Material culture and authenticity: fake branded fashion in Europe / Materializing Culture 9781003086000, 1003086004, 9781000189551, 1000189554, 9781000182927, 1000182924, 9781000186161, 1000186164

Citation preview

Material Culture and Authenticity

Materializing Culture Series Editors: Paul Gilroy and Daniel Miller

Barbara Bender, Stonehenge: Making Space Gen Doy, Materializing Art History Laura Rival (ed.), The Social Life of Trees: Anthropological Perspectives on Tree Symbolism Victor Buchli, An Archaeology of Socialism Marius Kwint, Christopher Breward, and Jeremy Aynsley (eds.), Material Memories: Design and Evocation Penny van Esterik, Materializing Thailand Michael Bull, Sounding Out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life Anne Massey, Hollywood beyond the Screen: Design and Material Culture Wendy Joy Darby, Landscape and Identity: Geographies of Nation and Class in England Joy Hendry, The Orient Strikes Back: A Global View of Cultural Display Judy Attfield, Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life Daniel Miller (ed.), Car Cultures Elizabeth Edwards, Raw Histories: Photographs, Anthropology and Museums David E. Sutton, Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory Eleana Yalouri, The Acropolis: Global Fame, Local Claim Elizabeth Hallam and Jenny Hockey, Death, Memory and Material Culture Sharon Macdonald, Behind the Scenes at the Science Museum Elaine Lally, At Home with Computers Susanne Kuchler, Malanggan: Art, Memory and Sacrifice Nicky Gregson and Louise Crewe, Second-Hand Cultures Merl Storr, Latex and Lingerie Lynn Meskell, Object Worlds in Ancient Egypt: Material Biographies Past and Present Sophie Woodward, Why Women Wear What They Wear Daniel Miller (ed.), Anthropology and the Individual: A Material Culture Perspective Inge Daniels, The Japanese House: Material Culture in the Modern Home Isabelle de Solier, Food and the Self: Production, Consumption and Material Culture

Material Culture and Authenticity Fake Branded Fashion in Europe

Magdalena Craciun

BLOOMSBURY LONDON • NEW DELHI• NEW YORK• SYDNEY

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Pie 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP

UK

1385 Broadway New York NY 10018 USA

www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury Is a trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Pie First published 2014

© Magdalena Craciun, 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Magdalena Craciun has identified her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as author of this work. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: HB: PB: ePDF: ePub:

978-0-85785--450-6 978-0-85785--451-3 978-1-47251-713-5 978-1-47251-712-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-i~ublication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by Apex CoVantage, LLC, Madison, WI, USA Printed and bound in Great Britain

,.

Contents Acknowledgements

vi

1

Introduction

1

2

Fake Brands

18

3

The Elusiveness of Inauthenticity, The Materiality of Brand: Fake Branded Garments in Turkey

42

The Elusiveness of Inauthenticity, The Materiality of Brand: Fake Branded Garments in Romania

72

4

5

Inauthentic Objects, Authentic Selves

103

8

Conclusion

131

Notes

149

References

155

Index

167

-v-

L.

Acknowledgments

My doctoral fieldwork in Istanbul (2006-2007) was made possible by financial support from the Romanian Cultural Institute. I also wish to acknowledge the support I received for writing the dissertation from the Ratiu Foundation and the Royal Anthropological Institute. Much of the present book was written while I held a post-doctoral fellowship from the British Institute at Ankara. From the beginning of my interest in fakes I have benefited from the unflagging energy and support of my supervisor, Daniel Miller. I am deeply indebted for his comments. The book draws on material I firstt3nalysed in my dissertat ion (Craciun 2009). I would like to thank my examiners, Catherine Alexander and Annel ies Moors, for their valuable comments. The Department of Anthropology at University College London has been generous when it mattered most. I rece ived warm assistance and advice from my UCL colleagues, and I thank especially to Janine Su, Besim Can Z1rh, Ivana Bajic-Hajdukovic and Julie Botticello. I would also like to thank my family and friends in Istanbul and Romania for their patience and support. Parts of this book have appeared in a somewhat different form in Craciun

2012 (with acknowledgements to the Journal, Royal Anthropological Institute and Blackwell Publishing) and Craciun 2009 (with acknowledgements to Berg).

- vi -

-1Introduction

AN ORDINARY DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ISTANBULITE It is mid-afternoon, the time when business hits a lull in the bazaar. Kerim, 1 a sturdy, middle-aged man, busies himself with putting his shop in order, the one thing that never seems to bore him. In the morning new stock arrived, but he could not find time to open the large plastic bag and pushed it under the counter. Now he dusts ~d tidies up the shelves and rearranges the table he keeps in front of the shop, making sure all the brand names are visible. Most of his goods are branded Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, and Bjorn Borg, but he also offers Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Dsquared, Gucci, Versace, and, under the counter, Hugo Boss and Diesel. 2 Then he empties the carrier, unwraps a few packages, places the new models on the counter, and piles up the rest under the shelves. Every now and then he stops, lights a cigarette, and invites other shopkeepers to come and have a look at these new products. They do come, swinging by amidst the packages spread inside and outside the shop, looking at the products, drinking their glasses of tea, smoking their cigarettes, listening to him talking up his merchandise, and bringing up other topics of conversation too. This Ume, Kerim is particularly proud of the color combinations he himself chose. The new arrivals are microfiber seamless men's boxer briefs with thin and wide waistbands in white and crimson, white and dark forest green, burgundy and ash grey, and brown and dark blue. His visitors express their sincere admiration. A few select some of these new models for themselves, while the others speculate about what lady will get to see these fancy briefs first. These men often hear Kerim speaking about his business, torrents of words about the high-tech factory, the clever way his business is organized, the quality of the products, the new models, the brand names, his numerous customers, and his reliability and honesty. Upon finishing with the tidying up, Kerim stands motionless for a few seconds, as if nailed to the spot, and scrutinizes the shop. The satisfaction he feels at what he sees is so evident that a fellow shopkeeper who passes by cannot help but congratulate him on having such a tidy shop. Smiling, he replies: "I guess I can say that I put my life in order too." Kerim is an established trader in the business of legally fake branded garments. He occupies a relatively stable position on the market, somewhere in

-1-

II..

2

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

the middle, between the "big players," who invest millions in this business, and the insignificant participants, who stitch poorly cut labels onto cheap clothes. His current arrangement includes this shop, a workshop he equipped with high-tech automated Italian machines, several stable partnerships with other manufacturers, and a few secluded storage depots. The manufacture of most of his goods starts as after-hours production in his workshop. Subsequent manufacturing operations, such as dyeing, printing the brand names, sewing the logos and labels, and packing, are performed in his partners' workshops. All the places through which these goods are moving, including storehouses and the bazaar, are strategically placed in various parts of the city. However, from a different point of view, this is a normal production chain in the local clothing industry. Moreover, he increases his stock by placing orders with other manufacturers and by purchasing export surpluses and rejects that can be transformed into imitations or used for manufacturing good-quality products. He runs a successful business, and his shop is always full to the brim with merchandise and is constantly visited by customers, friends, and business partners. He was in his mid-twenties when he entered this trade. At first he traded in rubber goods. He did nothing but work and build capital. His days were tong, sometimes very long, longer than he thought he would be able to bear. They began early in the morning when he drove his van to manufacturing sites across the city, haggled with workshop owners for every penny, and carried the goods to the shop on his own to avoid spending money on the porters. He spent long hours in the shop, where he tried hard to please his customers and convince them to return or spread the word about his merchandise, his good prices, and his honesty and reliability. When business was bad, he worked during the night as a taxi driver. Then bad luck hit him. In his rush to serve a customer, he left his half-burnt cigarette in the attic. Most of his rubber goods melted in that fire. One second of inattention and, after months of work, he was back to square one. However, things made more sense to him after that disaster. He gave up the rubber goods and entered the trade in fake branded garments. He did nothing but work. He learned about cloth· ing manufacture; how to distinguish between different materials; what quality meant; where he could find suppliers of fibers, fabrics, and accessories; what t sources of excess products and leakages from the local clothing induS r)' were available; and how to evaluate which brand sold well, which colors were preferred, which models suited the taste of local and foreign clients, and what technologies were most effective and where he could buy them at a reason· able price. He got to know who else was in this trade and built his network · place for 0 f con t acts. During all those years, Kerim made an effort to carve a himself in the market and eventually succeeded.

INTRODUCTION

3

After the brief visit from one of his business partners, the most important moment of this quiet afternoon, Kerim remarks, more for himself than for his companions: "I love this business. I have given it many years of my life." He plays absentmindedly with a pair of bright orange boxer shorts, stretching them, checking the seams and stitches, rubbing the fabric between his fingers and against his chin, evaluating their quality, muttering away to himself that it could have been even better if his partner had used higher-quality thread. He will have to tell him again what his "Russian" customer told him: "You Turks know everything about good cotton, but nothing about good thread." To an occasional customer, Kerim offers not only the well-rehearsed speech-"please, come and have a look. I have sixteen colors and many brands. I have everything you want. You cannot find such good things in the whole bazaar, trust me" -but also a detailed description of the manufacturing process of these quality goods, which are "just like the originals you can buy for forty euros a pair." Kerim worked hard. As he put it, "effort must be put into making fraud too. If your products are good and you are an honest man and a cautious businessman, then you stay on the market." His golden rule was to divide his money into money for everyday life, to be put in the right pocket, and money for the business, to be kept in the left pocket. This rule always allowed him to remain on the market even in times of financial difficulties. His attitude was to ponder carefully over business propositions and to trust more in his own ability to evaluate materiality and his own knowledge of clothing manufacture, available technology, and excess materials and products than in the exalted stories of his potential business partners. He went through many difficult moments, for blows and betrayals are frequent in this trade. In time, the local competition for harnessing a brand's agency became tougher and tougher, this profitable business attracting crowds of newcomers who had no scruples about betraying other traders, had no principles, and respected no rules. He also had his share of the other type of troubles that are an inevitable concomitant in this business. Kerim was caught several times, but never jailed, for manufacturing and trading in fake branded goods. He was first caught in 2001 because of a careless mistake. The number of the apartment in which he had a depot and the number of the building were the same. A team of lawyers was looking for the ground floor shop to make a routine inspection. His employee happened to smoke a cigarette in front of the entrance at the wrong time and answered candidly to their question, indicating that number fifty-six was on the fifth floor. The lawyers entered the paradise, a flat filled to the brim with fake branded goods. Kerim faced a heavy fine and years in jail. The sentence was, however, suspended for five years, as this is the period after which the files are cleared, a legal loophole for whose application he generously bribed his lawyers. Consequently, he took

4

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

more precautions, changing more often the location of his production sites, hiding the depots even better, arranging for the bank to sequester some of his properties, and strengthening his ties with politicians, lawyers, and underworld figures. In the following years, police raided the bazaar numerous times, lawyers paid impromptu visits to his shop, judges spoke harsh words about this business and lectured him on business ethics, but each time he managed to keep himself out of trouble, half-bribing, half-threatening the law. He experienced moral disapproval outside the court of law too. Encounters with his rich and educated relatives often reminded him that not only lawyers and the law thought of him and his business in disparaging terms. Kerim pointed out in vain that the so-called originals were rather ordinary massmanufactured objects and their high price was unjustified, that his goods were fairly priced objects of good quality, that he invested in materials and technology, that he was dedicated to his work, that he knew very well how clothing manufacture works, and that they themselves could see, as he did, the actual clothes behind the shiny wraps of advertisement and fancy stores. The

turned a deaf ear to these arguments. They did visit his shop and did buy

hi!

merchandise , but refused to talk about their reasons for buying these objects. They made no secret of their opinions. They regarded counterfeits as debased objects and they always insisted on calling Kerim's products so, although he called them imitations. They considered him an uneducated man who did an unethical business and disobeyed the normative order. One of his paternal uncles always went further and accused him of pretending to be who he was not and could not be, that is, a businessman. This afternoon, the uncle shows up to while away time in his nephew's shop. As usual, at an opportune moment, the uncle launches into one of his lectures about the immorality of copying and counterfeiting and urges his nephew to invest his heart and money in something of which he can be proud. The uncle uses a banal example to support his argument, namely the manufacture of the table Kerim keeps in front of the shop. He states that an honest man produces this table and he can be proud of his work and product. In contrast, his nephew just copies other people's work and there is nothing rewarding about this. This is not a profession, as no particular skills are required to do this kind of work. This is not a business, as no risks are taken and success is guaranteed through the reproduction of popular products. Upon hearing this example a thousand times and knowing that next on his uncle's agenda is the criminal aspect of this business, Kerim rolls his eyes 5t and addresses his standard question: "Isn't it a crime to sell what co y~u two euros for forty euros? Or is it a crime to sell it for three euros?" He for his

th

part long ago decided this is not a crime and he is not a criminal. ey bO~ 00 nd shrug their shoulders, as if to say there is nothing more to add, a move to other topics of conversation.

INTRODUCTION

5

A thought that Kerim later shares with his companions, after his uncle leaves, demonstrates that the speech has had some effect on him, either this afternoon or sometime in the past. He bitterly remarks: "I heard that nowadays, if you type a name on the Internet, all the lawsuits of that person will pop up. I have many, so many. One might think I am a bad person. But I do imitations." To disperse such a gloomy thought, Kerim says, more to himself than to his companions, that those who are eager to condemn him seem to conveniently forget that the moral police officers, lawyers, and judges take

6

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

bribes from the immoral criminals like him. Moreover, he reasons that it has been worth taking these risks and dealing with this harsh criticism. All the way. As he puts it, "1 became like this for I wanted to. Life too made me like this. But I am happy with the way I am. I live by my own rules and I will stay like this until the end ... I will drown not in a lake, but in the ocean. I will be eaten up by sharks or whales in the ocean, but I will not die in a lake." Looking at his shop and flipping through the notebook where he records his transactions, Kerim emphasizes once more that it has been worth entering the trade in fake brands. In his youth, Kerim had walked on a dangerous path. "As a child, I was so afraid of my father. He seemed such a hulk of a man to me. He had a hoarse voice and shouted all the time. But then I grew stronger," he recalls. His father was a conservative Macedonian Turk, who settled down in Istanbul in the 1950s, entered the industry for leather goods, and owned and ran several bazaar shops. This severe man, whom Kerim sometimes describes as a conservative person and, at other times, as an uneducated individual, mistrusted his family members' ability to execute important decisions. He tried to make his children dependent on his judgment and sought to imbue them with his own traits and values. 3 His children had had a harsh upbringing. "I grew up in this bazaar. I know it like the palm of my hand. I know the owners of many of these shops. I was a kid playing on these alleys when the current president of the bazaar began to work in a shop next to ours," Kerim points out. He started coming to the bazaar at about the age of five, together with his brothers, and spent many hours in the bazaar alleys, running errands, playing with other children, getting bored and hungry, and longing to go home. His father wanted his boys there, almost every day, to earn their pocket money and learn the trade. Kerim alone was sent to an lmam-Hatip school. 4 His father wanted him to become an imam. Kerim thinks this was a choice motivated less by interest in education in accordance with Muslim beliefs and more by the pas~ tive evaluation of the school in terms of parental prestige and social mobility. He studied four years in an institution characterized by an atmosphere of discipline, where the duty of the students was to obey, and the task of the teachers was to compel them to be adherents to and practitioners of Muslim teachings. He remembers the long, painful hours he spent reading and me~ 1 orizing passages from the Quran. He, the youngest among the six children ~ his family, had grown up trying to understand why he was treated in a m~n,festly unfair way and reached the conclusion that he was an unwanted child. . h. how heart· Upon ti rns mg the lmam-Hatip school, Kerim left home. He knew IY . . d h·m 1 dear ' b rea k mg it had been for his mother and little sister' who love . rth t hlS pa when he left home for good. Still he could not help but suspect a . tion . the ct1rec en t s had aIso been relieved deep down for he was not going in was th ' · for he ey wanted; he was not fulfilling the role they envisaged for hirn,

INTRODUCTION

7

often rebelling against his father and causing troubles at home. He had to leave the house and pursue his own life of self-fulfillment. For six years, he lived a colorful life on the streets, encountered all manner of experiences, and made the most of doing everything that was previously forbidden. His father knew nothing about him getting arrested at the age of sixteen and again at the age of eighteen. He knew nothing about him being political, that is, actively involved in the turbulent events of the late 197Os, when leftists and ultranationalists clashed violently all over the country. He had become a delikan/1, literally meaning one who is crazy-blooded. 5 His bold manners helped him rise to the challenges of a conscript's life. Hard as it was during that time, he managed and became the personal driver of a high-ranking officer. Upon finishing the military service, he embarked on new adventures, far beyond the streets of his neighborhood and rarely in the company of his old friends. He met new people; drove trucks around Turkey, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East; smuggled watches, chewinggum,jeans, gold, and silver; bartered with the "Russians"; and rested in jail. He availed himself of the opportunities that came his way and accumulated years full of all kinds of adventures that made him feel life was worth living. He stopped the day it dawned on him that he had taken the path of marginality. The bazaar was the place where he returned to start anew at a time when he was yearning not only for adventure, but also for a purpose. After a brief engagement in the trade in rubber goods, he oriented toward something that better corresponded to his understanding of the world and better served his aim of carving a place for himself within it. Late in the afternoon, Kerim recalls that once an acquaintance told him a foreigner was interested in Calvin Klein men's underwear. This happened a few months before he was due to leave for the military service. The foreigner was looking for someone who could not only take care of the entire manufacturing process, but also help him ship the merchandise to his country. He liked that challenge. As he puts it, "I had already had the tendency, so I dived right in." Gesturing toward the shop full of fakes, Kerim adds: "And I still have not surfaced."

