The perils of wearing designer fakes

Since moving to Auckland, I have become more acquainted with my iron than I’ve ever been in my entire life (aside from the short stint I had working on a private motor yacht as an ironing lady). How can this be? For the first time in a long time, I have a burgeoning wardrobe of good quality clothing that I get pleasure out of wearing and so I want it to look good and I iron it.

Why do I suddenly have nice clothes? Not because we’re now rolling in cash that I can spend at clothing stores but because the second-hand clothing stores in Auckland are so good. I rarely spend over $10 for an item of clothing now and have managed to snare some real bargains, even some authentic designer clothes for next to nothing. Ben thinks I’m a label-snob because I always check the labels before buying but this is just part of the process. I do put a fair amount of importance on the label, but I also check the fabric consitution and make judgements about the general quality of the item. Ben does exactly the same thing when judging research: he checks the name of the journal it was published in and gives greater weight to articles published in more reputable journals. I may be a label-snob but he’s a journal-snob.

Which brings me to the book I’m currently reading. It’s Dan Ariely’s The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie To Everyone–Especially Ourselves. It’s a terrific read. There’s a section about fashion labels and how designer knock-offs make us more susceptible to cheating and dishonesty. The author conducted some experiments with designer sunglasses and discovered, quite surprisingly, that people who were told they were wearing fake designer sunglasses, were much more likely to cheat in a self-marked simple test than those who were told they were wearing authentic sunglasses. It’s as though wearing fakes somehow stretches our moral boundaries. So if you wear fakes, take extra care when making important decisions.