Buyers very aware

PETER BUFFA

“Everything old is new again.”

That’s an old line about fashion. And sometimes “things aren’t

always what they seem” also applies.

Do you know Sarkis and Alice Kivork? Neither do I. But the Orange

County district attorney does, which is what led to the Kivork’s

pleading not guilty to charges of making and selling bogus designer

purses at the Orange County Market Place.

The D.A.’s office has been intensely interested in the Kivork’s

handbag handiwork since February. In May, investigators found bogus

bags with names like Kate Spade, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi and

Prada in the Kivork’s Westminster home -- 2,500 of them to be exact.

That’s a lot.

Apparently, the Kivork’s were not entirely clear about whether

they had really behaved badly or not, because on November 1, they

sold some more bogus bags to undercover bogus bag baggers who bagged

the bags, then them.

Here are two important things to remember when it comes to the

people we call “the authorities.” You can write these down if you

want.

1. Don’t get sideways with them; and

2. Don’t annoy them.

Doing whatever causes No. 1 more than once will always cause No. 2

to happen. That might explain the charges that the Kivork’s are

facing -- two felony counts that could amount to 11 years and 4

months in a small, poorly lighted room for each of them -- and bail

set at $1,000,000. Another explanation is that the bogus bag biz is

big.... Really, really big.

No one knows exactly how big the bad bag biz is, but it generates

billions of dollars in this country alone.

Just one moment. We need to define some terms. When it comes to

the bogus bag biz, fake is a relative term.

“Counterfeit” means trying to pawn off the fake stuff as the real

deal. That’s what lands you in the pokey. There is an altogether

different side of the bag biz called the “designer replica” trade.

That’s when someone is peddling fake designer bags that everyone

knows are fake and no one is pretending are real.

You’re OK with the gendarmes in that case, although the

manufacturers will do whatever they can to spoil your day in a place

called civil court, and they can do a lot.

There is also a dark side to all this, which probably shouldn’t

surprise anyone these days. In a recent episode of “Inside Edition,”

Barbara Kolsun, general counsel for Kate Spade, said that the bogus

designer bag biz “supports organized crime. It supports terrorism.

And when a woman buys a counterfeit handbag, she’s contributing to

that problem. Counterfeiters are not nice people.”

If you think the “terrorism” part is a bit of a stretch, the U.S.

Customs Service does not. According to their Web site, the money from

knockoff bags, watches, CDs and DVDs, etc. sold around the world

finds its way into the coffers of everyone from Colombian drug

dealers to Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and even the IRA.

In 2002, customs officials and Interpol formed a joint operation

that does nothing but “follow the money” from counterfeit goods to

strange organizations in faraway places.

That might come as a surprise to the legions of women who are

dropping into living rooms across the country for the latest and

hottest in-home sales trend -- “purse parties.”

The Fendi is in, the Botox is out, the Chardonnay stays. If

Brownie Wise could see them now!

Brownie, by the way, was the woman who started Tupperware parties.

Earl Tupper started his company in 1942 and within a few years, he

noticed that his most successful salesperson every year by far was a

New England woman named Brownie Wise who sold the stuff out of her

home.

He tracked her down and asked her how she managed to sell so much

Tupperware door-to-door. Brownie told him she didn’t sell

door-to-door at all. She did it at parties, to a handful of women at

a time.

In 1951, Earl Tupper pulled the entire product line from retail

stores and started selling exclusively through parties. Where were

we? Oh, yeah -- purse parties.

The twist here is that purse parties offer “high-end” knockoffs,

not the stuff the sidewalk vendors are pushing. At a purse party, you

might spend a hundred bucks for the clutch that you’re clutching, but

it’s supposed to fool almost everyone.

Everyone but my wife, Sharyn, that is. She knows more about this

stuff than Einstein knew about relativity and he knew a lot. I on the

other hand can be fooled by anything, at anytime, in the hands of

anyone. If we’re killing time in an airport, she can pick out the

fake bags three gates away.

“See the blond in the cashmere cape with the Louis Vuitton bag?”

she says. “The Louis is fake.”

“How do you know?” I say.

“See the zipper pull? The bag is supposed to be a Manosque GM, but

the pull is from a Naviglio Tote.”

Oh, like I didn’t know that.

So whether it’s bags or people, be careful what you grab. What was

true in ancient Rome is true today -- “caveat emptor,” which is Latin

for, um, “my cave is not full.”

I gotta go.

* PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs

Sundays. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].