AN ISTANBULITE AND HIS FAKE BRANDS I met Kerim while I was conducting research on the manufacture and trade in fake branded garments in Istanbul. He, at the time recovering from his most severe blow yet, a lawsuit that forced him to hide his goods and that reduced the rhythm of his business, gradually welcomed the inquisitive anthropologist and the opportunity this encounter presented for self-reflection and selfpresentation. 6 For about six months, I went to his shop nearly every day and

8

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

t the day I also visited him during later stages kept him company throughou . . t.h feldwork and still living in Istanbul. h·1 I I was wntmg up e I lk · h of my research, w e . . h often had the to ta wit . chance . 1spent m his s op, I During the many hours . nd to learn about his business.7 . 1·f nd profession a d I d him about his I ea . . (imitations).s He openly ec are he 1 h's goods ,m,tasyon ar . d 1 Kerim. calle . t ed that his goods were of good . but proudly .ms1s . . quality. h I-le sold im1tat1ons, . h' ustomers partners, and v1s1tors t ' . at his I t . d to convince is c relentless Y ne ot notably dis . t·met from what they (were told to) consider origiproducts twere n 1 felt and looked like and told them they too ght them what qua i·ty H nals.Id learn e auhow to underst an d garments . In the case of mass-manufactured . cou Id learn how to differentiate between ob.1ects garments anyone cou . h h of various qualities. 'He assure d th em that he produced these . . goods H wit tI e. same care . s·milar materials as the ongmals. and with the same or 1 .e exp amed . . that his goods were manuf actured either in work.shops caught . up m. the .off1c1al produc. or equ1ppe • d w·ith similar technology. In so domg, Kenm, hlyas

ince

·ked

1(S) ,rig-

he, 1a/ ,gi-

1/e

in ,d

)f

f-

21

the original. Latour and Lowe state, for example, that "paradoxically, this obsession for pinpointing originality increases proportionally with the availability and· accessibility of more and more copies of better and better quality ... No copies, no original" (2010: 278). The Romantic distinction between the original and the copy has remained at the center of contemporary culture. In the dominant understanding, the mutual constitution of these concepts is not mentioned. In this understanding, original and copy are caught up in a hierarchical relationship, with a yawning gap interposed between them. The culturally and materially inferior copy stands as "the discredited part of the pair, the one that opposes the multiple to the singular, the reproducible to the unique, and the fraudulent to the authentic" (Krauss 1981: 58). The fake is placed on an even lower position. In the Romantic understanding, the author is the sole origin of his or her works. In contrast, the faker co1r ies someone else's work or imitates someone else's style, signs his or her work with that author's name, and tries to pass it off as an original. The fake conceals its biography, mimics the biography of the original, and attempts to replace it. The fake simultaneously draws on and subverts the authority called upon to authorize its existence and to give it value. This intention to deceive has always been condemned. However, the fake becomes an even more serious threat when it is understood as prejudicing a right. The criminalization of the fake begins with the conceptualization of knowledge as property. The notion of intellectual property was articulated during the disputes between authors, publishers, and book pirates that raged in the book trade in the early modem period. Rose (1994) points out that the notion emerges through the articulation of the Romantic theory of authorship and Locke's theory of labor. Locke argues that an individual, as the proprietor of his or her own person, is also the owner of the products of his or her labor. The right of property in the products of one's labor is declared a just reward for one's labor and a natural right, prior to any social regulation. During these disputes, Lockean ideas about real property were translate d to the cause of literary property. Woodmansee (1984) and Gaines (1991) stress that this articulation is not an inevitable theoretic al outcome : it was realized, at that time and later, not so much through logical affinity, but intereste d rhetorical

shifts. These disputes served as a background against which an agreement was reached: artistic and literary works were to be understo od as intellectual properties owned by their individual originators. The law recognized and granted rights in this new type of property. A consequ ence of this legal elaboration was the criminalization of fake, because this prejudic es the right of the author and, therefore, owner of the original. In this way, the hierarchical opposition between original and copy/fa ke has been not only culturall y defined, but also legally regulated.

22

MATERIAL CU

AN AUTHORED

LTURE AN D AUTHENTICITY

D AU TH OR IZE D OBJECTS

a wide roperty was further refined to. serve ual P domain of culture, but also m the realm of r n of intellect ·n the The legal no 10 ts · not on 1Y 1 e the notion of fake was enlarged to refer to not res t · . range of in e a consequenc ' As unauthorized copies. o als but cts bie d . commerce • crucial notions e o ~ on was dulently. author articulated around two lati f d I only frau . . u ma an copy. Intellectual Th.1s pragm.atic .rek.orm g that is the notions of or1g . 1· and an en. f . gma . ' 1ty ' or1 o ion not lar ticu . the Romantic thint inope par a with rate in b d h the original law began ·g·nal Romantic theory d1stmgu1s e d'etw. een . Property d h' • • larged concept of on Itua•l property law mamtame t 1s . 1stmct1on; howeve r, llec ized many works as and the copy. Int eive ny types and recogn ma of rts effo eat d . · · I, b ana1, or even ·imitative er ss of whether they were unongm a It protecte gar · . dle . . . 1 it inal ong of t cep re 1 s, con ma ong the lega. . Y. rk m . . . d of doubleness" was put at wo ..A km the of al ide the and of art1st1c cre~tlVlty "[T)he law retained the connotations point of came to refer simply to the ~ar k's singular work. [However] ·creativity'. ines ~ested nature of the wor_k _itself" (Ga origination, not to the unique, s~~l-m nt fac t of ongm was realized s reduction of ongmahty to the blu Thi ). : ship are 199 1 58 discourse: "[A)II wo rks of author through a tautological shift in the . The te wit h aut hor s" (Gaines 199 1: 63) original. Why? Because they origina y has ly overlapping not ion s of authenticit uneasy coexistence of these partial ion in al dis cou rse (the interested osc illat ever since been concealed in the leg y as origihen tici ty as origin and authenticit aut en we bet rse cou dis nd bra the nt sec tion of this chapter). nality will be discussed in a diff ere of beg an to use a nuanced cat egory Moreover, intellectual property law it. Intel• d copying, in any for m, lici t or illic the copy. Romantic theory dis cre dite ying. In the and , sim ulta neo usl y, policed cop d age our enc law ty per pro l tua lec orized s con cei ved as the source of its auth legal context, an authored work wa ented tex t, the una uth oriz ed copy was pres copies. In the accusatory legal con out for of inte llec tua l tre spa ssi ng carried act e stin nde cla a of e com out as the nge ment. t be ide ntic al to am oun t to an infri base motives. A copy nee ded no for sane· law pro vid ed generative conditions ty per pro l tua llec inte , way this In utho rized and pro hib itiv e obs tac les for una tioned pro ces ses of dup lica tion has ever ar 2005). Th is legal framewo rk ism (Ge ion uct rod rep of nd ses ces pro entic, a auth s, thu , and ate itim leg d, ize hor since dis ting uis hed bet we en aut ref ore , ina uth ent ic copies. nd unauthorized, ille giti ma te and , the a e trad of wth gro the to se pon res s a . . d conorn1es This pra gm atic ref orm ula tion wa . .1 ze e dIt1 mo com and ic, am dyn , th e deve lop me nt of mo re inte gra ted . b mecruc1a-o. h' h the .imp lem ent atio n of nov el ide as and tec hno log ies eca·us auton . tn w 1c . . ative geni ' .. aliij, cre as r tho "Th au ted ua ivid ind nal ong1 n e Ro ma ntic ima ge of the . that denieo so pe~ of s ise d as embod_im~nt mou_sly cr~ atin g ~o rks cha rac ter ropercy the leg al inst1tut1on of fictionstual P 11ec provided 1deolog1cal sup po rt for t "I ne ). 255 : 98 19 be om (Co " ces for t rke an d obs cur ed ma

°

·· ·

FAKE BRANDS

23

is justified on the basis that it provides an incentive for future productive activity, or that it acknowledges and represents the sovereignty of the individual over their thoughts and ideas" (Moor 2007: 96). Intellectual property claims, rights, and restrictions were developed in different European countries and the United States beginning in the eighteenth century. These laws aimed to construct authors and owners and regulate reproductive activities. They offered (limited) monopoly rights over knowledge to its primary or "entitled" producers. They granted the rights to materialize and, thereby, control knowledge and to capitalize on the attendant profit that the circulation of this knowledge and of the products that materialized it could afford. These laws also ruled that the unauthorized reproduction of the products that materialized this protected knowledge could potentially pose an economic threat to its primary or "entitled" producers and, as a consequence, criminalized the unauthorized duplication and the resulting unauthored and unauthorized objects. These laws ·constitute a political economy of mimesis in capitalist societies" (Coombe 1996: 206). The forms of abundance that industrial development made possible have been locked into this particular conceptual framework. Today these laws are hegemonic in markets and courts of law around the worfd. The major vehicles for protecting intellectual property-and for deciding which objects fall outside the legitimate domain and are, thus, fakes-are patent, copyright, and trademark. Patents are applied to inventions, copyright is used to protect literary and artistic creations, and trademark is used to protect the qualities that distinguish the products of a company from those of others. Copyright and patent promote profits generated from new works and jnventions, whereas trademark protects and perpetuates existing monopolies (Moor 2007). This legislation has spread to virtually any country with aspirations of taking part in the global economy. International pressure is so strong that countries that refuse to enact such laws or fail to enforce them find themselves on the receiving end of serious trade sanctions. Moreover, the introduction of this legislation is often portrayed as a matter of democracy and progress, and countries that refuse or lag behind are frequently described as politically and culturally "backward" states (Lippert 1999). In this pragmatically refined conceptualization of intellectual property, authored and authorized objects materialize knowledge over which individuals and corporations are given property rights. Fraudulently authored and unauthorized objects infringe on these rights and are consequently criminalized.

THE MATERIALITY OF INAUTHENTICITY In the modern period, anxieties about the authenticity of objects have found resolution in an objectivist understanding of authenticity as inherent in

•

24

MATERIAL CU

LTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

t of scientific methods for the investigation pmen . 1·ty and in the develo matena 1 th nticity of objects was evaluated through differof materiality. . th biography In other periods, e au eple were evaluated in relation to the . . h ds Relics for exam , d the object or the biography of the obJect itself. In ' ent met O • ual was for of the person who off~re tant to know who this priestly individ ' . st case it was 1mporcertain objects into sacramental artifac ts through ~ m ' the fi r f h . h or she could trans,or substance and metho ds of creatio n o t ese objects Th . e . . . . specific invocations. e with a saint and . levant In the other case, the connection . f . were completeIY irre import ant. The value o these obJects lay were uisition . the story of th e acq . their substance However, relics were not man-made, but recuper . 1 : precisef Y '"th cadavers and posse ssions of venerated saints (Geary 1986, ated rom e Lindholm 2002). In the modern context, when man-made object s becam e so important, the a. craze for collecting spread throughout society, and techno logies for rnultiplic ntic tion began to develop, the identification of object s as authen tic or inauthe e became crucial as regards their financial value. In this period, when objectiv observation and experimentation were increasingly valorized over received opinion (Jaffe 1992) , the authenticity of object s began to be conceptualized lity. as an objective and measurable attribu te inhere nt in their very materia ation Consequently, it could be establ ished scient ifically through an investig lity, auinto the essence of these object s in terms of date of creation, materia thorship, workmanship, primary contex t, functio n, and use. The development of this unders tandin g was not only a response to the pracies, tical problems that confronted espec ially the marke t for art and antiquit of mobut also an extension of the notion of individ ualism . With the advent assed dernity, the medieval worldview of a cosmi c order ordained and encomp inby God was replaced by individ ualism . This was a worldview that allowed d dividua ls to locate ultima te reality within thems elves. They were conceive as fixed and bounded entitie s, each with its own unique interna l essence ationor (Handler 1986). Their truth could be discov ered through an investig individ· self-investigation of their inner beings . This way of conceptualizing the d as ual was extrapolated to the mater ial world. Artifac ts were also conceive nd a stable ; fixed, and self-co ntaine d entitie s, autono mous from their context wa~ audience (Jones 2010). Their ultima te reality, that is, their authenticity, th roug inhere nt in their materi ality. The truth of object s could be discovered • aua scient ific invest igation into their essen ce. t d by their . IdeIn this way, the fear that object s could no longer be guaran ee th eory ~~ializy thors, owner s, or author izing institu tions was counte red by the th materializy ceptio n could not be denied forever, inscrib ed as it was inh. geinv~ry ma its . attribute 0 f the obJect. The fake could alway s be identif ied. Somet in eventually betray ed its true nature . Inauth enticit y was declared an

FAKE BRANDS

25

of materiality. This objectivist understanding of the authenticity of objects remains hegemonic in contemporary institutions such as the art market, museums, markets, and courts of law, that is, in institutions in which authenticity has commercial value (Handler 2001). However, the materiality of inauthenticity is not always brought to the foreground. Depending on circumstances and interests, it might be very well be pushed to the background. There are instances in which materiality must be investigated. In this case, the aim is to denigrate an individual object. Inauthenticity is inscribed in materiality, but it is not necessarily inferior. There are other instances in which materiality ought to be rejected a priori as inferior. In this case, the aim is to create and denigrate a category of objects. A discursive strategy through which this aim might be achieved involves lumping together all types of inauthentic objects as the same kind of immoral thing. There -is a huge variety of inauthentic objects, ranging from forgeries of art and luxury objects, themselves extraordinary objects, to the ubiquitous fake brands of today, unofficial copies as banal as the official ones. There are significant differences between these objects, in terms of knowledge, craftsmanship, and technology that go into their production. There are also significant differences in terms of the morality associated with their presence: art forgeries, fake branded garments, and fake medication do not pose the same moral dilemmas. However, there are instances in which these differences are played down. The following exhibition illustrates this tendency. In 1990, an exhibition entitled Fake? The Art of Deception was mounted at the British Museum. An impressive range of objects from different periods and locations, including medieval relics, paintings, sculptures, enamels, metalwork, manuscripts, printed books, newspapers, and fake branded commodities, were brought together as "material evidence of the myriad deceptions practiced l')V men upon their fellows over three millennia" (Jones 1990: 11). The following opinion exemplifies this line of reasoning: "there is no reason why art-forgery should not be punished as severely as cheque-forgery, larceny, counterfeiting or fraud, since there is no moral difference between any of them• (Savage 1976, quoted in Haywood 1987: 114). "All of the house of forgery are relations" (Baines 1999: 162). This idea-w hich was uttered by an eighteenth-century observer at the time when the process of cultural and legal marginalization of inauthentic objects began -is still with us. In the dominant discourse, the different types of inauthentic object are often treated interchangeably. Ideas elaborated for the condemnation and exclusion of a type of inauthentic object are used for the condemnation and exclusion of other types of inauthentic objects. The reasoning behind this is that all types of inauthentic objects represent transgressions against identity, property, morality, and the authority of the law (Baines 1999; Haywood 1987;

26

MATERIAL CU

LTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

es of inauthentic objects are-and should II typ 1·ty . a , Therefore ) ned as inferior products of dubious mora 1 .' Malton 2 009 · d. ussions in the previous and following pages, in be-equa lly condem h . h' with the ISC f this strategy is the lumping . toget er of all . To link t is . .. se the inverse o . b they art objects or branded commod1t1es, 1n one . brand d1scour . thentic obJects, e the conceptual dif. d through interested omission s of types of au . . . . . . IS achieve ThlS and Of t· ·ty as originality and authent1c1ty. as ongin category• . between authen 1c1 between various types of authentic Objects. In this ference terial differences d . the equivalent of a signature (Frow 2003). the ma bran h is focused on the proclaimed concept ua I and material difdiscourse ' . . k· t • . Th1s section as hentic and inauthentic obJects a wor in the comrno n t . . ferences between au pointed out how the praisect . Off ke and at the same time, has . • . ' a understanding tic object. The rno . b. t was constructed against the inauthen re . . authentic o ~ec more the inauthen tic object hact . ob,iect became virtuous, the . . the authent 1c 1 . •ous In this way• this. section has shown that inauthentic ob• to become v1c1 jects were first conceptualized as things that matter less than others, then as things that do not matter at all and later, when the need to reject them grew stronger, as things that should not exist at all.

