Everybody Wins With Fake Birkin Bags

Why Knockoffs Keep Trends Changing and Spur Creativity

We’re in the midst of New York Fashion Week, and the conversation about what we’ll soon be wearing has begun. The festivities even reached L.A. with events like Thursday’s “Fashion’s Night Out,” a sort of shopping extravaganza for the Sartorialist set.

Behind the scenes, one of the hot topics in the fashion world is something more mundane: whether copyright law should be extended to fashion designs. Today, anyone can copy any design they see–perfectly legally. As a result, knockoffs are everywhere.

Some think this ought to change. In 2010, U.S. Senator Charles …