Fashion is something that has a major influence on our daily lives. From head to toe, whatever we wear is controlled by the fashion trends prevalent during that time. Most of the people want to keep abreast of the new trends that come in because they do not want to be lost out. Most of our activities are influenced by our environment and fashion is no exception to that.
THE NEED FOR THE INDUSTRY OF IMITATED GOODS?
Our choices in terms of fashion are governed by what people around us are choosing. If we see our friends wearing trendy clothes, we would want to buy them too because we want to fit in but this need to fit might not always be commensurate with our financial standing. We might feel the urge to spend on branded clothes as they showcase the latest trends but we might not have the resources to buy new clothes so frequently. This is where the imitated goods play a major role. Imitated goods or knock offs are goods that closely resemble the branded goods but are priced way cheaper than the original goods. They are cheap because the quality of those imitated products is much lesser than what the original brands offer. Since people want to stay trendy without spending out too much money, imitated goods serve their purpose quite comfortably. This is primarily why the market of imitated goods is so huge.
In India, places like Palika Bazaar and Sarojini Nagar sell imitated goods at a fraction of the price of the original products. They primarily attract young people because these people usually have certain monetary limitations. Although there are various kinds of goods that are sold in these markets like home décor and leather items, the demand for clothes remains the highest because clothes represent an individual’s personality as they will be judged by others on the basis of what they wear. For the buyers of imitated clothes or knock offs, the quality of clothes does not matter as much as the fake brand tag that they carry as it is difficult for an average buyer to spot the difference between an original and a fake good.
DRAWBACK OF HAVING SUCH MARKETS?
Although such kinds of markets are illegal, they are still booming because of the increasing demand. It might seem like a good idea to let these markets flourish as it is a win win situation for both buyers and sellers since the sellers get latest fashionable clothes at cheap prices and sellers also make good money out of their sales but there are larger concerns that are associated with such markets. Such markets cause huge losses to the original brands as the value of their products go down immensely. More importantly, the market for imitated goods is at such a point where vendors have now started selling imitated copies of everything available in the market, one of them being make up.
The ingredients used in the imitated make up can harm the skin and lead to other deleterious effects. Imitation of food products is another issue of concern because it can have serious health consequences.
To conclude, imitation of fashionable clothing products leads to potential loss of profits for the companies but it might prove beneficial for consumers looking out for cheap clothes with a big brand name. On the other hand, imitation of products like make up and food have to be curtailed as they give no benefits whatsoever to the consumers and have only harmful effects.
Image references-
The parallel fashion industry of imitated products 
