clothing and leather industry, in fact, tends to coincide with the one leading the consumption of mass-products: In this perspective, if this process concerns the productive aspects as well, the consumption of counterfeited goods can be read as the most rational adjustment to the transformation of the desired goods. By reconstructing the experience of buying fake goods, the differences in the use of the products, and the perception among the public of original and counterfeited brands, the hypothesis that fake goods are a “lower goods” is tested.