REPORTING FROM NY: Could YOU buy Canal?

I want to put a question to you Champagnista Readers, would you ever contemplate buying a Canal? If you are unsure of what I am referring to let me put it another way. Imagine you have spotted this amazing Gucci bag that just has you foaming at the mouth with pure joy, but you realise that at £1300, you can never afford it, even if you live on basic food for 6 months, what would you do?

Well I am going to let you in on one of fashion’s dirty secret. I have heard whispers of fashionistas who save up enough money for an air ticket to NY, just so they can go and buy the Canal they desperately want.

Have you ever heard of Canal, as in Canal street in NYC? It is a fashion haven for those seeking designer fakes. To understand it you have to be on Canal Street on a bustling Saturday afternoon. It is here that you must look out for these fashionistas because they are easy to spot. They are the shoppers that look uneasy, wear big sunglasses and try to remain un-noticed. They talk in whispers and carry in their handbag a picture of the bag they seek close to their chest.
When there, the fashionistas have mastered the quick look that they give as the right signal to illegal sellers who take them through a normal looking shop, before leading them through a secret door which leads them to a dungeon like corridor where at last they enter a small room that has all the fake designer bags.

In this room a few words are exchanged as the fashionistas examine the bags closely. If they like what they see they nod, and a price is bartered before money is exchanged, and then like a frightened creature of the night the fashionistas usually quickly scurry out of the shop, into day light and straight into a cab which whisks them towards 5th Avenue, leaving their shame behind.

Usually the fakes cost from $20- $300 for a Birkin, and if you are curious to experience this place yourself let me introduce you to the three types of people you will encounter:
(1) The first type are those who sell t-shirts, souvenirs, generic handbags, and cheap perfume from a rented storefront. Merchandise can sometimes be knockoffs. If they are, they usually they don't want to advertise that fact because they can be raided by the city, and shut down.
(2) The second type are the illegal street peddlers hawking knockoff sunglasses, handbags, and DVDs out of shabby suitcases on the sidewalk. These guys always run away at the first sign of police as they are breaking several laws all at once (no vending license, blocking traffic on the sidewalk, and selling counterfeit merchandise.)

(3)Then there are the touts who hang around street corners and subway entrances uttering 3-4 magic words to every passing woman, "Gucci, Prada, Chanel, Coach?" They show you pictures of the handbags they have, and if interested, you follow them to secret locations to buy these so-called better quality fakes. Most of these people carry mobiles and are constantly looking back for police and private investigators.

So I ask you again Champagnista readers will you buy Canal? because I know that being the true fashionista I know I am, is that I do not think that I could live with the shame of it. I would rather survive on fashion party canapés discretely put into my Zara handbag for 6 months and save up enough money rather then strut around town proudly carrying a Canal.

With love from the city that never sleeps,

Champagnista M