The Purse-Party Blues

Fake luxury handbags have never been better--or more tempting. But now the crackdown has begun

Inside Louis Vuitton's sleek flagship store on New York City's Fifth Avenue, customers are ogling the now ubiquitous Murakami Speedy, a monogram handbag that sells for $1,500 and is carried by such A-list celebs as J. Lo and Reese Witherspoon. Four blocks south, the same bag--or what looks like it, anyway--can be had for $35. A California woman, in town with her fiance last week, was spotted perusing a table stacked with fake Vuitton, Kate Spade and Marc Jacobs handbags. She was looking for a new Vuitton bag because the strap on the one she bought in Chinatown had already broken....

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