BRAND

the simplest understanding, brand is a mode of mediation between producers and consumers. Brands are usually associated with the development of modem capitalism (Carrier 1995). However, Wengrow argues that theoretically they can appear in any large-scale economy, for they represent away of coping with the "reality of living in a community ... formed and sustained through the circulation of impersonal objects," a reality specific not only to modem capitalist societies (2008: 21). Earlier discussions of brand tend to focus on the more traditional function of brand, which approximates the function of the trademark in legal discourse. Brand identifies the origin and/or ownership of the commodities to which its name and logo are affixed (Manning 2010). At the same time, brand functions as a guarantee of qualify 01 and consistency, and an index of the goodwill associated with the source commodities. Names and logos are, therefore, "visible or materialised good· will" (Foster 2008b: 79). More recent discussions of brand present it in fi· nancial terms- as an "intangible asset," a "wealth generator" whose value5 increases, or at least does not decrease, with use-an d in legal terms-a 1most a dO a r, Moreove 2007). (Moor property ual intellect of form d a protecte nd aloo recent accounts see brand as incorporating far more than a name a"feehn. gs' " nd . ords a "values, ships," "relation es and proclaim that brand embodi , (2005) w . · (Fournier 1998; Nakassis 2012b). They focus, to use Fosters In

11

FAKE BRANDS

27

j

1

I

f

not only on trademarks of production, but also on lovemarks of consumer loyalty. In the present account, the notion of brand is further unpacked through a focus on production and consumption, and the complex set of concepts, interests, and concerns tha t link them, and through an analysis of brand as a legally protected form of property. This account mirrors the way the ethnographic material is organized in the next cha pters of this book. For a long period in the modern history of brand, branded commodities organized the processes of production: dev elopments and improvements in printing, papermaking, packaging, and man ufacturing technologies of various sorts have been linked with the requirements of standardization and presentation (Moor 200 7). More recently, the bran d Itself organizes production. Lury points out tha t brand has acquired a new productive role in the contemporary global economy. Brand has become "a me cha nism -or me diu m-f or the coconstruction of supply and demand ... an abstract machine for the reconfiguration of production" (20 04: 27- 28) . Inno vation in product design as well as the management of corporate extension are organized around the brand. This change is related to the recognition of bran d as a valuable intangible asset, whose already existent reputation diminis hes the risks associated with product innovation and corporate growth. To mak e her point clearer, Lury employs the punning opposition between brand as logo ("th e sign or slogans tha t mark brands") and brand as logos ("th e kind of thought or rationality tha t organizes the economy") (20 04: 5). This shif t has coincided with a more gen eral transformation within developed economies, in which the creative components of the production process of branded commodities are carried out and organized in the company and the manufacturing components are outsourced to smaller companies, usually from less developed economies (Ge reffi 199 9). The mass production of branded clothes incorporates millions of workers from all over the world (and in many cases forces them to work in appalling conditions) (Klein 200 1; Schneider 200 6). Among the many conseq uences of this way of organizing the production of branded commodities, two are mostly relevant for the present discussion. The firs t regards the abil ity of the brand to index the product. In the contemporary economy, brand acts as a transferable form of property tha t can operate entirely through licensin g and without any involvement or regulation of product quality. Manning poin ts out tha t in this context "it becomes debatable whether trademarks indi cate any specific source at all or whether they even act as guarantees of quality relative to, for example, the actual locus of production" (20 10: 37) . Beebe is even more categorical, entirely rejecting this possibility: "the mod ern trademark doe s not function to identify the true origin of goods. It func tions to obscure tha t origin, to cover it with a myth of origin" (20 08: 52, quo ted in Manning 201 0: 37) . Although authenticity (as origin) remains a con stitu tive elem ent of brand discourse,

MATERIAL CULT 28

URE AND AUTHENTICITY

. modities in poorer parts of . duce their com . . . ns increasingly pro . d from the site of production rporat,o . ·ngly distance as eo d the brand is increas1 d t The second consequence regards the warln~t entirely guarantee the pro d~~~r Throughout the modern and con. and capancity of brand to index the ptroal producers have been almost always the ca d its ac u rary history of br~n ' h case today, when branded commodities po tern Th. ,s more t e . •h sed trom sight. ,s oosa) produced in locations wit cheap and era . " (Foster 2 • · · are •worldly things d through complicated commodity chains and ' docile labOr forces, circulate ffl ent place. The actual places of productio n consumed in another'. _ more a ~ften a matter of secrecy (Klein 2001). Brand' . g cond1t1ons, are and the workin . d x of a producer, but rather a means to creat so much an m e . be has not en . sthetic personality, that 1s, the modern corpore, consolidate, and umfy a pro a. (Mauarella 2003). tt0n rdanize production, but also harnesses consurnpti Brand does not on IYo,f> . f for many consumer products ... depends not only upon. •The creation o va Iue . f plus value from the labour of the producer, but also frorn thon the extraction o sur ,, ·ngt to which the consumer puts the product (Foster 200 5. l0)e meam uI use . . d ·gned to perform not only a functional, but also a symbolic· r . Brand ,s es, .. . o1e. Brand singularizes commod1t1es and adds a touch of_ extraordinariness to . ·n many cases, an ordinary mass-produced obJect. In the brand d. What IS, I . IScourse, this aim is often achieved :~rough a~ ~ve~lapp1~g of the notions of authenticity as origin and authent1c1ty as ongmahty/umqueness. However uniqueness is often claimed at the level of brand, and not of the product' in many cases mass-produced commodities similar to those produced b' other companies. Mor~over, brand capit~lizes on h~man propensity for for: ing deep or, equally valid, shallow affective connections with things. Furthermore, brand appropriates people's social productivity, that is, their production of themselves and of their social relationships. Finally, brand makes use of culture in the sense that it works with people's imaginaries and practices of common social worlds and insinuates itself into these webs of meanings. Brand management is a concerted effort to shape and control consumers ' associations with and uses of brands. Arvidsson argues that the purpose of brand management is to guide consumers' investment of affect and to make sure this guidance unfolds in a way that guarantees the reproduction of a distinctive brand image and, thus, strengthens brand equity. In his words, "for consumers, brands are means of production ... For Capital, brands are a means of appropriation" (2006: 93-94). This belief in the importance of brand-consumer relationship as a site of value creation is at the core of con· temporary brand management. . . . . .d ble efforts However, this 1s how brand ideally functions . Despite cons, era . . the . . . t·1ons w1th1n to cultivate brand identities and to keep consumers , associa

FAKE BRANDS

29

boundaries of these carefully crafted identities, brand may not always work in the ways intended. In practice, there are instances in which the desired reattachment of objects to people is achieved, and consequently, capitalized upon. In these cases, consumers "pay [monopoly] rent for the use of a brand that has become entangled with their particular biographies and passions" (Foster 2008a: 19). There are also instances in which consumers invest brands with meanings and put them to uses not conceived by their owners. Consumption plays a crucial role in the determination of what brands come to represent for consumers. Miller (1987) argues that consumption is a form of human creativity in industrialized soci~ties through which individuals appropriate commodities and pursue projects of self-fabrication denied to them in the realm of production. Various studies have illustrated this theoretical proposition in relation to the consumption of branded commodities and the articulation of individual and social projects. Miller (1998a) shows that food brands are mobilized to define and enact particular relationships within a family. These brands might become so entangled into these relationships that they are finally rendered essential and indispensable. They come to objectify family values and relationships. Skeggs (1997) describes ways in which knowledge of brand names and of their class connotations as well as actual consumption of branded garments are used in processes of social distinction. Brand becomes a means that people of lower background employ to construct "respectability." In their study of secondhand consumption practices, Gregson and Crewe (2003) present the profound dislike of more middle-class consumers of branded commodities and their derision of the attempts of other consumers to acquire cultural capital in objectified forms through brands. Rausing (2002) points out that Estonians consume expensive foreign branded commodities to demonstrate that they have returned to "normality," that is, they are no longer forced to be citizens of the Soviet Union. Appadurai (1996) emphasizes that deterritorialized populations might use brands from their places of origin to acquire a sort of ontological security and brands from their new locations to demonstrate to themselves and others their successful integration into their new home. Other studies have focused on the different meanings with which people imbue brands. Miller (1998b) argues that in Trinidad Coca-Cola is a "black sweet drink," which, in combination with rum, represents the most popular alcoholic drink for most people of this island and conjures up images of the past. The corporate brand identity is if not disrupted, at least ignored in a place where this drink is embedded in ethnic and national imaginaries. Coombe (1998) brings to the foreground the struggles over signification in cases when the meaning of brand is appropriated and contested in the form of product names and images that are themselves legally protected. On the

30

ENTICITY MA TER IAL CULTURE AN D AUTH

themselves play in conmay no t cor res pon d consumers role the es siz pha em ch roa app this whole, , meanings tha t may or stit utin g the meanings of brands the unand manage_rs. If . har nes sed by s ner ow nd I bra by ted jec pro se to tho IS . wh"c I h brand ,tse d ow ner s try to con tro m ces Moreover, there are instan is a legally nds, a process bra~ ws. Brand authorized producers of fake bra add itio n llectual propekrtyl a This is a late through the legal apparatus of· 1inte der trademar aw. the tra dem ark wa s no t consid.. ~n Y m ma_ ty, per pro of m for ted tec epro ially, . olve the cre atio n of som Init . tion isla leg ty per pro l tua llec to the inte 1nv ty, as it did. not d material for ms . Sh erm an . per pro l tua llec inte ered a form of an t1c xistent lingu1s f period creative lab or wa s the d thing new, but the use o pree th ,erns. Copyright, des ign s, and pat mo pre e in t tha ~e arg 99) (19 and Bently d late r qua ntit y of the ereproperty a_w l tua llec inte of le cip prin g zin ani org 1ity an ' ' h · h d · terms .of the qua . · li ward the end of the nin ete ent . m e u1s tmg a ent s were d1s to se pon th e wo rks '" que~tiodn. ~o pm ent and in res in ied bod em or lab e ativ nomic eve s organiztext of rapid eco . h ·ty calculability and sta bili ty, thi t· b" century, m t e con tion with o ~ec 1v1 , ' a pre req uis ite ·ng preoccupa gistration bec am eTh. Re e. riat rop app ger - · ~row, . . e 11mmated 1s ty. per s no 1on pro l tua llec inte mg principle wa of 11 forms . . f . . . o near1Y a ind isp uta ble d ere off , v1ty at1 for the protection d. cre e siv . t "II nd measure elu . • I a per ty wa s the necessity to 1s tha t inta ngi ble pro ,, · and ownership , and "en sur ed •m e (Sh erm an. proofs o f ong efin itel y rep eat abl .. -11 d"f f format which was sta ble yet ind · 1 erent1I ced ma pa s, and pat ent s we re st1 ign des t, igh pyr Co ). 182 9: 199 and Bently val ue now .' The ma in diff ere nce wa s tha t ated in ter ms of the ir relative 'value n pro per ty rat her tha n, as had bee the of ue val ic nom eco the an tended to me em bod ied qua ntit y of the me nta l lab ou r the case previously, the quality or ear ly cla im an and Bently 19 99 : 19 4). Th e in the property in que stio n" (Sherm rty sys tem inc lud ed in the inte llec tua l pro pe be not ld cou ark em trad the t tha value the ref ore ob sol ete . Its eco no mic e am bec e ativ cre non s wa it e becaus land pro tec ted as a for m of inte d lize tua cep con be to ark dem allowed the tra lectual property. tive ne ss, of the bra nd 's sem iot ic dis tinc The law prevents the "di luti on" brand rke ting , an d saf eg ua rds the ma and ign des in nt me est inv protects con sum er itio n. The law als o pro tec ts the owner from unf air for ms of com pet d qua lity of as to the ori gin , ow ne rsh ip, an ed eiv dec or " sed nfu "co ng bei from growst de cad es, the re ha s be en a pa the in , ver we Ho es. diti mo branded com sio n" defi"di lut ion " rat he r tha n the "co nfu ing tendency in the law to favor the s rather ref ore to pro tec t the com pa nie the , ent em ing infr ark dem tra of nition tio n of the ori gin an d content fica nti ide the in t res inte ' ers than the con sum has ). In ad dit ion , the bra nd ow ner 04 20 ry (Lu dity mo com d nde bra of the s attached r" wh o "cr ea tes " the me an ing been redefined as a "qu asi -au tho ects ph as is on the tra de -re lat ed asp em is Th ). 98 19 th be om (Co nd to e bra on al trade, rec en t ag ree me nts on int ern ati of tra dem ark law is evi den t in the

FAKE BRANDS

31.

for example the Agreement on Trad&Related Aspects of Intelle ctual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) (Blakeney 2009 ; Grosse Rus&Kahn 2008 ). These changes reflect legisl ative efforts to respond to, and simultaneously support, the growing impo rtance of brands in the global economy. "All commentators agree that a brand consists of much more than a brand nam &-bu t they also agree that without a protected brand name, a brand does not exist" (Moore 2003 : 336). Trade mark law is particularly important in the present context, when names, signs , and designs are believed to play a greater role in identifying the brand in the minds of consumers and, therefore, in carrying the values the brand is suppo sed to contain. This law protects a company's profits by excluding other indivi duals or companies from using these names, signs, and designs and, conse quently, capitalizing on the value they are expected to produce.

FAKE BRAND In the legal understanding, a fake brand is the outcome of an act of counterfeiting, that is, the "unauthorized copying of the trademark , labels or packaging of goods on a commercial scale, in such a way that the get-up or lay-out of the cover, label or appearance of the goods closely resem ble those of the original" (Sodipo 1997 : 126) . Infringement is judged on the basis of substantial similarity, but is often a question of degree, as an infringing object need not be literally identical to a protected object. Neve rtheless, the law draws a sharp line between the authentic and the fake, the genuine and the counterteit. Authentic commodities are those whose brand names and logos truthfully signify a corporate origin. In contrast, fake brand s are inauthentic because they "misr epres ent the relationship between an object and its er& ator or producer. Corporations and international IPR organ izations argue that, because counterfeits misrepresent that proprietary relati onship, their production and sale violate companies' intellectual property and damage their good names. Further, they claim that counterfeiters deceive cons umers into buying goods that are not what they appear, and, more seriously, cause consumer injuries and death s" (Vann 2006 : 287) . The disruptive poten tial of fake branded commodities is objectified in their very materiality. The slipsh od versions, the so-called obvious fakes, dimin ish the exclusive appeal of branded commodities and affec t carefully constructed brand identities. The higher-quality versions, the so-called real fakes, which migh t have been produ ced in the same factories and/ or with the same mate rials as the originals, reveal the size of the premium the brand owner charges. These objec ts unde rmine claim s of authenticity, originality, uniqueness, and quali ty in the brand discourse and dissipate the value of brand itself , not only of particular brand ed commodities.

32

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

•t culture of . ra a conce, at the core of the .. "These brazen s,mu 1ac · · · expose .fl n . . . that Its sigm ers can be fixed • that its edIt1ons can be western capitalism. . h latonic essence of its mass-produced mo. at l'mited that it can franchise t e P 1 ' ff d comaroff 2006: 13). fa cternity" (Comaro an . contributed to the production of counterfeits d1 Different factors might fhba"aended commodity. Counterfeiting might be seen. SI f t · the nature o r One ac or ,s wth f the fact that intellectual property law seeks to ere. iE as · a natural outgro o . . . "' b t"' . ·ty ·,n catedories of things whIc11, y 11e1r very nature are tE 0 ate a false scare, ) A ' . d 101 asy to produc e" (Moor 2007: . nother factor . relatively cheap an e .. . . is rfeItmg might be seen as an mevitab \ d the nature of bran d economy· counte . . . e urrent divisio ns m the global econom y. In many cas consequence of the C r .. . es, this illegitimate production shadows the \eg1t1mate produc~1on t of branaea commodities as an unwanted consequence of the ~utsourcmg of the rnanu. facture of branded commodities in \ow-wage countnes. Badly paid rnanuta c. turers harness the value of brand and use the infrastructure of the glob brand economy. Moreover, counterfeiting might be interpreted not only a Pra~matic response to present conditions, but also as a detiant response th reflects past and present realities. Sodipo (1997 ) points out that rnan at the regulations contained in th~ curren t inte\\ectu~I property legislation ~e~: originally imposed in the colonies to protec t the interes ts of the colonize rs In addition in the former colonies, econo mic and social exclusion ace e~· to technologies of reproduction and authen ticatio n, and lax legal system have prompted many to engage in daring and dangerous activities. These5 places have become manuf acturin g sites for fakes of every concei\,able sort. In these places, decep tion has becom e a mean s of production. Howe\Je r,thi~ is not so much about defyin g authority, but about "creat ing a sort of authori~ for onese lf" (Siegel 1998: 57, quote d in Coma roff and Comarott 2006: 14i. In brief, when the focus is on its produ ction, a fake brand conjures up either an accus ation or a "badg e of honou r" (Dent 2012) . The consu mption of counte rfeited comm oditie s might be ex.plained in di· ferent ways too. It is linked to the percei ved inability of brand/tradema rKtc indica te origin and to guara ntee quality and consistency. ,he counterte 11 1t just a comm odity like any other for consu mers who ceased to belie\Je in tn: promi se of brand and have few rights to redres s should the branded cor modit ies chang e or deteri orate. Anoth er explan ation relates the consurnp t~·. of fake brand s to unsat isfied dema nds. Brand ed commodities are desire, by many consu mers, but hard to acquir e becau se of their prohibiti\Je pncei:. the1 In these condi tions, the social value of brand ed goods is met by rd\ autho rized versio ns. Howev er, their consu mers are rarely ~he "confuse . ctor' "dece ived" individ uals portra yed in inte\\e ctual property legislation . . edio't dd a peioratw nant persp ective on the consu mptio n of fake brand s a s . of conlusf sion to this expla nation and is largel y indiffe rent to the ,ssue I

I

,ne

FAKE BRANDS

33

This links the consumption of fake brands to status emulation and disparages it. Envious consumers do not have the means to emulate and go for the fakes. At work here is the cultural denigration of the copy/fake and the social derision of the person of lesser means who imitates the taste of his or her social superiors. In brief, when the focus is on its consumption, a fake brand is conceived either in appreciative terms, as savvy consumption, or in derisive terms, as emulation. In the past decades, counterfeiting seems to have proliferated tremendously. However, official reports might exaggerate the dimensions of this phenomenon. When reading the alarming statistics, one should also keep in mind the ways corporations and governments estimate the dimensions of this phenomenon. The assessment of the amount of money lost to business through these illegal activities is rather peculiar, for there is no guarantee that the consumers of the unauthorized copies, if not tempted with commodities at a much lower price, would have otherwise bought the authorized versions at the original price (Blakeney 2009; Grosse Ruse-Khan 2010; Sodipo 1997). This logic is more illustrative of corporate greed at the prospect of how much money can be made if everyone buys a company's legitimate products and is used to justify corporate demand for drastic intervention from national governments and international organizations. The fierce battle against counterfeiting is mainly carried out in the poorer parts of the world (Comaroff and Comaroff 2006) (as well as in poorer parts of the Western world) (Stoller 2002). To naturalize a muscular response, counterfeiting is often equated with illicit activities such as banditry, drug trafficking, and terrorism, in a rhetoric that effortlessly brings economic security and national and international security together on the basis of vague allegations rather than concrete proofs.

