Even though Georgia native Audrey Estilette had heard about the counterfeit designer handbags sold in New York’s Chinatown, on her recent trip to the city, the fourteen year-old was more interested in exploring the authentic side of the neighborhood—or so she thought. Standing on Canal Street, surrounded by a swarm of vendors vying for her attention with whispers of Louis Vuitton and Chanel, it quickly became obvious to Estilette that sightseeing might have to take a back seat to bargain shopping. “Everywhere you turn, someone is trying to sell you a bag,” she says, she and her girlfriends proudly toting the knockoff Longchamp “Le Pliage” handbags they scored. “You don’t have places like this back home. You know, all out in the open and stuff.” On an average day in Chinatown, illegal counterfeit vendors and their lookouts snake through the crowds, peddling their fake bags. For soccer mom Terry Johnson, on vacation from Florida, the illicit nature of the not-so-discreet transactions and the prospect of swinging a “designer bag” on her shoulder for a fraction of the price provides a strange thrill. “It’s a fun game to come to Chinatown to buy bags,” she says smiling, clutching four nondescript black plastic bags full of fake handbags. “I always get a rush from a good deal,” she adds, before zeroing in on a vendor holding a laminated sheet of images of Chanel bags. “Oh, let me try to get this guy.”
