On Tuesday evening, on New York City’s fake-bag-row (Canal Street), The RealReal launched an inspired installation that had guests dumbfounded. The venue’s exterior had a sign on the glass that read “Monday: CLOSED. Tuesday: CLOSED.
Wednesday: CLOSED,” which immediately intrigued. Guests pulled up to a storefront that seemingly displayed designer handbags on pedestals; nothing out of the ordinary for a space owned by the world’s largest online marketplace for authenticated luxury goods. However, upon entering the space, guests soon found out that the bags were really fake.
The social experiment left fashion lovers buzzing with questions: “I would have never known that Park Tote from The Row wasn’t real leather!” “The green on that Balenciaga is a little green to be real...
” “Wait a second.. Even though I know that Goyard is fake I kind of want to buy it?” The inquisitiveness towards the bags gave way to a more existential question: What is real, and what is not? To keep the space pristine, guests Laverne Cox, Jeremy O’Harris, Meadow Walker, Selah Marley, and Katerina Tannenbaum proudly slipped blue shoe covers to tour the superfake handbags on display.
Hunter Thompson, director of authentication, gave white-glove service to show off the white-lie pieces. He notes, “The most gratifying part is each and every time we take a fake handbag off the market since we don't always know the origins - sometimes we don’t know the dangerous story, but we know .