CONCLUSION The chapte r has unpacked the notion of fake brand and has demonstrated why we are encouraged to think about fake branded commodities in a particular way. This has developed in relation to the notions of fake, brand, and fake brand and the attend ant interes ts and concerns that shaped their conceptualization. Moreover, this unpacking has revealed the importance of the law as arbiter of what is a fake brand. Furthermore, it has emphasized the role accorded in these elabora tions to the materiality of objects placed or forced into the categories of fake, brand, and fake brand. This conclusion spells out what we are encouraged to think about fake brands and the people who engage with them. These objects are considered inferior material forms. The people who engage with them are derided

34

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

ceivers and condemned as deceivers of others. The f as se If-de . ake-n . . 1act·ivity) of the fake brand 1s pushed to the forefront and . ess (cnmtna . . . . . v1goro condemned; its brand-ness (matenahty) 1s declared insign ificant. Po~sly . t·t ti·ons from courts of law to governmental agencies and int . rfu1 ms I u , . . . . ernation e organ ization s, circula te this basic set of assumptions all over th t ra d al . e world attem pt to comm and peopl e's appre hensi on of mater iality and t . an d . . .. o soc1a1. ize people not to engage with th~se ob~ects ~nd .in these activit ies. The ethnographic material with which this chapter ends brings b . . in differe nt mann er the comp lex territory covered throughout this cha ack a t . demonstrates that ordinary _peopl~ are accustomed to ~r are gettin P~lt g accustomed to think about fakes in particular cultural, economic, and legal wa . . . th I . b YS. It shows that they are inclined to cnt1c1 ze e c aims a out brands because their participation in the production of branded commodities and their mu: dane experience with objects. It offers examples of how and why people all over the world engage with objects labeled as fake brands, how and why th legitimize persons, practices, and objects, and how and why this conceptu: framework unevenly affects ordinary people's thoughts and action s. The complex assortment of ideas, interests, and concerns behind the unders tanding of fake brand resurfaces in these ethnographic vignettes. In this way, this section serves as an ethnographic conclusion to the discussion of this chapter as well as an ethnographic introduction to the following chapters.

ETHNOGRAPHIC CONCLUSION The anthropological record offers examples of mundane engagemen ts with objects that legally are fake brands. These studies exemplify the kind of issues these objects raise for those who make, trade, and consu me them. They depict reasons and moments in which elements of this frame work are employed by these people or those in their vicinity to legitimize or delegitimize objects and practices. They show there is more to the topic of inauthentic objects than mere economics, which, nevertheless, accou nts for the manufacture of and demand for this form of material culture. They offer examples of engagements that are not necessarily ideological respo nses to this conceptualization of objects, but rather mundane practices of individuals who try to benefit from the flow of ideas and goods that charac terize the contemporary world. 3 They show that diverse cultural understand ings of authenticity, originality, and ownership guide production activities and consumption habits and complicate the implementation of intellectual property rights O_PR) legislation. The following pages present a selection st of ud~es from th1 s growing anthropology of fake brands, with the aim of preparing th e grou nd for the next ethnographic chapters and of pointing out how the

FAKE BRANDS

35

book draws on and advances the anthropological thinking about mundane engagements with objects labeled fake brands. A point often raised in this literature is that the definition of fake brand under the intellectual property regime, although circulated all over the world, might hold little value for people who use other conceptual frameworks and base their actions and thoughts on their mundane engagements with objects. Vann demonstrates this is the case for Vietnamese consumers. Although the intellectual property legislation was introduced by the Vietnamese state under international pressure, these people use their own way of categorizing the goods available on their markets. This classification includes "model goods," which set the market standards, and "mimic goods," which fail to fully attain the standards of the goods on which they are modeled. Moreover, these consumers are guided by a different understanding of the relationship between those who copy products and those whose products are copied. The "mimic goods" are considered inevitable elements of a market economy. Their prer ducers try not to deceive consumers, but to carve a place for themselves in a highly competitive market by offering products of some degree of similarity to popular commodities. The materiality of "mimic goods" plays a crucial role in this understanding. The closer the "mimic goods" approximate the "model goods," the better they are. Furthermore, these consumers also experience anxiety about deceptive products, for the market is full of this type of products. However, their anxiety reflects different market logics. In this case, the "terms real and fake call into question not the authenticity of a product, but its existence: whether a product is actually a product at all" (Vann 2006: 286). None of these categories entirely overlaps with what the intellectual property laws define as authentic and inauthentic goods. Vann emphasizes that "what is at stake with mimic and model goods and with fake and real goods is not simply an alternative understanding of authenticity" (2006: 294). For people in Ho Chi Minh City, the very notion of authenticity is unfamiliar. Other studies demonstrate that the legal understanding of brand might circulate in parallel with and only occasionally and circumstantially affect local understandings of brand and/or style. Nakassis shows that this is the case in Tamil Nadu, India. Brand names adorn people's clothes. However, these are not only proper brand names, but also distorted, hybridized, and refashioned versions. The garments are locally made in factories that produce auther rized branded clothing for foreign companies and workshops that have mushroomed in their vicinity, taking advantage of the infrastructural and material excess of brand economy. These garments are avidly consumed by nonelite youngsters. The classificatory principle that brings together all these material and stylistic elaborations as branded forms is what Nakassis calls "brandness as an aesthetic category." For the local producers, brand represents an aesthetic assemblage: its constituting parts can be disassembled and

36

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

ign components and with whatever new d ·th other brand and des 1· es will increase the salability of garments. Nakas. reassemble w1 . oducer be Iev h f tors that play a role in the production of these . element t e pr . . . . . n the various ac . plays a role in the duphcatIon, hybnd1zat1on, and . sis focuses O .. f rms Inventiveness . t but so do the availability and affordabIhty of mate · diverse o · b. ation of elemen s, assume their customers are not necessarily brand d recom in . I Moreover'. pro ucers ' b t ather interested in brandness as such, thus a fictive na s. . • knowledgeable, u r d . t as well Furthermore, awareness that the 1dent1cal repro. . · · h . brand might O JUS f th logo name and slogan of a brand m1g t get one into trouble . f · · · ' • e ductIon o local Tarn·, th Iteration of brand names. "From. this. point o view, . 1 .. determmes e a producers aren't counterfeiting br~nds, but ~eammat1_ng them, citing them, re. fashioning them, simulating them _(~akass1s 2012a. 717). F~r these Produc. arve a place on a competItIve market means to . navigate a cornpl ex ers, t o C terrain, in which the legal status of the. bra~ds occ~p1es a place, although not the important place foreign companies, international organizations, and national authorities would want. Somewhat similarly, Mayan entrepreneurs in Guatemala understand the material semiotic apparatus of foreign brands as design elements and not as markers of identity for the right-hold~r c~mp_anies. Thomas (2009, 2012) shows that these entrepreneurs take inspiration from or entirely copy the design of foreign garments. They use logos, labels, size stickers, and tags reproduced with varying degree of similitude in local workshops or smug. gled out of the assembly factories that work for the global clothing industry. Moreover, brands and design patterns are not seen as unique creations, but as temporal manifestations in a continuous creative process that involves borrowing and imitation. These practices are seen as problematic only in certain cases, for example when a manufacturer reproduces another loca1 manufacturer's design, more or less exactly, and sells the products at a lower price. Their ethics of imitation and condemnatory remarks echo elementsol intellectual property legislation. Intellectual property discourse is employee

by parties interested in further distinguishing themselves from these entre, preneurs. The few local brand owners, who abandoned these practices anc registered their own brands, relate their commercial success to their morai 81 superiority. Their class position allows them access to resources such pport1r . 1O formal distribution channels, business services, and educationa 51 nities in the capital city. However, this uneven distribution of resource 18,;

th

covered through the moral discourse that separates those who obeYd :haf' d as sha Y . oods,1r from those who do not. Maya entrepreneurs are portraye acters who engage in unethical activities and produce low-quality ; 0 pa~~r addition, in the national media they are depicted as lawbre~ker: t~e nation° 0 pate in an underground economy that threatens the integrity

FAKE BRANDS

37

economy and the state's moder nist aspirat ions. In this way, intellec tual property discou rse becom es a resource for various local actors. Other studies show that fake brands are embraced or rejected not so much in response to this cultural and legal marginalization, but rather accord ing to local reason s and moral logics. In China, a lesser-known development, as Brandtstadter emphasizes, is that of an urban-based consum er movem ent that rejects counterfeited goods and deman ds "truth,' ' that is, quality produc ts and service s for the Chinese consumer-citizen. This movem ent employ s a Maoist ideological vocabulary: the consum er becom es an agent of social progress and the discovering and "beatin g" of counterfeited goods stands for a patriotic act that facilita tes the formati on of quality in the Chinese economy and society. Counterfeited goods are neverth eless embraced by other Chinese consumers, who use them as means to (re)construct a valuable self. These consumers, many of rural origin, are more or less aware that the consumption of counte rfeits is taken as a sign of backwardness. They know that, in the eyes of the urban middle classe s, peasan ts, especially those who move to cities and become workers, are "at worst, a source of chaos ... and, at best, fake citizen s ...just like the masse s of counte rfeit goods" they produce and consum e (Brandtstadter 2009: 147). Acceptance or rejection of counte rfeits takes place in a post-Maoist contex t marked by anxieti es about the authen ticity of people and objects . Under Mao, value was objectified in the work point system that publicly accounted for labor in its quantit y and quality. Under the current circumstances, value is accounted for in money, namely in what was historically perceived as the sign of a regime of inauthenticity and self-interest. The anxieti es of urbanites and peasan ts mirror each other: urbanit es deplore the deluge of fake goods and citizens that might derail the country's development; peasan ts lament their lost status as the backbone of the revolution and struggle to find a place for themse lves in the new market-oriented society. As Brandt stadter points out, "in the Shanghai market, local stalls owners catered to both-- contra sting-d esires for fakes and for true value by producing Gucci bags that not only looked like the 'real thing,' but also came with a fake certificate of authen ticity" (2009: 142). Anothe r case study reveals other particu larities of the presence of fake branded commo dities in China. The fake indexe s relation ships betwee n real self, real life, and the foreign as more real than the real. Pinheiro-Machado (2010) compa res consum ption practic es in Brazil and China, both develo ping econom ies in which the signs of income and consum ption polarization have becom e increasingly visible . She argues that, in both countri es, consum ption of fake brands create s the person. Emulation repres ents an identity proces s through which people give themse lves substa nce, empow er themse lves, and place themse lves in the world. They preten d "to have and to be," for what one

38

TURE AND AUTHENTICITY MATERI AL CUL

onalized nature. of ral level the pers . ne g . • e more a At hO One is. ic .. ese notion Chin the m and ho jeitin of cept . ·ct . has objectifies w the Braz1.1tan h . con n din t e av, interltural characteristic that explains power, capture · 1 . t o . . the common cu. both societies. one mus t ma ena 1ze power to of guanx1, 1s e ce it. The cultural significan est in fake branded goods inthat one possesses c suits this purpose. This convince oneself and ~thers material form that best . r ds turns them into taait has specific forms, developed m relation to of bran . c on general cultura I r rical contexts. These particular understandings d h·sto comm 1 l an different local term , for example, in ine the value of fake goods,• so that d very c er e obiects play their role .m defi nmg a ch·mese person and of power furth h . southern China, t ese 1 g Kong. . . . h. g him or her from someone from Hon zes, fake brands are emb raced d1stingu1s mt . Guyana • as Halstead emphasi . In contras , m tswear irn.festations of the authentic. Fake bran,, ded spor as temporary manl bott les, afte r a bleach prod. ported from neighboring Brazil are called "Jarvex crumpled quickly. Fakes are uct marketed in bottles of poor quality that get represent the very oppo site believed to "mash up" rapidly too. These good s origin. In the postcolonial of the quality branded commodities of American rd flow of gooas context. migration to the United States has generated an inwa t thei r identity. This process in relation to which people that remain cons truc com mod ities as representing draws on the colonial understanding of foreign ectio n as accessible through superior quality and reinforces the idea of perf ume the inferior fakes, but the foreign. People who dream of emig ratin g cons real thin g or consumers are not beeause these goods are mar kete d as the g. For these Guyanese , the fooled into believing they are buying the real thin could become in the desired "brand is a visible marker of the othe r they The relation between the fake migratory dest inati on" (Halstead 200 2: 27 4). bran d, as an expensive foreign brand, as an affordable product. and the real of the real self as something product, objectifies a specific conc eptu aliza tion elsewhere as land of opporattainable only by living a real life in the imag ined ple's lives are somewhat fake. tunities. Until they sett le in such a plac e, peo tem pora ry means of accessing The fake branded goo ds are acce ptab le as a nd ded , but recognized as an i ex deri not is tion ump cons ir The ess. ignn fore the th ssed through e acce is real the s, word r othe In ey. journ d of the antic ipate the real self, the real life, anc fake. The fake inde xes rela tion ship s betw een . the foreign as mor e real than the real . th sect ion shows that e ongf The last set of case stud ies I inclu de in this . between . a in m, inuu cont a of s end two the just be ht nal and the cop y/fa ke mig presents . . . are te. Sylvanus wh 1ch diffe rent noti ons and mat eria l form s prol ifera copi es, and fakes of copie srrt cont ext in whic h orig inal cop ies, cop ies of I mbraced o . nprlf Ye ent equ cons and e PIaced m com peti ng hier arch ies of valu bee 0, long • . · h have 55es Jected. In Togo, cop ies of Java nese bati k clot h, whic ral elem ents in proce duce d in Euro pe for Afric an mar kets , are cent

FAKE BRANDS

39

identity construction and social distinction. This fabric of modernity originally reached the Togolese market in different quality versions. Those at the top of the social hierarchy displayed their status through the consumption of the expensive quality "original copy.n The rest made do with the inferior quality copy of the copy. Though they were legally counterfeits, these objects were not presented as the original copy. They were consumed as "good enough" copies. Togolese took pride in their ability to discern different fabric qualities. This hierarchy of value has been disrupted by the state's attempt to lure its citizens into consuming "fakes.n Since the mid-1990s, after being cut off from international aid, the Togolese state has accommodated any business that could potentially bring income. The free port has become the key site of profit extraction. Chinese manufacturers have eagerly embraced this opportunity to export their counterfeited commodities to the West African markets via the Togolese entrepot. Local consumers' first reaction was panic. For them, the new forms were fakes of a dangerous nature. They pretended to be something other than what they truly were. They robbed them of their ability to apprehend materiality. Sytvanus notes that "Togolese, across socio-economic class divides, felt they were tricked out of their agency" and demanded the intervention of the state (2010: 9). The moral discourses they used came very close to the rhetoric of intellectual property regime. The state did intervene, but not in the way !he consumers anticipated. A faction of the regime launched its ~n branded cloth manufactured in China. The legitimizing discourse of this brand stated that the Togolese people had the right to take ownership of the European designs that owed their reputation to them and to become the authors of their own history. Nevertheless, the consumers soon rejected the branded cloth, for its materiality was judged inferior to other Chinese counterfeits available on the market. Instead they developed skills to distinguish between the different qualities of the new fakes and reactivated the old hierarchy of distinction. The discourse of the original and the copy might be put to different uses than those specified in the mainstream culture. Luvaas (2010) analyzes the art of fashion remix in Indonesia. Local indie designers appropriate various elements from the global commercial iconography and assemble them in novel and daring combinations. They clearly distinguish their "cut and paste" practice from the wholesale copying and downright stealing of other people's designs. It is the counterfeiters who just copy branded commodities. In sharp contrast, their work is based on careful deliberation and, in many instances, open acknowledgment of their sources. The resulting compositions have their own aesthetic and semiotic independence. Moreover, these designers claim that for the counterfeiters this is a pragmatic choice that does not involve personal investment, critical intent, or creative vision. In contrast, the designs they produce reflect their subjectivities. They do not use random elements of

