Fashionistas in Training

Today we were at the mall, and I spotted a smart young girl, college age perhaps, carrying a nice Louis Vuitton look-alike. My Mom has an eye for bags and spotted it too. Both of us were thinking inside our heads, "nice bag, but it's a fake because Louis Vuitton doesn't put glitter on the Manhattan PM bag." Guess who blurted out what we were all the thinking! My three year old son R. "That's a fake Louis Vuitton, Mama did you see that, it was a fake." How did he know?

Aside from the fact that he's the Chic Mommy's son and it's probably in his blood, my son is a label magnet. When we are not reading Chicka Chicka ABC or The Three Little Pigs, we are reading Allure, Vogue, W, and InStyle together. He looks at pictures and asks me "what does that say, what is that? Is that (fill in the blank with Lipstick, Handbag, shoe, jacket, necklace, etc...)? He can't read well yet, but he can spot the logos of every major fashion merchandiser. He also knows there are fakes of the real thing.

I once got duped on the internet thinking I was getting a real Chanel bag from a website called efashionstore.com. It ended up being a fake. I was so mad. I had paid almost $1,000 for a bag that had Chanel written on it with a white-out pen! I immediately returned it and didn't get my refund until I got American Express Fraud Department on their asses. As a result, my son realized there is REAL Chanel and FAKE Chanel.

Don't get me wrong. I don't judge people on whether they carry the real thing or the knock-off. Some of the prices on designer handbags are just ridiculous and I would rather get a granite countertop in my kitchen than buy a Fugly Fendi Spy for $5,000. If you really want to buy a knock-off to impress someone, make sure it's a good knock-off. I know a place if you click here (I've purchased the Chanel Multipocket Reporter Bag from here, it's our secret that it's a fake! Check out their package deals, you get lots of bags for the buck!) I don't think you have to carry a fancy designer bag to be considered "in" though. There are so many companies like Michael by Michael Kors, Banana Republic, and Francesco Biasia who make really nice "inspired" bags and some original designs for reasonable prices. These bags look equally, if not more chic, than the high priced bags. I recently saw Coach selling their version of Chanel's Multipocket Reporter bag for almost 1/10th the price of a Chanel (which was a whopping $3,700!).

But back to the bag I purchased from efashionstore.com, what I was angry at was that the bag was supposed to be the real thing and turned out to be a fake! If I'm buying a fake, I'd like to be told that from the start so I don't blow too much money. My son asked me how I knew it was a fake and I proceeded to show him the lining, the lack of authenticity card, the white-out on the logo. He took notes. (I got my Chanel education from the Burberry Princess.)

I own only one original LV bag, it's the Speedy and it was a gift from my Mom. My son studied the bag and looked at all the details and is now adept at identifying real LV's as well.

When we entered Nordstrom once, he faced the Chanel cosmetics counter for the first time. He was in awe that Chanel made makeup too. He ran over and asked the saleswoman, "Is this the REAL Chanel?" and she's like, "Yes," (she's probably thinking WTF?) and my son yells across to me, "Mama come here, they are selling the REAL Chanel makeup!" Cue the camera to me cringing thinking everyone in this snooty store probably thinks I'm some Chinatown junkie who buys fake Chanels off the street. The saleswoman was nice though, and was impressed that my son recognized her LV bag (it was real).

Before anyone thinks I'm pushing my son on the Queer Eye wagon, let me just say that he is equally a wizard at indentifying cars, simply from looking at them or hearing their horn. It's lke Rain Man sometimes. He is so GMC happy that he once went to the dealership with my husband and he identified every car in the store. For that he got a GMC plaque from the dealership (the red one they put on the grill on the front of the car) and we hung it up in his room.

The girls are almost two and they are turning into accessories magnets. Z loves sunglasses, the kind Nicole Richie wears and H is all about her purses and bags (wonder she gets that from?). They love to admire jewellry and stuff from their little stroller seats. I even heard some guy telling his wife, "wow, she is starting them young." I'm not really pushing anything really, they just seem to like sparkly things and play dress up on their own. I can't wait until they are older and we can go shopping together. My little Lloyd Boston can come too, to tell us what not to wear and what to buy.