Task 3 : Essay Proposal

How do counterfeits affect society and the aura of big brands?


The difference between a copy, replica and imitation.
How brands sell a certain image to their audience.
How brands are associated with different social classes.
The trickle down theory within fashion and how classes imitate brands.
The demand for design commodities, and the production of counterfeits, how this affects society.
How counterfeits affect the aura of big brands.

Neil Boorman: Bonfire of the Brands/How I learnt to live without labels. (2007) Canongate books Ltd
I picked out this source purely because Neil Boorman breaks down some of the steroitype we connect with different brands and the influences they have on our life. Its quite a fun book and follows him on a trip to burn all the brands he owns, but theirs also good references to social stratification and fashion within classes.

Alison Lurie: The language of Clothes (1983) Random House Inc




Picked out this source because it talks about how clothes communicate to others and how we are assumed by others because of what we wear and the connotations our clothes have with society.

Walter Benjamin: The work of Art in the age of mechanical reproduction (1936)
I want to talk about reproduction and the value behind a unique piece of work, I want to talk about how counterfeits add value to the original but at the same time take the value away.

Peter Saunders: Social Class and Stratification (1990) Routeledge

Simmel, Georg. 1957 [1904]. Fashion. American Journal of Sociology.
Very relevant for the trickle down theory.

John Storey: Cultural studies and the Study of Popular Culture (1996) E University Press