With the rise in popularity of Japanese Korean dramas in recent years, the spillover effect of such popularity to Japanese and Korean fashion is evident. As the Japan Korean peninsulas are two big powerhouse of Asian fashion, the latter is usually represented by these two styles. In fact, Japanese fashion was the first wave of craze and it is evidently dwindling and being replaced by Korean fashion.
Women's fashion is a lucrative business. With Korean fashion gaining popularity, knock-off manufacturers want a share of the Korean pie too. Especially since such pieces do not come cheap in an effort to compensate Korean designers for their originality in designing Korean clothes.
When buying Korean clothing, watch out for these tell-tale signs the clothes you bought is a knock-off.
#1 - Non Koreans modeling Korean fashion pieces
Clothing sold online have to be modeled as that is they only way you can see and buy them. If the clothes are modeled by Chinese model, you should be aware that the source of origin of their clothing is most probably from China/Taiwan or Hong Kong and most of these designs are knock-offs. From experience (I do shop online a lot and from everywhere), the clothing I've received from these places are usually made from low grade material or poor workmanship and most of the time they look nowhere near the pretty pictures.
#2 - When your clothes arrive wet or comes with a weird smell
When your highly-anticipated fashion pieces reach you in wet condition or comes with a weird smell, your gut feeling is probably right - you have just got yourself something from a knock-off sweat shop. Most of these shops are only concerned with quantity so it is not surprising that some pieces might be wet or has a weird smell (due to the sweat shop conditions) because they do not have the budget or need for 'quality control'.
#3 - Printing errors on the clothing designs, clothing label or clothing tag
If there are spelling errors, it is highly likely to be a knock-off as they do not have the budget for 'quality control' and most of the time, the manufacturers may not even know what they are printing hence they are unable to spot the error.
#4 - Buying Korean fashion pieces from website ending with '.cn'
If you are based outside of Korea or do not know the language, it can be a daunting task to purchase Korean fashion online as most Korean websites are in Korean. However, with the rise of internet and online shopping, there are lots of websites in English that sells Korean fashion. If the website ends with a '.cn', it is highly likely that the piece you bought is a knock-off.
#5 - Look at the price and think rational
If the prices seem too good to be true, then most likely it is the case. Knock-offs compete with the real stuff by the price. Since the quality can't be better, the sole advantage they have is in pricing as their cost of production is lower. Do not hold your expectations too high if you are prepared to buy knock-offs though, since it is a fraction of the price, the quality will be discounted too.
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