I already mentioned here the growing decorrelation that now exists between luxury and know-how, with the scandal that tarnished the reputation of Dior in Italy in 2024.
The strong values of quality, durability and craftsmanship have been fading in recent years in favor of purely financial logics from which only the customer suffers, and the lines are becoming increasingly blurred between fast fashion and luxury – even if desirability and prices are hardly comparable.
It now seems clear that the luxury industry is using methods similar to those of fast fashion, as Dior is not the only fashion house whose reputation has been tarnished — Armani, Tod’s, and Loro Piana are also facing legal troubles, and thirteen renowned brands (Gucci, Prada, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, Ferragamo, Dolce & Gabbana, Missoni, Off-White, Coccinelle, Adidas) are currently the subject of information requests from the Italian Justice.
The lack of confidence in luxury houses also affects the second-hand market. Artificial intelligence, so promising, does not allow at the time of writing this article to ensure the authenticity of an item and despite notable progress, the percentage of unverifiable or probably counterfeit products has increased rather than decreased. Counterfeiters do not just keep up with artificial intelligence, they exploit it to their advantage with advanced production tools, which allow the creation of counterfeits reproducing not only the appearance but also the tactile qualities of luxury products, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between fakes and originals.
How then can we not understand the rise (assumed or not by consumers) of counterfeits and, more openly, the rise (this time completely assumed) of “dupes”, these products imitating, without counterfeiting them, the iconic products of luxury brands? The growing lack of trust in luxury brands, the constant increase in their prices correlated with the equally constant drop in quality probably explains the expansion of the market for “dupes” whose depth is almost limitless, since they have nothing shameful or illegal.
The best example is the “Walmart Birkin”, an imitation of the iconic Hermès Birkin bag, sold for $78 by Walmart during the 2024 Christmas period.
Thanks to its success, the “Walmart Birkin” is out of stock after a few days, its success being ensured by the multiple videos published on social media by influencers or more anonymous people illustrating their pride in having managed to get their hands on one of the items of this limited production.
What will happen in the future to these Walmart Birkins so proudly acquired? Will they end up, like the majority of fast fashion items overtaken by a new trend and by a perhaps non-existent quality, in the trash? I don’t know.
But beyond the fashion effect, the overwhelming success of the “Walmart Birkin” opens the discussion on class identities and the accessibility of luxury.
Quickly renamed the “Wirking” – a contraction of “Walmart” and “Birkin” – the coveted low-cost bag obviously also echoes the American “working class” who may work as hard as they can and sometimes work several jobs a day without much hope of financial abundance, but who manage to appropriate a social code that is absolutely inaccessible because it is reserved for the ultra-rich.
The Wirkin appears as a cathartic, rebellious and almost revolutionary act in an era of great social inequality where the gap is widening in terms of income.
At the opposite extreme, Balenciaga appropriates the codes of the working classes by selling them at inaccessible prices – the trash bag and the Ikea bag transformed into handbags, the roll of scotch tape turned into a bracelet – questioning the value of luxury and mocking the brand effect while participating in it by romanticizing poverty.
So there is much more than a material value behind a luxury item. There is a real class war.
Max Mara coat – Moreau Paris tote bag – Chanel twinset – Vintage trousers – Prada flat shoes
February 14, 2026
