The swag spirit

Fashionable girls posing for a photo in the affluent Gangnam district of Seoul.In Korea, the popularity of imitation brands has become such that people no longer seem to be shy or ashamed of wearing or carrying knockoffs. - AFP

In South Korea, classic designer brands make room for ‘swag-fake’.

THE fashion industry has long been dominated by a black-and-white theory that only genuine articles from classic designer brands have value. Anything that’s a knockoff – a fake” – was immediately dismissed as low-class.