Luxury brands under fire: the made-in-China controversy

DAYS after President Donald Trump of the US slapped a 125% tariff on Chinese imports, China took to social media, “exposing” the location where luxury brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Coach and Jimmy Choo and many more were manufactured.

- MONISHKA GOVENDER [e-mail]

Chinese content creators, influencers and even factory workers took to TikTok to “expose the lie” about overpriced luxury brands.

“Some say as long as there's a tag saying ‘made in China’, the bag can never be luxury.

“However, in fact more than 80% of the luxury bags in the world are made in China. But those luxury brands just won't acknowledge that they take finished bags from China factories back to their own factories, and just do a repackaging and logo installation. In that way, the bags will appear at their boutiques as ‘made in Italy’ or ‘made in France’.

“You know those sophisticated European countries that make you feel mysterious and luxurious.”

The content creator “Bagbestiel” said many people considered something “made in China” as less prestigious when compared to European countries.

“Welcome to the real world. Now you see those bags are ‘made in China’ by our intelligent Chinese artisans. Let's not be poisoned and misled by the market campaign any longer,” said the creator.

After the video went viral on social media, many South Africans have been left wondering about their expensive luxury brand “investments”.

Theshen Naicker, an actor and entertainer, said he found it difficult to believe the online claims.

“Don’t believe everything you see on social media. We need to take into consideration the timing of these allegations, which is the tariff war with China versus US, which makes one question the validity of the statements made.

“I love luxury bags. I have a collection which consists of Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel. These brands made only 100 bags in each design for the global market, so economically it does not make sense that it would be mass produced in China,” said Naicker.

He said the history of the brands’ journey sealed the deal of authenticity for him.