40

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

the consumer culture, but choose those that allow them to express Wh e and what worldviews they hold. The other figure from O whom th ar they . . ese de . ers differentiate themselves 1s the_des1gn~r a~ p~rtr ayed in the Rom s1g~. i•magination an individual whose unique genius 1s mirro red in the u . antic , . . f his or her crea tion. Designers attempt to restore sociality to the n1queness O . act of duction. Luvaas argues that these practices and reflections make Pro. · th d · light of the middle-class pos1t· 1on sense in ese es1gners occupy in lndone . . . s1an sac·1 ety and the marginal place they inhabit on the global scene. Their middl · . b status allows them access to some t hmgs, e-clas s ut also makes them . . acutely aware how few these things are, m comparison to what people of sirnil . f t t· cial status have elsewhere. Th 1s rus ra mg pos1·t·10n pushes them to doar so. . . . they do. However, this appropna t1on 1s not so muc h about rebellion or rWhat . es1stance. These designers do not have a coheren t poI. . 1t1ca l agen da. They . . b . k. with the corporate imag inary, ut t he1r wor 1s rather a playful criticism.mess Th are less concerned with subverting global commerc ial culture than workiey with it and finding a place for themselves within it. This practice of aesthe~! appropriation becomes therefore an act of social and existential positioning in the wider world. These studies illustrate the impact the dismissive and condemnatory understanding of fake brands might have on ordinary people's thoughts and actions. This impact might be insignificant, as in the case of Vietnamese consumers. It might be occasional and circumstantial, as in the case of Indian producers of branded garments. It might be significan t, as in the case of Maya manufacturers of fake branded clothes in Guatemala, who are portrayed as shady characters and lawbreakers. Moreover, the conc eptual framework itself might take an unexpected form, when combined with the Maoist ideological vocabulary to justify the rejection or consumption of fake branded commodities by Chinese consumers of different social backgrou nds, or it might find an unexpected echo in the moral condemnation of copy ing by Maya manufacturers of fake branded clothes. Engagements with obje cts deemed fake brands might be accepted or rejected according to local reas ons and moral logics. For some Chinese, rejecting the inauthentic objects beco mes a means to be progressive citizens. For other Chinese, consuming the inauthentic objects becomes a means to construct a valuable self. For Guya nese youngsters, the fake brands are good enough until they move to the Unite d States, where they can live an authentic life. Furthermore, central notions at work in the cultural and legal understanding of fake brands only partially guide people in their attempts to make sense of and legitimize or delegitim ize the proliferation of certain material forms. In Togo, hierarchies of value include original copi~s, copies of copies, and fakes of copies. In Indonesia , indie designers dis~mguish between copying and creative copying. Therefore , these studies bnn: to the foreground nuances that exceed the realm of the possible envisage

FAKE BRANDS

41.

within this dismissive and condemnatory conceptual framework. Moreover, they demonstrate that materiality plays an important role in these engagements, as ground on which to justify production and consumption, as base on which to choose to produce and consume these objects, and as evidence on which to contest and reject mainstream claims that these objects ought to be neglected as material detritus. In short, these studies demonstrate that we live in a world unevenly circumstanced by this dismissive and condemnatory conceptual framework. Perhaps against the pretention of universalism with which this conceptual framework, especially in the form of intellectual property legislation, is circulated around the world, anthropologists seem more preoccupied to analyze instances in which the assumptions about objects and people encapsulated in this framework are not recognized, or they are contested or simply ignored. On the whole, this body of literature concurs with more general theoretical insights into the multiple and contradictory articulations between global and local in the modem world (Miller 1995; Sykes 2009). The present book builds on these insights, but it also distances itself from them in the way it highlights the significance of materiality and argues for a particular form of authenticity. The following chapters offer detailed ethnographic material about the impact of the mainstream cultural and legal understanding of fake brands on the lives, practical choices, and senses of self of people who engage with these inauthentic objects. These chapters delve into mundane engagements with fake branded garments and bring to the foreground the multifaceted presence of these objects in places of manufacture and distribution in Turkey and place of distribution and consumption in Romania. These chapters show how this conceptual framework, which attempts to command people's apprehension of certain objects as inferior, even dangerous, and to prevent people from engaging with these objects, is acknowledged or disregarded, matters or does not matter, and affects or does not affect objects and people. In addition, the fifth chapter focuses particularly on those momen ts and contexts in which such assumptions are recognized and in which their implications for one's sense of self are confronted or refuted.

-3 . The Etus1ven es s of In au th en tic ity , ., ·at·,ty of Br an d: Fa ke Br an The Ma1o de d er1 G ar m en ts in Tu rk ey

In Istanbul, bran ded garments can be purchased in locations other th . . . brand stores and authorized outlets. These might be 1mp rov1 sed standsan . iec a cardboard box, a P e of cloth, or a p\ast1c she et- p\a ced on the Pa -. ment on busy streets, piers, and und erground stations, and guarded by ve. rnen eep a studious lookout for authoritie s. On these stands, garments who k . "b\ neatly folded, with brand names and \ogos v1s1 _e, so th~t any passerby are can spot them in the blink of an eye. The se a\temative \ocat1ons might be shop s on backside alleys, booths in passag eways, and sta\\s in· the weekly ope n-air markets. In these neighborhood markets, se\\ers cry "brands," "orig inals · "world brands," "export excess," "co me, sister, come\ these are real , siste ;. in all sorts of keys, running up and down strange sca\es of notes. They sta~ct on top of piles of garments, throw them in the air, shout, clap thei r hand s. pause to take a breath, and begin again with renewed energy. They m ight b€ shops in the Grand Bazaar, cramm ed to the brim with merchandise by sho~ keepers who nowadays capita\ize on the desire for garments bearing global brand names. These \ocations mig ht be fancy shops in La\eli, the cent eroi the transnationa\ informal trade with Eastern Europe and the form er Soviet Union. Shopkeepers try to please the "Russian" taste for t\amboyant outlits, not only by overly decorating the ir shops, bu t also by offering bran ded garments with an extra layer of glamo ur in the form of heavy embroidery, gold. silver, sequins, and the like. The y might be shops in Merter, a perip heral neighborhood refashioned as the newest center in this informal trade. lts ce~ tral area was reconstructed to acc ommodate new shops with the ir fanc y bilf boards, mannequins, and a huge quantity of clothing, export excess, nd5 bra fakes, anything. In fro nt of its ma in mosque, a traffic sign reads "We5 lerr_ fashion," proclaiming the new ide ntity of thi s place. The city is literallyt too~e, with fake branded garments and . d rnan u1ac the overf\ow from export-onente d turing sites. The underbelly of the local clothing industry is, thuS, exposi~r~e i Many of the se garments fal l int In · o the category of coun terteits. have ion\ laws for the protection of dif fer en t forms of intellectual propert~ tegra te 1r been promulgated. In the ninete enth century, in its efforts to ,n

- 42 -

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

43

the new world economy created by industrialization, the Ottom an Empire introduced legal instruments for the protection of trademarks and patents modeled on French legislation (e.g., the first law regarding tradem arks was promulgated in 1871, and the first law concerning patents was put into effect in 1879) (Keyder, V.B. 1997 ; see also Kayaoglu 2010 on the spread of Western legal categories and practices in the Ottoman Empir e). In the late twentieth century, in its effort s to meet criteria for partic ipation in the Turkey-EU Customs Union and accession in the European Union , Turkey adopted or approximated European legislation, including intellectual property laws. Another Incentive for harmonizing its existent intellectual property legislation with the international legal system came from participatio n in the TRIPS Agreement (Keyder, V.B. 1997 ; Togan 1997) . This chapter demonstrates that inauthenticity is an elusive attribu te: it might be recognized, negotiated, and refuted when it refers to objects; it might be recognized, negotiated, and feared when it refers to the activities that bring into existence and circulate these objects; it might be recognized and challenged when it refers to the people who engage with these objects and who are, consequently, marginalized and criminalized. Moreo ver, this chapter shows that the realization of brand depends on the mater iality of the branded commodity and illustr ates why this matte rs for people who build their professional lives and extract their notions of good working lives from their short- or long-term engagement with fake brands. Two analytical strategies are employed here to respect the local nature of these objects: the first strategy is to situate these objects within the political economy of their manufacture and distribution; the second strategy is to present the ways a few lstanbulites speak about objects whose characterization as inauthentic they are occasionally forced to acknowledge. Some of the opinions voiced by Kerim -the lstanbulite introduced at the beginn ing of this book and who is himse lf a manufacturer and trader in fake brand s-will also be encountered in these ethnographic vignettes. The fieldwork this chapter draws on was carried out in manufactur ing and trading places in Istanbul. The first month s of fieldwork had been rather disconcerting. Fake branded clothes, footwear, and accessories of differe nt degrees of similitude and quality were ubiquitous. However, gettin g in touch with those who manufactured and retailed them was not an easy thing to do. Many a time I boarded a bus and went to peripheral areas, wherever my fancy or my feet happened to take me. There was a high probability of ending up in a clothing manufacturing area, anyway. Every now and then, a colorf ul bundle of waste material, job announcements glued on the walls, and works hop/ factory outlet s confirmed I was in such an area. Workshops were located on the ground floor or in the basem ent of residential buildings and, from outside, looked like ordinary apartm ents. Many a time I hung about bazaars

44

THENTICITY MATERIAL CULTURE AND AU

. delight in fro nt of the who tremonly aesth etic h for tho se t no g cin en eri exp ts, rke ma and weekly ld quays, bu t models and sympat yd n co al gin ori to ed add es ch tou t o ed the danger of exuberan . si'de alleys an dg . m ies cop de I bled next to piles of poorly ma I tim es I traveled I '; kn -~c ly ful en wh , rm ala of s che tou and also despair tra de rs, unof counterfeiting. e of petty e sid rk da the and · of s iou cur being too ny cent) quant1t• 1e s in the compa {de 'th b b rest Y us, s. on ati between Istanbul and Bucha th e bo rd ers wi_ casual co nv ers ng ssi cro of ys wa g vin ser m n common people obtrusively ob travelers-e f, 11 . ve . ow e my g gin ga en and s fake branded good t the an thr op olo gis t. bu going on s wa at wh w kno to d me Everyone see connecon-everyonehoping to forge ati orm inf of s bit of on ssi were in posse th se they introduced agenda wi e~ery~n:~at tho 1 talked about my research or ~h the r they were ce rta in im cla rs nte cou en my of s tions. The mediator e body could do it ' I could nd ed cloth es. bra e fak g cin me to were produ e as a rule, any db f the negotiation tha t too k ' ~s eca e tur fac nu 0 ma y 1 the ed assum examp e • t duce me to a producer ~ 11 · g fragment 1s an Th . k in ow ,o e . . not now. "Could you please m ro ple sim ry ve a 1s s thi place before such encounters: ell k · "W • . I uc my would try of fake branded clothing?" I sim ply apdifficult one. For you ca nn ot y ver a e, tim e sam the at , question, but y owner, you nt question! I know a fac tor blu a h suc h wit ple peo se proach the eryone about fakes, bu t· · · Here ev him k as o als ld cou You . him could interview can get ecialised in thi s area. They sp lly rea ing be ut ho wit es, can produce fak ," my s business is very profitable thi se cau be , riod pe ef bri a involved only for sin es se s, daily co nc ern s, gen bu ir the t ou ab ask l wil "I . acquaintance replied research interest. g industry," I rephrased my thin clo al loc the on ws vie l era d by my research Some people were off en de . told s wa I ," tter be nds sou "This s producing and such ma nu fac tur er wa h suc t tha d ere isp wh ers interest. Oth ati on in my uld no t include thi s inf orm co I d iste ins t bu ts, en rm ga fake branded ed to d foreigners se em ed inclin an air the in y ad alre s wa study, for suspicion Turkish clothing a well-spread activity in the s wa g itin rfe nte cou t ~ha w ~he vie lly wa nt to dirty ose dirty linen? Do you rea exp to nt wa lly rea you Do industry. ocutors self by rem ind ing my interl my d de fen de I . ed ask s wa clean linen?" I nu fac tur ing site in th suspicions, a sig nif ica nt ma h suc te spi d~ _, was key I Tur at ete w1·th us l We prod uce qua mp co n ca y od ob "N ry. ust ind • the global clothing I ·ty stuff . Even our fakes are very good ,, was the bI usua_ pro mp t reply. The pro , a int ua ac my g fem lay in convincin 1 0nd uc~mg a study, in explaining :~e s_ wa~ ~ ers ~th to be uld wo s thi what use sit ion as a m gaming th eir tru st. My po d ' d L m fro nt de stu non-Western ak i~ Ist an bu l, str ug gli ng to spe n ow r he on ~~ ~~I es tag Turkish had its advan d, mo re impersome of thi s su sp ici on an .ng ~s1 ut~ rlo~ inte my g sin res tant, imp . . and s ' .was introduced to people tric ts in search of acdis tile tex coured t · ua acq my of ces Quamtan m ances. Som et'im es , I an d my co mp an ion (s) could . we we not find the persons re 1ookmg for. a th e .ind us try wa s ve ry dynamic and , s

:era

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

46

a person could enter this business easily, but could also go bankrupt quickly. At other times, we were able to engage workshop owners in short conversations, most of them recounting personal reasons for mixing "white and black" in their production and mentioning strategies for avoiding being caught, while stressing that many others were doing the same to earn a living. In a workshop, the owner directed my attention to a white sheet of paper saying "quality first: ·We make the fakes In that corner," he joked. A few owners ventured to show how a counterfeit was made in the workshop. I found myself In the awkward position of asking questions in a milieu where people did not ask each other too much, for a trusted acquaintance was enough to put them in contact (ironically, I was always asked to have precise questions; several times when my interlocutors stopped in the middle of a conversation and wondered if I really found what they were telling me of any use, a reply of "anything is fine, for I do not know many things anyway" was the worst answer!). Then, one day, I felt the fieldwork started, in a bazaar shop crammed full of fake branded underwear, where I spent day after day for many months and learned about the manufacture and trade in fake branded garments. "Do not be shy, come whenever you want, I have nothing to hide, karde~lm [my brother/sister, Turkish being a genderless language]," Kerim told me.

FAKE BRANDS In Istanbul, many of the people I encountered claimed fake branded garments could be produced everywhere, in any of the myriad locations of the local clothing industry. In addition, they pointed out that in certain cases the official and unofficial manufacture were carried out on the same premises. The city is one of the manufacturing and trading sites within an uncontrollable alternative economy of value that has very likely spread by now all over the world. China is considered the unrivalled manufacturer and the world's number one perpetrator, closely followed by other Asian countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, or Hong Kong (Chang 2004; Hung 2003; Yao 2005). Turkey is believed to be a major exporter of counterfeited products to the European markets, some reports mentioning it among the three most important manufacturers of fake branded garments, alongside China and Taiwan (Santos and Ribeiro 2006; Waite 2004). Istanbul accommodates a well-developed clothing manufacturing sector and different national and international factors can be invoked here to explain its growth. In the mid-1980s, during the Ozal period (called so after the prime minister under whose leadership many liberal economic measures were introduced), Turkey opened itself to the world and set off on the road to the fr~e market. The government offered various incentives to encourage domestic

46

TY E AND AUTHENTICI UR LT CU L IA ER AT M

allowed d, simultaneously,19 94 an rt po ex d ar w to )themselves producers to orient n goods ($enses ig re fo th d an s m fir l multinationa erate across e op to n ga be massive intrusion by ry st du th a global clothing in ve!oped During this period, ompanies in e de C it. of rt pa e m ca mpanies be od uc tio nparts of clothing pr0th world and Turkish co d de ad elu va gh hi ted on the er parts outsourced the countries concentra nd -a ng si rti ve ad r forces arketing, and uld ofter cheap labo design, branding, m co ch hi w , es tri un co n, buydeveloped tsourcing productio ou of production to less In ). 99 19 fi ef er prodring costs (G but also for reliable and low manufactu s, es en iv tit pe m co e gh-quality t only for pric ping with small hi •ers were looking no co in y lit bi xi fle d delivery, an ). Turkey d Knorringa 2000 uct quality, punctual an itz m ch (S rs de e of its s in large or rangements becaus orders and change ar ss ne si bu ch su anufacnt partner in xtile and clothing m te became an importa in n tio di tra its t, pean marke pean Comproximity to the Euro Moreover, the Euro n. tto co of n io at scale cultiv ed Turkish ture, and the largewith Turkey prompt n io un s om st cu a sential establish counterparts, an es munity's objective to an pe ro Eu ith w s ip re partnersh nal econcompanies to secu mpetitive in a natio co e or m g in m co 97). The ined, for be atlI and BoyacI 19 condition, they imag ok (T t en em re ag is mpanies shaped by th , with European co omy about to be re ed at oc pr ci re as w t licensing pean marke g franchising and opening to the Euro in gn si d an ey rk Tu d the bly plants in dition, tariff cuts an establishing assem ad In ). 03 20 ll at ok s from rkish firms (T of textile and clothe agreements with Tu rts po im d ite lim itions quotas that ted favorable cond progressive lifting of ea cr s te ta S d te ni tries to the U (Tokatl 1 American market less developed coun e th g rin te en in turers interested for Turkish manufac dustry in and K1z1lgun 2004). t of the clothing in en pm lo ve de e th d influence that ·1s, th e Anoth~r fac~or that n (Keyder 1999) , io at iz al ob gl of rm " fo pected ul with . Istanb·ul+ Is an unex m has linked Istanb is un m m co of ll fa h at since the th· 1 tants from all over uge m,orma trade th bi ha In . on ni U t ie :: t: the former Sov odities, with g a r~ m ~astern Europe and m co of ch ar se · ing into the city in the mid-1990 th in t in g1on have been pour po gh hi its t . s, is ught-after things. At ·ficant am n1 sig a among the m~st so m nu an r oun in comnat US$9 billion pe ed ' at tim es s S$13 billio wa U de n tra twee . be ed , ng ra k ch 1i hi w th pariso ial exports, n w1 . ~r ey s offic (Yukseker 2004· 49) r annum . .. and US$27 billion pe . ed b tic en t, es, international ex iv nt nt co ce e in bl ra rt vo po fa ex is Y th In . labor and .investment cost sinessdemand and low many Turkish bu s, ' the sector. 8 19 99 rkey had become Tu men entered this e, pl a~ ex r fo ' bilt clothin Y oximately US$6.5 pr ap world's sixth larges ng rti po ex r, ort~ ,·ts ,·nd g texp-s ul lion each year., and us ry t, ll pr',~ an1Y concentrated in Is ta nb e over 5 00 0 rding to the 1998 co ac had grown to includ s, m fir ng rti expo . tanbul -r. ' . an d Cl 0 th·mg Export Union {Riddle and statistics of the Is ,extIle . . . . stry has . d f tim G1llesp1e 2003). There+,1o re, ,n a short pe no e, the clothing indu o

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

47

become the country's leading export sector and Istan bul's largest manufacturing sector (Keyder 2005). Many of the economic actors that operate within this huge clothing industry are small- to middle-scale firms (older actors are large companies established during the import-substitution period). The smallest ones have up to ten employees and are usually family enterprises. Then there are the medium-scale firms that employ up to thirty workers. The midd le- to large-scale companies have up to 100 workers. Thousands of cloth ing manufacturing workshops mushroomed on the outs kirts of the city, taking advantage of the resources these peripheral places had to offer , that is, low rents and unemployed internal migrants. In 200 5, the unof ficial number of workshops of various sizes operating in the city was estim ated to be around 80,0 00 (Yoruk 2006). Mos t of these small- and middle-sc ale workshops straddle the line between formal and informal economy and use all possible means to kee.p themselves above the water and maximize their chances amidst the tough competition for contracts and skilled work ers that characterizes this level of the clothing industry (Dedeoglu 2008 ). 1 In addition, many of thes e companies act as asse mbly sites in the global clothing industry. The clothing industry is "a cascade of operations, each of which can be, and in practice is at one time or another, partitioned off and subcontracted, creating a near continuum of firms arranged in a hierarchy of skill, power, and profitability" (Peters, Dura n, and Piore 2002 : 229). At the bottom of this hierarchy, there are simp le assembly firms, which do the sewing and assembly on the cheapest garm ents. These firms seem to be trapped in the role of simple manufacturers for companies that collect the real rents. Subcontracting has for a long time been an intrinsic characteristic of the clothing and fashion industry. Given the high degree of unpredictability in this market, no player wants to be left with garm ents that have gone out of fashion, so the risk is passed down to the sma llest subcontractor and, eventually, the poorly paid worker (Howard 1997 ). Moreover, "globalization truncate s industrialization instead of deepening it, encourages simple assembly, prevents the industry from becoming a sustaina ble industrial base that could contribute to long-term economic development, and does not automatically give birth to domestic industry leaders that evolve into global competitors" (Tokath and K1z1lgun 200 4: 225) . However, in rece nt years, Turkish firms have upgraded their production, moving from industria l subcontracting to commodity subcontracting and becoming full-package producers. Moreover, several companies have developed their own brands, with Mavi Jeans as an outstanding example. This enormous cloth ing industry operates as a factory without walls. The interconnections between manufacturing sites of different dimensions are multiple and intricate. Subcontracting relations are not only vertical, but also

48

UT HE NT IC ITY A D AN E UR LT CU MATERIAL

t_; ..:K AN

TE K ST iL

;,ilc-c,"TbiDI!

