In the fashion industry copying is encouraged, it is a top down influence industry.

The designers to have a bit of lead time though.

It is the outright forgery that is a problem. Fraud is fraud, even in the name of cheap purses.

Dunno Dean,

I am not a faithful follower of fashion, but it does seem that if you drain all the revenues from design...design will stop being a viable economic activity.

Where that to pass, how would the consumer and/or the economy be benefited?

Shouldn't the minds of Asia come up with their own styles that would turn the heads of fashion conscious woman everywhere? Why this parasitic relationship?

To me - even the $260 is too much for one dress. But hey, I'm a guy. Now I might be willing to pay $20 for a good pair of running shorts and $60 bucks for some Nike quality running shoes. Of course, the Nike store wants $30 for the shorts and $125 for the shoes. But I really don't need their silly label. So could someone do the same thing for us runners who are not impressed by high price labels?

I have access to great quality copies of just about any brand. I'm also a fashion designer and I too get ripped off all the time.

americalinx at yahoo dot com

The fall of the dollar was inevitable. It is the only way to get the trade deficit down to size. The real problem was allowing the dollar to rise to the point that it made such a painful adjutsment necessary. This was the Clinton-Rubin high dollar policy. It felt good in the short-term (except for manufacturing workers), but just like tax cuts that lead to big budget deficits, it could not be sustained.