Delft Blue Rhymes with Fake Handbags
The art of the fake (illustration: Leonhard Rothmoser).
A few years back, I was in the city of Gwangju, South Korea, staying in a fashion district that mostly sold trendy, affordable clothes and accessories. Most were counterfeit items: Supreme box logo tees, the latest Balenciaga jumpers and, of course, fake bags styled after brands such as Chanel and Gucci. Some of these pieces were so creative and original that they could be considered sophisticated reiterations of an idea rather than mere copies, featuring new colour schemes and logos placed subversively on items that the original brand would never touch. But these fakes – which are typically now vilified as examples of the dishonest practice of hijacking someone else’s intellectual property – were not always seen this way.
Delft Blue earthenware, a Dutch pottery style that was extremely popular in the 1700s, was born out of people’s desire to own blue and white china, a coveted form of Chinese porcelain known for its sophisticated making technique and exoticised patterns. Blue and white was made exclusively in China and was widely regarded as superior in quality to its European counterparts, but the European market experienced a lack of supply following the death of the Wanli Emperor in the 17th century. This condition gave birth to the Netherlands’ homegrown version of the famous porcelain: a cheaper, tin-glazed clay version manufactured in the city of Delft. It was a creation from a time before widespread awareness of the harms of cultural appropriation, and the lack of rules and regulations against trademark infringement meant everything was fair game in the wild West.
“Fake bags can be understood as providing a commentary on the intricate history of cultural appropriation and commerce.”
Although Delft Blue eventually fell out of fashion, it is now valued as a collectable in its own right, not just as a cheaper knockoff. Perhaps modern counterfeit handbags, most of them made in China, will be appreciated in the future on their own merits. Already, they demonstrate mastery of many things: an ability to imitate expensive goods on the cheap; an understanding of cultural shifts and trends; and a sophisticated use of global logistics and supply chains. These fake bags can be understood as not only making profit on the back of someone else’s work but as providing a commentary on the intricate history of cultural appropriation and commerce from a non-European perspective.
In response to these counterfeits, Gucci launched its Fake/Not clothing and accessories collection in 2020, which takes inspiration from the fake Guccis of this world through design nods such as the bicolour stripe logo (instead of the original tricolour) that was commonly seen among fakes in the 80s. There is a historical symmetry here: when Chinese makers realised that Delft Blue was gaining recognition, they began creating imitations of the earthenware to export to the European market. Four centuries on, we’re completing the cycle of duplication once again.
Words Tetsuo Mukai
Illustrations Leonhard Rothmoser
This article was originally published in Disegno #34. To buy the issue, or subscribe to the journal, please visit the online shop.