1·

.f

of pa rts on ly in ce rta in ng izi ial . ec sp . . ps ho rks wo d tactor,·es an . ivi ng. firms horizontal, some oc ering and su bc on tra ct-re ce. off cttra on bc Su s es . . y • fo rm er be ca u~ e m th is wa the product 10n pr e th le: 1b s~ po as ers rtn re em en ts prefer to have as many pa delays an d dis ag of se ca m on y rel to h. ork . b th can have a wider netw ec au se m t 1s way they r te lat e th , sts co ey on cti du (Kaytaz and can better negotiate pro payment fo r th ei r wo rk od go n tai ob to s ce an ch are can increase their and ex po rti ng co mp an ies ps ho rks wo n ee tw be ips 19 94 ). The relationsh co ns ta nt preoccupation a d an , ing tim d ba rk, wo short lived, with poor-quality 08 ). Morelat ile na tu re (D ed eo glu 20 vo is th for g tin un co ac sts thing with lowering co d th os e ma nu fa ctu rin g clo an ts rke ma n ter es W g tin over, the firms targe e fo rm er So vie t Union are th d an e rop Eu rn ste Ea for the informal trade with 19 88 ; Erayth is ind us try (C ina r et al. of ts en gm se ed rat pa se not completely din and Erendil 19 99 ). ll-d ev elo pe d se cto r th at tar we a is try us ind ng thi clo In brief, in Istanbul, the ac t data is l ma rk et s. Al th ou gh no ex na tio na er int d an c sti me gets different do useful th at op er at e inf or ma lly , ms fir of er mb nu ge lar ~v~ilable because of the on g the top lud e Turkey's po sit ion am inc n sio en dim s ou orm en comindicators of its e hig h nu m be r of ex po rt th d an rld wo the in rs rte ten _major _c~othing expo l number of to 70 pe rc en t of th e to ta up l, bu an Ist in d ere ist parn~s officially reg an d Gi lle sp ie 2oo3). th ing exporters in the country (Dedeoglu 20 08 ; Ri dd le clo

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

49

Fake branded garme nts of differe nt degrees of similitude and various qualities can be manufactured in a myriad of locations in this clothing industr y. However, everywhere they are produced "unde r the stairs," that is, secreti vely. As one of my inform ants put it, makin g a fake must be an activity "like a spark." A spark happens and dies out. It leaves no traces. This image is also meant to suggest the danger inherent in this activity. A second of inatten tion and this spark might have disast rous consequences: equipment and goods can be confiscated, busine sses can be shut down, fines have to be paid, and those caught involved in this illegal activity can go to prison. The following examp les illustra te how and why this illegal activity might take place in typical locatio ns in this clothin g industry. The first examp le discusse s a successful factory caught up in the global clothing industr y. The second example presen ts a workshop close to bankruptcy, which drags out a misera ble existence through executing whatever orders its owner can secure. This ethnographic materi al focuse s on the ways the owners of these manuf acturing sites descri be their work and demon strates that in one case the manufacture of fake brands is a matte r of busine ss savvy and in the other case it is a survival strategy. In both cases , the manufacturing of fake brande d garments was a topic that appeared during conversations about the clothin g industry in Istanbul and the competitive local and global environment. The first sign that the factory was thrivin g were the two trucks parked in its courtyard and the cardboard boxes some men kept loading. Omer proudly pointe d out that the boxes contained finished products for a famous foreign company. Omer's father establ ished this factory in the early 1990s , at a time when the clothin g indust ry was boomi ng in Istanbul. Now the family ran a prospe rous busine ss and planned to expand in other manufacturing sector s too. Plunged in a comfo rtable chair in his spacious office, Omer explain ed what it meant to be a subcontractor. He spoke at great length about the effort, excite ment, and anxiet y that were integral parts of this work. The manufactur er who wished to becom e a subco ntracto r had to invest a signific ant amoun t of money in equipm ent, an attract ive showroom in which to exhibi t his produ cts, and the entert ainme nt of brand representatives in fancy restauran ts. A seriou s invest ment was bound to bring contra cts with well-kn own brand s. Upon signin g the contra cts, the hard work began. So did the factory owner 's insom nia, for there were many things to worry about, such as manufactur ing details , measu remen ts, quality standa rds, and delivery deadli nes. It was even worse if work was outsou rced to works hops, for they occasi onally disreg arded delive ry terms and quality specif ication s. Omer emphasized that clothin g manuf acturin g was a deman ding activity and a subco ntracto r had to deal with all these proble ms in an efficie nt way, otherw ise his future in this busine ss was compr omise d.

&O

MATERIAL CU

LTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

.. the last decisive moment in .d Omer focused on . d t b To elaborate on this ' ea.' I This was usually came ou Y a rep. roduction, that is, quality contro .h would visit the factory and evaluate t he P •g contractor, w O · resentative of the fore1 n . s might go wrong exactly aroun d t hat time. For he products. However, thing n's arrival the factory owner was informed t f re that perso • example, not long be O ut·,on of the order. The most common Proi. . with the exec there were problems ted products. This usually occurred becausv• of the contrac .. e 1em was the size .1O r misunderstood product spec1f1ca tions co ·sread an e-mai ·· · 11). an employee mi . a foreign language. Omer •ms1sted that a realist municated over the phone m P w·1th a solution to this problem. He recount ic would come u factory owner d f m someone in this business . In that case the ed that he hear ro a story . out smaller than they were supposed to be. ' The con. . tracted T-shirts came . . Sill). 1 he size was to unpack, iron, en arge with hot steam . plest way to correct t . . . . k the products. Anyone m this business knew that this,•., iron again, and repac . . . . . "as a ·on for after a while the fabnc would return to ,ts initial Sh t temporary soIu 1 , aPe -:v that time the products would be already on the foreign rn k · However, b, • . ar et ;:,. pointed out that every producer knew such tncks. Nevertheles · vmer , . . s, the best subterfuge was the quality inspector s comp 11c1ty. Social networks were mobilized to get around that person, for he was a Turk, "one of us," and, thus an individual with whom an agreement could be reached. The factory ' could pay, for example, US$1,00 0 to solve a problem, and that was far owner b · · · h" f t etter than paying compensations and rummg 1s u ure ·m t he chains of the glo b~ clothing production. Upon emphasizing the responsibilities and difficulties of this work 0 moved on to other opportunities that a subcontractor in the global c,lot: industry might benefit from, not before emphasizing that in this businesso~ just needed to be careful and know the right people (and at this point it wai up to the listener to decide if he spoke about his own experience or not). He began with the beginning, that is, export excess. There were many instancei in which export quotas were exceeded or the foreign company changeo its order during the production process. In such cases, the factory ownerwai left with an overstock. He tried to sell this overstock either in his shop or toa third party. The foreign firm could not forbid him to do so, especially because he was not spoiling the brand's good reputation by selling these products w weekly markets or other less prestigious locations. Moreover, as these proo ucts sold well, this owner decided to supplement the initial stock. He conti~ ued to manufacture this product in his factory, without informing the brani owner. He knew all the suppliers and had the necessary technology as ~ as the design specifications. One could easily claim these products originals: the same fabrics, patterns stitches, and packaging were useduce-0 · n also pro these garments as for the originals. Furthermore, this perso . doverst~ lower-quality items. He modified product parameters and combine

:i~

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

51

parts from the official production with inexpensive articles bought from the local market. He could easily find buyers for these products too, for there were plenty of buyers catering for those less discerning customers that still come from the former socialist countries in search of fashionable but cheap garments. Then our owner began to multiply a brand in high demand using materials from suppliers other than those he dealt with for the official production. He tried to pass these goods off as originals and found a buyer. In his turn, this buyer too tried to sell these products to yet another party, claiming they were originals, but recounting their story in his own way. "And so on and so forth,W Omer concluded his story about the fortunes and misfortunes of a subcontractor working in the global clothing industry. Ahmet, the owner of the workshop, had his own story of fortunes and misfortunes, except that in his case the fortunes were things of the past. This workshop was situated on a narrow back alley in a residential area. Broken buttons on the pavement-in front of its main door was the only indicator that there was a manufacturing place there. The workshop had five sewing machines and employed nine workers. Its owner, Ahmet, first called my attention to the dirtiness and messiness around us and then, in his most serious expression, began to talk about his misfortune. The appearance reflected his sad situation. Time had begun to flow with painful slowness and business had being going from bad to worse. He was always tight for money, orders were hard to find, maintenance prices were growing up, and workers were quitting their jobs. When he was at his wits' end, when the money he got for a jacket was less than what he got five years ago, he was seriously considering the possibility of closing down the place. Had it not been for his reputation, his high-quality Japanese and German machines specially designed to perform the complicated work demanded in a jacket, he would have long ago closed the atelier. Having said this, Ahmet leaned against a table, hands deep in his pockets, a cloud hanging over him. He opened the workshop in the late 1980s, after he spent a few years working as an apprentice in his uncle's tailoring workshop. The uncle helped him buy two sewing machines, get his first work orders, and establish himself as a workshop owner. The atelier was located in a neighborhood renowned for its small- and middle-scale workshops producing high-quality clothes in boutique style for domestic and foreign markets. The neighborhood also hosted various agents in the clothing business, contract intermediaries, and putveyors of different goods and services. For almost twenty years, Ahmet had produced jackets and occasionally accepted orders for trousers and shirts. He was himself a skilled machinist, specializing in some of the most difficult parts in the production of a jacket, such as attaching the collars or arms to the main body of the jacket. He established his network of contacts not only by mobilizing whatever social resources he had, but also by knocking on

52

MATERIAL CU

LTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

showing sample pieces and giv, orders, factory and shop doors. in sea. rch of ha . s details about machin es, garments . I of his atel ier, sue ,ng the part1cu ars . med a reputation on the Ioca I market anN' ·ty of execution. He ea and the qual1 . . t d . bu buying three soph1s t1ca e mach'mes FII s , managed to expa nd his busines .. · or . g and patterns and materi.als kept pilin g up rder s kep t com m ' many years, 0 k d for companies targeting the dome . st1c high~on his tables. He often w~r ~ t d models that required skillful use of the "'d ecuting soph1st1ca e . market, ex . ma. d . and complicate hand stitching· At one time, he received a visit f chines . rorn f the representative o a German company, himself a German, who cam . Ah . Of the subcontracted Jac kets. met covered half ofe to oversee the quaI1ty . t·c the floor with p1as I sheets and then spread out the garments for inspect· ion deeply touching the German with his ma nners. . . , Today he gladly accepted any or~er.fShru ~mgg~1st shdouf~ders, Ahrnet de, sen.bed ~me of the orders as coming .rom unre 1s ere 1rms" Who ·ves knocked at his door and did not say ~~ resentat1 much, except for th P. . h n the products should be ready. They delivered everything he ne date we materials patterns, labels, and logos. He learned not to ask qu ~~ • . : not to discuss these maten.als, and not . est1ons to suggest supplie rs for th , materials he needed. On the day the products were due a trucke Other loaded the garments, and they were gon ' call\e e, people and ob1ects alike. Ah , dot his money and hoped more orders of this sort would come. And t"' ~et o . Sometimes he was asked to manufactu 11ey did re simple products such as T . · . At other times, he produced more demand ing garments. Such orders -shirts· 1 him, for he could demonstrate h'1s sk'II I s, even I'f only to himself and Peased not t . unknown buyers and customers. "Anyo .h ne wit some money in his pocketOh1s produce imitations. He visits a worksh op, says he would like this and t~an and makes an offer. Let's say five dol . lars for a T-shirt. This is a very goool price. The workshop takes the order," he abruptly ended the story about his business. The fate of this workshop bes peaks the vulnerability of small work• shops in the highly competitive environ ment of the local clothing industry.1o enter clothing manufacture, work exp erience and skills are not compulsory. Boldness and modest capital are eno ugh to buy inexpensive machines pm duced in China, for renting a place, and to start a business. Ahmet estimates that a working capital of US $10 ,00 0 wou ld be enough to enter this busines~ Anyone can become a manufacturer. And, more important, anyone can ente the lucrative sector of fake brands pro duction. He does not even need 10 00 the manufacture himself, for there are plenty of workshops in need of wo~ orders, any kind of work orders. ~ 101 These two examples are illustrative of the fact t hat ·in Istanbul any isctit ing manufacturing place, be it form al factory or informal w~rkshoP;odu~ space of the possible. Fake branded P , garments can be technicallypecifi ci~ ~ in a myriad of locations. This ubiqui tous presence reflects the 5

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

63

industrial manufacture. Fake branded garments are easy to produce. Sometimes, all it takes is stitching a label onto a garment. In addition, fake branded garments are easy to produce because standardized (branded) clothe s are easy to manufacture. The clothing industry is an "imperfect industry": "compared with other industries, clothing manufacture is much less mech anised; technological developments have not eliminated the basic unit of produ ction, the woman at the sewing machine" (Entwistle 2000: 212). The sewin g machine is a relatively cheap, simple, and long-lived piece of equipment and the entry barrier to manufacturing is therefore low. "Cloth and clothing manu facture have remained remarkably resistant to technological change ... Labour is, has always been, and probably always will be the largest cost factor in making cloth and clothing. Assembly and sewing in particular remain highly demanding of the human hand; most fabrics are simply too fluid to trust the machines alone" (Schneider 2006: 214). The mushrooming of manufactur ing workshops in Istanbul since the 1990s supports these statements. Moreover, fake brands are easy to produce because of the transfer of technology and knowledge that takes place in a manufacturing site in the global clothing industry. To meet the demands for product quality, punctual delivery, and flexibility in production, local subcontractors upgrade and increa se their capacity to translate design into technical specifications. In this way, local firms learn how to "do things better" and how to "make better things" (Schmitz and Knorringa 2000). My informants pointed out that, given these favorable circumstances, subcontractors might use the infrastructure for their own benefit in after-hours production and might transfer knowledge throug h their own sociaJ networks (see also Mertha (2005)). Any discussion about the multiplication of a certain model that I witnessed during my fieldwork began with an evaluation of the equipment necessary for its manufacture. In certain cases, the discussion ended quickly, for neither those taking part in it nor their acquaintances possessed the technology required by those models. In some cases, a compromise was reached, an acceptably similar product, the best that could be produced with the kind of technology they had. In other cases, the discussion moved rapidly to other issues because technology and know-how, even for the production of identi cal copies, was at their fingertips. However, it is worth noting that the degre e of similarity was not just a problem of technology and know-how. It was also considered in relation to the potential customers, for only some were imagin ed or known to be interested in identical copies, while the majority, even the former socialist citizens, were known to be concerned with the quality of mater ials and the precision of execution. Furthermore, fake branded garments are easy to produce because remains of the official brand production can be incorporated into their manufacture. Tokath and K1z1lgun (2004) estimate that rejects might const itute

