indias fake luxury market its growing at twice the pace of the real stuff is spurred on not just by its logoloving middle classes but also the rich looking for cheap trophy purchases the mblock market in delhis greater kailash forms a striking backdrop for the aspirations of middleclass india here you can find row upon row of makebelieve luxe chanel michael kors fendi gucci there are replicas of louis vuitton monogrammed stoles a few good but mostly horrible copies of ysl clutches and some chanel scarves so convincingly elegant that one has to be a connoisseur to spot a flaw a 20something girl with hair fashionably straightened walks into one of the shops she looks at a black and gold michael kors bag with the insignia mk printed all over but she is finicky about the trademark metallic mk being encircled in a golden circle not happy with what she sees she walks into another store and picks up a bright red quilted lady dior a ripoff from the 2012 line this one has shiny metallic dior dangling from the bag and the letters sparkle bright enough to satisfy her the shopkeeper asks for rs 3500 but she haggles and they settle for rs 3000 a pick from the real lady dior line could cost anywhere between rs 1 lakh and rs 5 lakh whether its delhis gk or mumbais linking road the thirst for fakes is growing an assochamyes bank report released last month noted that the market for counterfeit luxury goods in india is now growing at twice the rate of genuine products and was poised to double in size by next year over 80 of the imitation luxury products being sold in india comes from china says d s rawat secretary general of assocham most of this comprises handbags watches shoes clothes hats sunglasses perfume and jewellery globally the luxury industry loses 250 billion annually to counterfeit goods it is the lookgoodatalowcost idea that drives consumers towards counterfeit products the world over says abhay gupta ceo luxury connect a consultancy firm specializing in luxury services however tikka shatrujit singh lv representative in india is confident that those who know their luxury wont fall for a fake the rest it turns out can shop for an lv copy online according to the assocham report web portals selling fakes account for over 25 of the fake goods market in india sambhavna srivastava a 24yearold working with a travel agency in delhi frequently shops for first copies at c2coffercom an online portal a first copy is as original as a fake can get as it is the first imitation of a fresh collection i recently purchased a coach bag for rs 4500 and a gucci clutch for rs 2000 says srivastava she points out that the website offers the latest collections in the market and that too within a week of their official launch shipping takes around two weeks sellers on sites like quikr and olx also