(updated on  21 Nov, 2005)

(This is a guide on how to protect yourself against the fake Marni items!)

Many of you Marni gals out here may know me very well since I sell a lot of Marni's on eBay for as long as I could remember, and I truly love Marni to death.  I started wearing Marni ever since the first collection came out, and I have been an active Marni buyer and seller on eBay for the past 3 years here.  I own a little Marni "museum" myself and I major in Marni just like others major in economic or other subject in undergrad study. Basically this is the only brand I wear daily, and this is how crazy I am about Marni.  However, it truly becomes a nightmare now as there are counterfeit Marni's being offered on eBay, and this is NOT an amateur business at all.  I have witnessed how the whole category of Marc Jacobs on eBay gradually turned out to be 99% of counterfeits over time, (no kidding, you actually need to go through 99 fake listings on eBay in order to find one MJ which is truly authentic!) then it was Cacharel, BCBG, Diane Von Furstenburg, Chloe, and now it comes to MARNI!! I have actually seen the counterfeit Marni being listed on eBay China, Yahoo Hong Kong, and Yahoo Japan, as well as street vendors in China or Hong Kong.  These mass-produced counterfeit Marni's items are really everywhere now to look for a place to sell - to you!  And thus I have written this guide for those of you who do not want to become the next victim of these counterfeit dealers.  Gals, we all love Consuelo and her designs, please show a little respect and protect Marni by not buying into the fakes! The following items are those that are being counterfeited and offered on eBay (so-far), I have actually purchased the fakes from these dealers on or off eBay in order to show them to you, if I find anymore, I will keep the data running:   A) Dress from Marni 2005 F/W Collection:   This following dress (sleeveless one) is from Marni 2005 FW collection which you could find in store now and retails over US$1,000.  If you see a "long sleeves" version anywhere, it is definitely a counterfeit copy not manufactured by Marni Italy!  (I have purchased the fake one in the following picture from a seller in China and Marni showroom has already confirmed that this is DEFINITELY not their product, we have also called up different Marni store worldwide, you won't be able to get this long sleeves dress unless you want a fake one which is made from China bearing a fake Marni label on.     1) Marni NEVER produces the long sleeves version on the left!!  The sleeveless one on the right hand side is my personal dress gotten from Marni Italy directly still has tags attached and original receipt issued by Marni!  Please note the color of the fake one is reversed from the real one (having blue on top, and red on bottom of the dress)     2) Details of material and size tag: Again, this dress is definitely NOT 95% cotton, 5% elasthane as stated on the fake dress;  Please also note that the fabric of the tags on the fake dress is very different from the real one (it is very flimsy and has less texture), the fake tags also has a different type face than the real one!     3) Comparison of the interior: When you flip around the dress to check the interior, you will actually see how badly the fake dress is stitched when comparing to the real one, stitching is irregular and is loosened up already here and there!      4) Comparison on the hemline: The authentic dress has a fraying hemline, and the brown patchwork around the hemline is much narrower; the fake one has the hemline evenly folded and the patchwork is much larger with less obvious stitching!    5) Comparison of the color and waist line: It might not be too obvious by just looking at pictures, but the authentic dress is in a beautiful Bordeaux Red color and the blue is much brighter; comparing to the fake one, the red is weird and the color dying is awfully done so the color is patchy when you get to see the fake one personally. Also the waist line is very uniformly stitched and ruffled, and the ruffles are tiny on the real dress.   6) Comparison of the collar: Again, the brown patchwork trimming the collar is much smaller in width on the authentic dress, but wider on the fake, the brown color on the fake one is also different as well (which is like a mud brown)!!    7) Comparison of back of the material tag: The fake tag is different in terms of fabric being used, the size of the tag, as well as the type face/ font on the tag; also, counterfeit producers cannot write proper English - check the back of your material tag on your real Marni item and see what it says!     B) Jacket from Marni 2005 F/W Collection:   This jacket is being counterfeited and are widely offered on eBay and quite some people have already been unknowingly victimized and are now trying to go after those awful counterfeit dealers for that (Make sure you be extremely careful with those sellers who have now privated their feedbacks). Almost all of the counterfeit dealers will claim that their jacket are overstocks, dump stocks, irregulars or "seconds" with minor flaws or cut-off tags from factory when you ask them, but these are really not convincing reasons to explain the "bargain prices" which is as low as 1/5 of the current retail cost (Remember this is a CURRENT season item now retailing in store for US$900!). How do you explain that there are 3 - 4 different sellers who offer the same jacket at the same period of time with all range of sizes available?  The jacket was sold for around US$100 - US$200 on eBay and it is nothing but shoddy $10 jacket made in China   1) Marni 05FW Runway Picture of the jacket: This picture is used by every single counterfeit dealer who offers this fake jacket on eBay to make you believing that their fake jacket is exactly the same with the one from runway!   2) My REAL jacket gotten from Marni, with RECEIPT!     3) My REAL jacket being put together with the FAKE: (Upper) AUTHENTIC Marni jacket; (Lower) FAKE one I purchased from eBay (Noticed the color difference? The real one has a beige tone, the fake one is pure black and white, plain hounds tooth pattern)   4) Close-ups of both jackets: The AUTHENTIC one is much prettier, it has implicit pattern which is extremely hard and costly for the fake manufacturer to copy! The FAKE one on the lower of the picture is made of a cheap wool which is already fraying and balling!   5) Close-up of the Marni brand name tag: The material of the beige fabric tag is much thinner on the fake Marni label, with less texture on the fabric used   6) Close-up on the collar button: The AUTHENTIC one only has one brown seashell button on the collar, and at the back of the button, "MARNI" is engraved; the FAKE one use the cheap silver button which has never been seen in ANY Marni's items, and of course, no engraving!   7) Material tag (front) of both jackets: The picture of the material tag is what the fakes' sellers afraid to show, they had the picture up when someone asked for it earlier, however, after I pointed out how fake it is, most of them have already taken down the picture of the tag from their later listings.  In here you will see how DIFFERENT they really are.  The fake one is cut off in the middle of the tag (some of them say that it is because the jacket is obtained from Marni factory and thus it is cut off in the middle and this is totally a lie!) The truth is, they don't know what is the composition of the jacket really and they cannot tell you the jacket is made of 100% cheap wool that imitates Marni's material and will fray right away so they made up the fake material tag and pretended it was a factory item, however the material tag on the fake one is much smaller, used different font/ type face, and the fabric of the tag is flimsy! In another listing, the seller did SHOW the material tag which has not been cut off and it said "100% wool", please note that on the real one, it is definitely NOT 100% wool!  The font of the size tag is also very different, Marni DID not produce any size 36 in this jacket by the way!!   8) Material tag (back) of both jackets: Have you noticed that on the fake one they cannot even write in proper English?   Close-up on the lining: the AUTHENTIC jacket is lined with high quality silk in black color; the FAKE one is lined with flimsy dark brown silk that you could almost see through!!       C) Other Marni items from 2005 F/W collection:         1) This is another dress of Marni this season which has been counterfeited and was being offered on eBay by at least two or three different counterfeit dealers.  There were two colors being offered including this blue one and the lime yellow one (you have probably seen this blue fake dress as well as the lime one already, and recently, I have seen the lime one in top/ jacket version being counterfeited as well.  I happen to have one of the real Marni 05F/W collection dresses with me, which I have just purchased 3 months ago when it first came out from the store, and it costs around US$1,300. i) This is the dress from Runway:                            ii) This lime/ yellow version is being counterfeited as well: iii) This is the exact same dress I got from Marni store this season; please check the details if you see this dress or the above top being offered on eBay, and be careful of whom you are buying from (they are not the usual group of Marni sellers on eBay!), the counterfeit dealers will not tell you where they are located (but almost all of their items are shipped out from China via Fedex or EMS).    iv) Close-up shot showing more details and pattern:     v) Also, this dress's content is 100% cotton!  On the fake dress or top, it is said that the item is made of 95% cotton and 5% elasthane!                                                                                  2) Another current season's jacket being counterfeited: This jacket was being counterfeited and made into different colors (!) and are being offered from a seller in China! And in the foreseeable future, you might see them being offered by other seller IDs on eBay from whom you have never seen selling Marni before!   If you go to eBay China, they actually have the same jacket listed there, and the seller said they do wholesales too with wide range of color selections and sizes!  I guess I really don't need to point out how phony this is and how badly the jacket is made     3) If you see a tote/ bag in this pattern, be extremely careful!  This bag on eBay are definitely fake as well: At the beginning I didn't realize this was an imitated tote to a Marni tote this season because it is so badly made and the design looks very different although the color is close; however, if you check in the Marni store, there is a bag which looks very similar to this - but of course, the one made from REAL Marni is much prettier and the pattern is in a brush-stroke, gradient effect, not like the solid checker pattern of the fakes!