54

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

d t At the global \eve\, communicaticin up to 10 percent of a brand's ~ro u~ ~::;gn components and the quality Stan to c problems regarding the inte~rat1on \ in flawed goods. ft..t the local level of ma . tect dards of the final product might hren:~odical disr uptions, and flaws in the fabri t\ufacture , human mistakes, tee that oaccoun t for the appearance of proctu c~ autl h ors are t e most common. fact Ct~ unc . ection Reiects mig,ht be sold as such. 1oge th qu, th_at cannot pass qu;~:~:~~tocks: and ove rruns, they circulate in lots sort with expor~ surpludsb, d name but by quality, and are traded in the Unde'"'- e~ itie not by design an ran . g ·ndustry In suc'h instances, iokath and u I " ' •ue\~ the of the CIOthm 1 r..1z1 guns obser1.Ja t· • ize • . • t " IOn mig e m ht be useful . As they point out, the trad re1e c s may or ma" n . 1 ot , considered part of the counterfeiting, busines b~ Th s ...1he export excess' article au are not neeessarily 'fakes'· since they are manufactured at the same f i thi . . . . . nes, together with the items that pass quahty inspections, without any .actl':f as . . f counterfeiting" {2004: 228 ). Howeve r, in other instances, this obse inte.ni fe o . . loses its validity. My informants stressed . r1.Jat1on that some of these ob}e cts cou\a b! SE mended and sold as originals, that they cou ld also serve as rnoaels in th vi . duction of fakes, and that parts coul dbe used m the manufacture offe~ a1 . . ht In one way or another, these ob1ec ts m,g 1.1ve a second life as takes ake~ d they were not intended to pass for brands ,eveni , but to be bran ds. "there a u . . . h the other remains-fabnc re al~ s, acc ess orie s, pam t, t read , and so on-,...h h . • b • be combined with genenc goods and used to manufacture more" brIC car u · g gar . ht b . I d d · items. The resultin ments m,~ e me u e mwhat I call the categaono~ r the "partially fake," as opposed to the "en 0 tirely fake."2 ~ t Besides the specificity of industrial ma nufactur~, another factor could ek plain the significant presence of legally fake branded garments . 1he vano~ agents of the state tolerate the presen ce of fake branded garments becau& they can take a share of the profits the se obiects generate. My intorman~ pointed out that they bribed lawyers, iudg es, municipali~ employees,polr1 men, and customs officials to keep the ir businesses running smoothl 'II\ all get on marve\\ously," a producer of fake branded garments surnmanrei this situation.3 At the time I was doing fieldwork, rumor had it that sorneol\tt intellectual property lawyers negotiated the release of ever~ indi1.Jidualcau~ red-handed. The negotiation started from US$20,000 in cash , paidditectl to the lawyer. Studies of the Lale\i dist rict, the center of the informal tl1i linking Istanbul with Eastern Europe and the former Soviet \Jnion, andone~. the distribution areas for fake brande d garments, demonstrate thats: agents take their share of the profit this trade g,enerates tDedeo~lu 2\t0 Eder and Oz 2010; Ke-yder 1999; Yuk seker 2004). In this wa~. intell:i property laws build as well as cut up networks, resultin~ in protecte unprotected, exclusive and nonexclusi 91 ve areas (Gaines 19_ ). d\oba1c\d.\ This section has shown tha t in a ma f t · d site 1n the 0 ~ nu ac urmc Id 01 was 8 ing industry, fake branded garments pro\lferate. fl.s I was to

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

55

to observe many times during my fieldwork in Istanbul, the availa bility of technology, knowledge, and materials and the possibility of convi ncing the authorities to turn a blind eye to informal activities translate into a deluge of unauthorized branded objects of differ ent degrees of similitude and various qualities. Moreover, the section has brought to the foreground the particularities of the mass production of garments and, consequently, has illustrated the very thin line that separates the authorized copies from their unauthorized counterparts when both are relatively cheap and easy to manu facture. This brings more light on why the law proclaims itself the only arbite r of the authentic, a claim that was discussed in the previous chapter. Furthermore, this section has illustrated the impact of the legal characterization of objects as fake brands on the way their production is carried out. This throws a different light on why the question of authenticity is important. In addition, this section has painted the background of this discussion, that is, the economic viability of this informal sector. Fake brands can be manufactur ed, and they are manufactured because they bring profit; the risks involved in their production and circulation are somewhat manageable. The next sectio n takes up again the issue of economic viability, but presents it not as makin g profit, but rather as earning a living. This section also focuses on the issue of manufacture, but this time the emphasis is on people's preoccupat ion with the materiality that accompanies the brand, on their reflections on the nature of brand, and on the role of manufacturers and sellers of fake brand s in constitut ing the local meanings of brand. The characteristics of the manufacture of fake brands discussed in this section feed back into these people's reflections on the nature of brand and the advice they occasionall y offer to their customers.

ENGAGEMENTS WITH FAKE BRANDS As demonstrated in the previous pages, in Istanbul there are plenty of opportunities to engage with what legally are fake branded garm ents. The men introduced in this section took the opportunity the city prese nted. They invested themselves in this terrain as manufacturers, copyists, peddlers, and retailers; and capitalized on the demand for these commoditie 4 s. I recount how these lstan bulite s-sm all- to middle-scale actors in the trade in fake branded garm ents- spok e about the commodities they engag ed with and focus on their insistence that materiality is crucial for the realization of brand. Moreover, 1show why they disagree with the classification of certai ~ obj~c~~ as inauthentic and recount how this legal characterization affects their act1v1t1es. Other individuals I encountered during my stay in Istanbul reflec ted on the nature of brand and the nature of clothing in similar ways and argued for the

~

TURE AND AUTHENTICITY MATERIAL CUL

· . ). Moreover, these 1ndi f people as welI as ob,iects J • • of subs tance (o . t the classification of certain ObJects importanCe . rnents aga1ns viduals voiced similar a~~ t the assumptions about . obJe~ts a~d the people inaut hent ic and again h. class ificat ion carried. This might prove that as . them that t IS ho engage with bl matiz W e enga gements w1"th ob"Jeet s Iabelea · effor t to pro e . there is a collective . h arguments migh t be seen as belongin wind Hose in, sue inauthentic. Foll0 0 pposed to "law," that is, " a Ieg,·t·1macy ernerag " as o to what she ca II5 "lore ,; . ' . f ma\ life " a consensual construct ion of "fa· ent,ons of in or • . ing trom the conv . . that guides ways of being and, at the same time1r. ness," a form of 1eg1t1macy abling people to take a stance (200 7: 10). , acts as a source of power en

ISMAIL duction, he stated that he knew ve 1first met Isma1.1•in a cafe · By way of intro . . . ~ well what kind of comments and questions those hke me had m their minds about counterfeited products. However, he understoo d very well what I Was trying to do, that is, to hear their ?pinion~ too. Ther efore h~ had prepared fo this meeting by doing a bit of brainstorming as well as asking for his friends' opinions. 1summarize here the ideas Ismail shared with me. He knew that those like me thought the goods he was selling and im~ tions in general were of a low quality. Here we were wrong, for that was 00 always the case. If we had had the curiosity to learn a bit about how the clottr ing industry operated, we would have better appr eciated the wide range a products a peddler like him actually sold. Not all the garments he sold we11 imitations or, to use the word we and the police emp loyed, counterfeits. Soot were selected from the export excess bales. These items had some tiny ri visible defects, but they were originals. Other item s were manufactured11 the same premises and with the same materials as the originals. Companie! claimed that there are two types of products: good -quality originals andltt quality counterfeits. These companies used the \aw to distinguish be~ their goods and the similar ones that others could easily manufacture in~ workshops in Istanbul. Sometimes the other prod ucts were so good that ~ the brand representatives were surprised and expe rts had a hard time ind~ tinguishing the original from its fake. Ismail related in a mocking v~ice tna; such cases the time of production became the cruc ial criterion, W1th theeitl produced considered the original and all the othe rs labeled as countert•., aded to i~· He also heard about the case of a manufacturer whos . I e nva man ° tt, his goods seized in customs and have their prod uction date modifie: :~ nd his own goods became the originals. Moreover, many of our bra ed star# were in fact ordinary garments executed in ordinary fabrics. If we ha ufact# · were n,an to thmk for a moment about how the branded garm ents

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

57

we would have better understood this point. Companies charmed us with their fancy shops, glamorous advertisements, and nice bags. Moreover, he knew we thought what he was doing was wrong. His way of earning a living was not necessarily immoral. Trade in imitations could be seen as something good, a way of helping the poor, facilitating their access to products they coveted, but could not possibly afford because of the exaggerated prices practiced by the brands. He for himself was happy to do a good thing and to sell garments of acceptable quality at an acceptable price. Ismail insisted that the companies that owned these famous brands were in fact responsible for this situation. To stop the trade in imitations, they should have sold their products at decent prices. In vain they tried to prosecute people like him. Truth be told, Ismail continued, the trade in imitations could be seen as a problematic activity for a Muslim, for his religion condemned theft. In a way, he, Ismail, a Muslim, was a thief who earned haram (impure, forbidden by religion) money. His way out of this moral dilemma was to reconsider his work as a form of free advertisement, thus not harming but actually helping the company. The logic was very simple: a person who bought one of his fake branded hoodies, for example, would not go around bragging about buying a fake; if his friends wanted to emulate him, they would certainly go for the originals. Upon sharing with me his ideas, Ismail relaxed with a glass of tea and a cigarette, pleased with his well-defined position with regard to counterfeits and counterfeiting, frozen in his bravery. I met him on other occasions too,

58

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTIC ITY

. d ly while I was wandering around the stre ets of Beyaz1t, ano sometimes ran om bout his life and work. learned more a . . ·1 a man in his mI"d-twenties , is a sma\\ player in the underbelly oft~ 1sr:n 8 I.' 1 . 1e I the early 199 0s, his family left a tow n m eastern Turi!" clothing indu5try. n · . 1 tanbul Ever since Ismail has cont "b t d t th ·-.:y and settled down m n u e o e fal'll ih s · ., ' • d · . ·s trade by chance. One day, a fne n 'Y S budget. He entered th1 , tak ing pity on h· . . . gave him 1 s to sell · They were simple T-shirts for women, .in var· 1rri, a few T-sh·rt . colors, with a thin red stri p sewe~ on 10u1 one sleeve. The stn p bor e~ brand nall\e one he long forgot. To his surpns~, -~e manage? to sell the m m a relative, sho rt tim e. Thrilled with the poss1b Ihty of earm~g more money, he gave u~ trading in rubber bal ls and offered his sto ck to his younger brothers anct _i dren in the neighborhood. Through this friend, he me t a supplier of branc h,i hoodies. With the money he borrow ed from his unc\e, he secured as~ stock and started hawking his gar me nts on the busy streets of the h' .~ . . peninsula. som e frie nds of his istonca spe nt sma\l fort une s ma mall for sirnil ies He would have never done suc h a foo lish thin g. As an aside Is ar ~~ · . . me he stil l had one of tho se hoodIe trJi-. s at hom e and chenshed it, for, it rna,1 k .· warm during his long walks. He sti\ \ \iked its color and cut, and the : t h ir, brand name was clearly wri tten on the fro nt par t and the sleeves. He ~ utti many of his clo the s from stre et ped dle rs, for they suited his taste a ~ get. \smail kep t expan d .mg h.Is net wo k f nd · r o sup p1Iers of branded garrnen b1r' learned tha t one needed to move fas t: if a supplier called and said het~ ~ offe r this and tha t, he had to rus h to tak e the goods before the other haWkef. provided he could affo rd to pay for the m or managed to take the rnerchanoi on cre dit. He als o trie d to get his me rch and ise directly from producers~ fail ed for he did not have eno ugh cre dib ility and no one to guarantee for,h( For a whi le, \sm ail had a boo th in a sm all bazaar. A friend taught him h~i stay out of trou ble : he covered the win dow s wit h newspapers and stucka SE tha t rea d "pla ce for ren t" on the door. It worked for a while-no autho~ poked the ir nos e into his bus ine ss. Unf ortu nat ely for him, one day thewto baz aar wa s dem olis hed , for it lac ked any kin d of authorization. He could h3 ma de a bun dle by sel ling tha t boo th a few days before everything wastU!lf into deb ris, wh en som eon e cam e and asked if there was any booth availai for sal e. Ru mo r had it tha t the ma n wa s wo rkin g for the police, but he~ he sim ply mis sed a cha nce to ear n good money. After that, Ismail was~ on the stre ets . nre1 Str eet sel lers are vig ilan t, but a sel ler of legally fake bra~ded gafi9'.~ nee ds to be ext ra vig ilan t. Ism ail risk s having his merchandise con . and bei ng fine d or sen t to pris on. h He spreads his clot es on .a srnaa~', , . pla stic she et. In cas e the aut hor. . 1t up itie s show up, he can bundle . ning ·~ away "lik e a rab bit, " to use his wo rds . I never saw Ismail run ~

11

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

59

rabbit," but witnessed by chance such moments on the busy streets in the vicinity of the Spice Bazaar. Each time some unfortunate fellow was caught red-handed. I recounted to Ismail one such event and its most surprising, to my mind, moment. I told him that while many sellers were running down the street, one man stayed calmly in front of his pile of garments. 1could not see if they were fake branded garments or not. Ismail smiled and replied that the man could have very well sold fake brands. The point was that his back was assured. That was the reason he remained there, undisturbed. He for one was caught once on one of these streets, but somehow managed to persuade the policemen to let him go. Ismail told them that he normally sold rejects, that it was the first time he had tried to sell those branded hoodies, that they did not harm the brand owner, that no one thought that those were originals, that he had to earn money and feed his family, that he earned an honest living, that he trembled all day long in the cold weather. He told them many things. He talked and talked and talked, until his throat got dry and his tongue got swollen. They must have pitied him. They lectured on how counterfeiting was a crime, but eventually told him he could leave the police section. He stopped peddUng for a while, but then returned to the same streets. Ismail begins each day with the hope that people will buy from him. He waits for customers, goes here and there, each cigarette pushing the day on, each song bringing home nearer. Fortunately, every day he finds at least one customer for his wares. Ismail lives on the edge of respectable society. In a way, he forces himself there, on the edge. The way he entered the cafe and started interviewing himself is illustrative of his positioning in the world around him. His bold discourse brings to the foreground the distinction between the way those like him are situated in the discourse of the others and the way they attempt to situate themselves in their own discourse. As this ethnographic vignette shows, Ismail does not only legitimize his involvement in this trade and his position in the brand economy. Like Kerim, he points out that fake brands are not necessarily distinguishable from or inferior to the authorized branded commodities and that brands are not necessarily the extraordinary objects they are claimed to be. Moreover, he emphasizes that the categorization of objects as inauthentic is always negotiable. It is the smaller player in this trade, he one of them, who often pays the price for engaging in an illegal activities. Others have the means to protect themselves from the implications of illegality this categorization carries. Furthermore, lsmail points out the importance of the materiality of these objects. People, he among them, buy these unauthorized versions because of other reasons than the brand names they carry. Abdullah, the man introduced in the next vignette, draws on his experience as producer and consumer of branded garments to present similar conclusions.

60

TY MATERIAL CULTUR E AND AUTHENTICI

AB DU LLA H

ipheral neighborhood tha t had refas During one of my walks in Merter, a per Eastern Europe and the former Sov·~ ioned Itself as a center In the trade with to look at the clothes on offer. Pile /' countries, 1 entered a basement shop entire floor and pairs of jeans dan I O! packed garments covered alm ost the the se hoo ks were racks crammed &eo 1 on hooks along the walls. In between gs as Well as "' th thin hed bat ts tligh spo us ero Num . denim shir ts and jackets . In a corner, behind a bar topped P~o1 pie in shades of green, blue, and red fing the Internet. A shop assist "" ~ colored glass, a young man was sur tha t the sho p sold Abercrombie :nt_ap proached and told me in one breath den im garments at very good ~itch, Replay, Energy, Diesel, and Dsquared . Prices e me a bus ine ss card and adVISed Upon not icin g my hes itat ion , he gav • figure out for myself that the sh ~ to visi t oth er sho ps in the area and op hat affo rda ble prices. indeed good-quality me rch and ise at in his ear ly twe ntie s who sat b h' 1 did return. I looked for the ma n e Ind t~ told him why I came back · 1,•ntarme d h' bar dur ing my firs t visi t, and blu ntly . in w and l nbu Ista in ry ust ind g thin tha t I was doi ng research on the clo intei in this ind ust ry taught about tahsep~ est ed in lea rnin g wha t peo ple involved . nte d out tha t a lawyer told me tha . · poi I . nts me gar d nde bra e fak of e enc tit wai I f o· . I the market, and there I w .Imp oss I'bl . e to f'in d I·11 ega cop ies o Ies e on as,wm · ht ·in f ron t of me . I asked him how it was possiblei · I o· f ·1 ng ns a pI e o 1ese Jea key the re were laws against countertei run suc h a bus ine ss, for eve n in Tur ed his shoulders, as he would do man ing. The you ng ma n, Abd ulla h, shr ugg ters . Wit h the easy familiar ity of sorrt tim es dur ing our sub seq uen t enc oun nce enc oun ters , he agreed to talk aboo one acc ust om ed to all sor ts of cha ide as and stories. his exp erie nce . I sum ma rize her e his few goi ng on at the same time. The e¥: Abd ulla h spo ke abo ut his tria ls, a new est thre e months ago. He emphasize: est had beg un five yea rs ago , the ine ss. At the beginning, he was scar~ tha t the y wer e ine vita ble in this bus ls. Bes ide s, he had a lot of other things a but the n he got use d to the se tria rec oun ted a meeting with a judge. lt~i his min d. He had a sho p to run . He e bee n tire d and bored after dealing ~; late afte rno on. The jud ge mu st hav ,m. h_ you r sto ry, son ?" the judge askeIId since ~ sim ilar cas es all day lon g. "W hat 's .~ · a them told e hav . The oth ers · h· bold ma,p• the re is not a sin gle lie left for me ,s like to d me see 101~ The jud ge · · the cour firs t hou r of the day ," he rep lied . f~ act ivit y tha t brought him in . nce o-•~ but ins iste d he spe ak abo ut the acquainta dpers()I I' ries he hea rd from an ~ an Abd ulla h rep eat ed one of the sto ad abro • f a ch spee t rom ise and rch the me rurrt He told the jud ge tha t he bou ght · d gave a shor re llah Abdu ge JU nts . The sew ed the lab els on the se gar me . d h. The next day fme 1m. the imm ora lity of this bus ine ss and to the sho p.

