faked out?

Recently I tried on the Diane von Furstenberg black wrap dress (shown above) at Bloomingdale's. It seemed like the perfect little black dress and it fit like a dream. It was also the last one in my size but had a noticeable makeup smear on the bodice. Hoping for a 5-10% discount to cover drycleaning, I asked if they'd give me a discount. The salesgirl quickly took the dress from me and said they couldn't do that, in fact they'd need to return it to DVF headquarters. So I searched for the dress at the DVF flagship store and it turns out it was sold out everywhere. I started searching for it online and lo and behold, it turned up on ebay in my size for a mere $75(!) DVF dresses usually sell between $325 and $425, so I couldn't believe it. The shipping was a little high but it was coming from Australia, so I decided this would be an amazing buy.

The things we do for fashion! I actually woke up at 5:30 and scurried to place my winning bid. So $104 later (that's what it cost with shipping), I won the auction and started to check out the other DVF dresses on ebay. Turns out there were tons selling for $50-$75 but they were coming from China. On closer inspection they were sewn slightly different from the runway photos, or in a color that Diane von Furstenberg didn't offer. Even worse, I noticed remarks on the listings that said "dresses may differ slightly from the flagship stores".

By now, I was getting a little nervous, as I noticed the DVF dresses selling in the U.S. started at around $200, not the $75 that I paid. Still, I had bought the dress from an Australian seller, and was hoping that it was just an over-run from her store.

I started asking my ebay savvy friends what they thought and immediately got a link that pretty much confirmed the fact that I had purchased a 100% fake and phoney DVF. Apparently there are fakes being sold out of the UK and the super-high shipping charge is to cover the dress being sent from China to the UK and then on to the US. I know some people love fake stuff for the savings and all, but I'm just not one of them. I really appreciate the cut of the real thing and as a designer who has been knocked off, that aspect of fashion makes my heart sick.

I would love to hear if any of you have had similar experiences or have bought designer clothing off of ebay.

For those of you thinking of buying any designer goods on ebay, I highly recommend clicking here to read lots of tips on how to avoid DVF fakes and designer fakes in general on ebay.