Several stories out there recently on the growing trend of China manufacturing of luxury brand goods. Here is a decent and easy to read fluff piece from the New York Times.

The biz is booming, particularly here in China, but the old model has one problem:

To help these newly titanic brands retain an air of old-world luxury, marketing executives played up the companies’ heritage and claimed that the items were still made in Europe by hand — like Geppetto hammering in his workshop by candlelight. But this sort of labor is wildly expensive, the executives routinely explain, which is why the retail prices for luxury goods keep going up and up.

The question is whether the "old way" produces better quality than the cheap assembly-line version. The author of the Times piece thinks there is no difference and, presumably, we should shut up about where this stuff is made.

Luxury brand executives who declare that their items can be made only in Western Europe because Western European artisans are the only people who know what true luxury is are being not only hypocritical but also xenophobic. They are not selling “dreams,” as they like to suggest; they are hawking low-cost, high-profit items wrapped in logos. Consumers should keep in mind that luxury brands are capable of producing real quality at a reasonable price.

Fair enough, but if this becomes completely transparent, then there is absolutely no justification for the markup besides the design of the products. And if that's the case, there is also an even greater chance, in my opinion, for people to go out and buy fakes. I always thought that the big edge these guys had over counterfeiters was the difference in quality. You give that up, there's precious little left over.

Then again, I fail to understand why someone would pay that much for a pair of shoes or a handbag in the first place, so perhaps I'm not the best judge of this industry's business practices. Best to go home and ask the wife her opinion.