5

He adm itt of committln owners had brand name seemed fron and malnter from their Sl the beginnin what I am di hamam swe Moreover eryone seen observe this panies fed 1 highly pricec nothing but were not orii please their He recountE the long line mous bags. markets toe products, p, the fascina attention tc customers Brand nam, he could g2 the last ele ments in sl swoosh if t wondered. 1 to tell this t deal With th Abdullah left on the , he laughed elder brothE when he wa large group the businei relatives ar

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

61

He admit ted that brand owners had all the right to accuse peopl e like him of comm itting the crime of manu factur ing or selling counterfeits . These brand owners had struggled. People like him copied their mode ls and used their brand name s. However, their busin ess was not as simple as it might have seem ed from outsid e. They had their own problems to deal with, such as rent and maint enanc e costs , bouncing checks, unreturned loans, and pressures from their suppl iers and subcontractors. He and his brothers had known from the beginning that they were settin g for a risky business. "When ever I think of what I am doing, I remind myse lf of the old proverb: the one who enters the hama m sweats," he concluded. Moreover, Abdullah insist ed that they were forced to do this busin ess. Everyone seem ed to be fascin ated with brands. He had often had the chance to observe this not only in the shop, but also in everyday life. He believed companie s fed this desire . However, many people could not really afford these highly priced products. Custo mers poured into shops like his and demanded nothin g but famou s brands. Needless to say, everyone knew these goods were not originals. Abdullah explained that they reproduced the paper tags to please their custo mers and help them imagine they bought the "real stuff" . He recounted that he recently passed by a Lacoste outlet and marveled at the long tine out the door and the happy shoppers leaving the place with enormous bags. He had seen Lacoste T-shirts and canvas shoes in the weekly markets too. Although in many cases there was nothing specia l about these products, people seem ed not to grow tired of Lacoste garme nts. Moreover, the fascin ation with brands seemed so strong that many people paid no attent ion to the actua l products that bore the brand name. Many of their custo mers seemed not care so much about the quality of their garments. Brand name s and logos, written as clearly as possible, matte red more. As he could gather from his friend s' discussions, the material prope rties were the last eleme nt taken into consideration when shopping for branded garments in shops like his or fancy malls. "What would one do with the Nike swoosh if the T-shirt looked like a rag two months after one bough t it?" he wondered. He grew tired of telling them this was a wrong appro ach. He used to tell this to his custo mers. Then he gave up and let the shop assist ants to deal with them. Abdullah angrily predicted a future in which there would be no small brands left on the market, just the coveted famous brands and their imitat ions. Then he laughed, tor this mean t that they got involved in a lucrative business. His elder brothers entered this business a few years ago and took him in at a time when he was sinking, after months in which he could not find work. A relatively large group of backers threw money into this venture. Their duty was to keep the busin ess running so that they could pay back their debts and help their relatives and friends.

62

MATERIAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

le in this business were clever. The~ managed to He reasoned that peop d pite the illegality of their deeds. lh , . such 111 es . keep everything run ning. smooth Iy, br.bi ~, ng lawy ers and polic eme n who paid in-. the 1aw, 1 found ways of dea ling with . ·•~ own t . . bout raids in their area , spre adin g the ne1o. . • I Ab a promptu v1s1ts, ea ming m gtime g·ing in business with strangers. "Do not imag·i"S n · · ds and not en a theirs to their fnen , . d some money by selling two cows can enter th·e h t peasant who game thes e t a any is t t three-five lira in your pocket and come here say· business You do no pu perioG h · . b . ss in~ •1 will do this usme ·, Who are you? I can tell you w o you are right a1o, . . .. "i¥. mand You are San "vi·zmeli Mehmet Aga [i.e., an ms1gmf1cant person)," Abdull · As ai . d If •t had not been for such smart persons, the . . emphasiz 1m1ta e . 1 tion se ct~ only h would not have progressed. econ o1 For him, however, working in_ this sector was not only a matter_of busine~ comitc cloth es. He sawy. He confessed his passion for had work ed with garrn . •11en~ inhabi1 for many years. Upon finishing primary school, abou t the age of twelv ities. ~ · h . started to work, first in a clothing e, ~ workshop, t en .m cIothm g shops. He had• sire fo1 ways loved to wander around shops and spot the newest trends and to 0• compa ' Str~ into streets and look at how people were dressed. He had whiled away desi gn . . man empty moments look1_ng at brand catalogs and fash ion magazines. Howe~ the ma Abdullah thought of himself as more an observer duced I than a participant in th e&. chanted world of beautifully dressed people. His own wardrobe was lacki He dressed smartly, but he was still far from his ideal image. He obse~ clothes for two reasons: he did this for himself, for beautiful clothes all; YAVU2 him to feel he was in touch with the beautiful side of life, and he didthist In Zeytir their business, for knowledge of trends enabled them to quickly fill theirr~ with Eai and hooks with fashionable denim garments. of Yavu2 Abdullah took pride in selling fancy garments. He claimed that out o!trt tion , he thirty or so models displayed in the shop, only some were copies of ot People's models, the rest were his creations, each a mixtu re of elements he had~ tanc e th1 in shops or on the street. "There is hardly a thing worthy of being calleoi in lstan b original, anyway," he reasoned. In fashion, everyone Yavuz copied or receivedin~ ration from other people's work. Turkish compani es were notorious for 581 borhood. ing thei r designers to fashion shows in Italy to catch a glimpse of thela:~ fice. Alar dres ses ; trends and then to reproduce them at home. More over, in many cases,lte to have a was nothing special about the models people copie d or were inspired ~·~ Preparing it been, they would have respected that work and paid their humble h~lt,M Cal "Rusi . d of mu i~, dres to thos e brands and designers for thei r achievem s in 1 ents mstea thei r designs. created ti uaW . . . diffe rent 1 t of good Q Furthermore, Abdullah took pnde m selltn g garmen 5 . 58~~ he insiste elder brot hers took care of the manufacturing side Of h . bus1nes t eir in the ~ soon er or 5 work shop that employed twenty-five workers. Unlik 0th e er shod~ctsthatll" • f port or pro borhood, in which rem ains of the productio n or ex

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

63

such remains with other materials were routed, their shop displayed only their own garments. Abdullah insisted many times that, to understand how a business like theirs was possible, even thriving, one should take into consideration all these various elements. He accumulated these observations over a six-year period, in which he worked in a shop that responded to the unsatisfied demand for branded garments. As this second ethnographic vignette demonstrates, Abdullah does not only legitimize his involvement in this trade and his position in the brand economy. Like Kerim, he points out that fake brands are an inevitable concomitant in a world bombarded with invitations to consume brands, but also inhabited by people who cannot afford the exorbitant prices of these commodities. However, like Kerim and Ismail, he does not only capitalize on this desire for branded goods, but also looks through it. He criticizes designers and companies for promoting their ordinary products as extraordinary in terms of design and quality. He criticizes consumers for not paying enough attention to the material properties of their branded garments. Yavuz, the third man intrer duced here, delved more into the nature of clothing than the nature of brand.

YAVUZ In Zeytinbumu, the oldest shanty town of Istanbul, now a center in the trade with Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, I made the acquaintance of Yawz, a man in his mid-thirties. Although he did not have formal education, he was known in his milieu as a fashion designer. He often copied other people's works. His models were frequently copied too. Our common acquaintance thought he was situated at the heart of the activities I was researching in Istanbul and, therefore, could be an ideal informant for me. Yawz met us in his office-a apartment in a residential part of this neighborhood. Still lites in oil and drawings in pencil decorated the walls of this office. A large desk was covered with finished or half-fin ished sketches of ornate dresses and jackets, all covered with frills, ribbons, and ruffles. He invited us to have a look at these sketches and spoke briefly about the collection he was preparing for a manufacturer who did business with the "Russians." A typical "Russian" customer earned around US$100 per month, but wanted to dress in expensive-looking garments, something like a US$1,000 dress. He created this illusion by heavily embellishing the garments. He declared that different fashion magazines provided the inspiration for this collection, but he insisted that the models were not simply copies. His drawings would be sooner or later copied by someone else, for this was a common occurrence

64

MATERIAL CU

LTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

sed by my companion, he admitteo f b f cturing sector. Pres h·1s clients came with samples o randed gar. in the clothing manu a · t d h · d whenever I eproduce them. However, e pom e out tha1 that he also cop1e ' ments and asked him to he P dr and he considerably improved his designi"' •1g nging deman s Th garments for which he was asked to Prep:. . these were cha 11e ~re . . · g these Jobs. e r schemes and fabncs were complicated Pr skills from dom I patterns and recom~end Teo ho'rts these men would have drawn the Pattoa. ern were simple -s 1 , uld not label fake brands the resulting garrne h ucts. If t hey nts . 1ves Moreover, e wo letely disregarded the work that went mto the proctucti , . them~e for this label comph_ ·ncluded. As soon as the tea was served, Yavuz ton ~ d . of these clothes, 1s 1 d the aspects he cons1dere most relevant for u te ncter the lead and presen · Istanbul in garments branded fake of presence b'quitous h . ana standing t e u I . elsewhere. t launched into a consideration of the emulation of ancient art He fi rs s thai T E . . marked the Renaissance penod m Western urope. he best artist Wast~ one who could recreate t~e ancient sculptures. The_bes~ poet was the one

the points he wante< display wealth, glam they were treated in of this coin, namely

fulfill their desire. HE

acteristics. However, criticized the exister

existed because pee themselves in our cc The other crucial local clothing manuf; years, the majority 0 1 low-skilled manufact1 ing the excess produ years, although Turk1 who could rewrite the ancient poems. Hardi~ ma~ten~g h~s ?omplicated se~ production of foreign a serious competito1 tences, Yavuz pointed out that there was a time m which 1m1tation wa h. S lgh~ . . W . facture. Things had valued. During the Renaissance, esterners 1m1tated the Greeks and the ~ with foreign clothing mans. However, later they forgot how much they valued imitation. Fro R mhere . . situation, Yavuz beli« he jumped to the contemporary world and to a s1tuat1on in which the ~l ct · own brands. Some h the world imitated the Westerners. He himself worked in and for this • garment brands on 1 of alienation," to use his words. Non-Westerners wanted to clothe them Iv es se h . d . ent matter. Yavuz do in the ga~ments Westerners wore. _Th 1s esire ad been growing strongerar,: the exception perha~ stronger m the past decades. Their customers, Turks and foreigners alike ! lacked the financial miliarized through the global media industry with these fashions and bra~a: hopes for himself, n insisted on having them. Someone like him had no choice but to copyWesterr tance of design. Fal trends. Turkish manufacturers had no choice but to sew these brand name! people of lesser me; onto their products. gaily reproducing tori Yavuz stated that these consumers were right. Clothes had always rra I met Yavuz one r about the many hour tered and, in our times, they were constantly told that brands matteredtr! invested his pocket most. As people often do in Turkey when they want to emphasize somethi~ Yavuz recounted one of the Nasrettin Hodja stories and drew upon the !Xl~ got more money thar ents were pleased tc lar wisdom to make his point. The Hodja went to a wedding, but becauseo they had one child t i his humble appearance, was seated in a corner and forgotten there. Hali~ having normal childt enough of being ignored, he left the party, only to return in a short while,~ until late at night, m ing his Sunday best and his rich neighbor's fur coat. This time he comman~ he wanted to be a p, . t ge beha~ . mother kept saying 1 a great deal of respect. However, people soon noticed his s ran . ri1 nd The Hodja kept dipping the sleeve of his coat into the plates a whis: ~ not want her deares· nd way out of a Kurdist "eat my dear fur coat, eat." When someone rose from his seat a .a\eat~ not even want to he an explanation, the Hodja said that he too did what they did, ~hat~: ·ctiOO~

.

the fur coat with respect. For Yavuz, this story was a perfect intro

m

FAKE BRANDED GARMENTS IN TURKEY

65

the points he wanted to make: the story explained his customers' desire to display wealth, glamour, and Western-ness, the things that determined how they were treated in everyday life. The story also explained the other side of this coin, namely that there must be someone who helps these people fulfill their desire. He, Yavuz, was such a person. These were universal characteristics. However, it was worth pointing them out, for those who fiercely criticized the existence of imitation s tended to overlook them. Fake brands existed beeause people of lesser means needed them to claim a position for themselves in our consumer society. The other crucial element that needed to be taken into account was the local clothing manufacturers' attitude toward design and branding. For many years, the majority of these manufacturers had been fairly content with doing low-skilled manufacturing work for foreign brands and, truth be told, with selling the excess products and reproducing these branded products. In the past years, although Turkey remained an importan t manufacturing location in the production of foreign branded garments, Chinese manufacturers had become a serious competitor both on the legal and illegal side of the clothing manufacture. Things had been changing for the worse in Istanbul, and contracts with foreign clothing brands had become increasingly difficult to obtain. This situation, Yavuz believed, would force local manufacturers to establish their own brands. Some had already achieved that, and there were now many good garment brands on the market. Their success abroad was an entirely different matter. Yavuz doubted many foreigners had heard of Turkish brands, with the exception perhaps of Colin's Jeans and Mavi Jeans. The majority, however, lacked the financial capital this enterprise required. However, he had high hopes for himself, now that the local companies had discovered the importance of design. Fake brands existed because local manufac turers-o ther people of lesser means- earned enough from legally manufacturing and illegally reproducing foreign brands. I met Yavuz one more time for a life history interview. He spoke at length about the many hours he spent drawing during his school days, about how he invested his pocket money in paper, pencils, and colors, and about how he got more money than his siblings because he was a good boy. At first, his parents were pleased to see him sitting quietly in his room and drawing. At least they had one child they did not need to worry about. His other siblings were having normal childhoods hanging out on the streets of their neighborhood until late at night, much to his parents' dismay. However, when he told them he wanted to be a painter, their attitude changed drastically. His soft-hearted mother kept saying that painters had always been starving and that she did not want her dearest child to be one of them. His father, who had carved his way out of a Kurdish village to a low-ranking officer position in the army, did not even want to hear about such plans. Good for nothing ideals, the father

66

MATERIAL CU

LTURE AND AUTHENTICITY

. ed in a society where mak. · they Iiv "d ,..,er and over. He remin ded him that ·th no money in his pockets was not a sa1 u• • d The man w1 ·ng money was highly pnze . . a car and a house was more of a man l ness, • man at all. The man w1·th a busi . f th·1s because this was not a profession· d t talk him out o His father tried har O . . • d d nd put him off the idea. Yavuz did different His parents even~ually succee e thamentioning. He worked in a printing Sho jobs . Two in particular ~re wotrtypes of pape r. He worked in a cafe and map and grew fam 1Tiar with d1fferen . t name it van Gogh Cafe, afte r his role model n. ·nee the own er o aged to convi . •1 . . . d He also learned wha t it was like to not get to dn · he earned his 11V1ni:,· this way, o d d . d and be forced to do other thin gs. the job you love oini:, s somebody he vaguely knew through one of h One day, a few yea r ado 1:> ' • . that a person with draw•ing skill s could earn good rnon is. brothers tol d h1m . ey 1ri .nd industry. He saw an opportunity to do wha t he had always want t he co I thI e, . ·b·i·t · to do and went for it· At first' one of his respons, 11 ,es was to accornp ea . any a man who combed the market in search of rem ains from the official producti0r that could be reused in the manufa~ture of othe r branded garments. Hisi~ was to use his imagination and decide on the · .spo t wha t could be combInt,: with what. Moreover, he had to sele ct w h ate_v er item s h~ c_onsidered useful,~ drawing sewing patterns . The ~-an_ taug ~t ht~ how to d1stmguish betweenfa~ rics and how quality feel s, farn1hanzed him with the loca l clothing indust ry, ar( introduced him to many people, now usef ul con tact s for his own busin Then he spen t mos t of his time in the office, drawing sewing patterns an:~ ing his hand at his own mod els. Today he has a reputation in this market ~ his own office on whose doo r anyone can read "Fashion Designer." As this last ethnographic vign ette dem ons trate s, Yavuz uses a differeri strategy to legitimize his invo lvem ent in the mar ket for fake brands. He pm ents him self not only as som eon e who cop ies and imitates, but also as SOl\l one who is copi ed and imit ated . He intro duce s himself as someone lltt learned his prof essi on on the peri phe ry but could easily move to thecer, ter and put his des ignin g skill s to othe r use s. Like Kerirn and Abdullah,n emp hasi zes the prof essi ona l and pers ona l investment in the trade in la~ brands. He pos ition s him self on the mar gin of this activity, not truly invom: but improving his des igni ng skill s. This dou ble position not only affordshim i diffe rent pers pect ive, but also con tribu tes to his indecision about how to a plain and who to mak e resp ons ible for the presence of fake brands.

LEGITIMIZING THE FAKE BRAND The peo ple intro duc ed here , and man y othe rs I met during my_nel~ Thetr argu Istan bul, argu e that the fake bran d has its own • · leg1t1macy. . ts ~ are stru ctur ed arou nd the fo\lo wing them es: the materiality of obJec '

morality of prices, a, out that in a manufa