D) Summary: I have had the first awareness listing up on eBay when the first fake Marni dress was being listed, and within a couple of weeks of the first fake dress being found, the counterfeit Marni's are really flooding onto eBay already!  And they are all from the 2005 F/W collections!  If you come across with these above items on eBay, please be very careful!  Last time I tried to point out what are the differences between the fake and the real Marni dress regarding to their material used and their labels on the pictures shown by the counterfeit dealers, and these counterfeit dealers have taken down their pictures from their listings which disclose such information already!  I will try to update this page as often as I could if there is any new thing I find. However, there are still a lot of other factors that you could really tell if a Marni item you are interested at is really a genuine Marni or not: Fact #1) As I have mentioned, this is NOT an amateur business of those who are producing the fake Marni products.  These counterfeit Marni's originate from factories in China, and are being offered on eBay by different seller IDs (could possibly be the same group of people actually) who claim to be located at different parts of the world, including China, Hong Kong, Australia and US.  However, at the same time, when you check the rest of the items they sell, you will discover that, they are basically selling the same stocks: especially counterfeit Marc Jacobs, counterfeit Diane Von Furstenburg, counterfeit BCBG, counterfeit Cacahrel and counterfeit Chloe... these are all the brand names that has no right owner (VeRo) on eBay so nobody is governing these fake activities.  (Try Chanel and they will probably be suspended right away!)  So please check the seller what other items they are selling, if you see a lot of the above mentioned brand names on their listings, and they offer different sizes and colors at a crazily discounted prices, chance is, the item you are looking at is a counterfeit as well. Fact #2) You might wonder how these "other" products are fake?  Believe me, I have been looking at these fakes for a long, long time already, the fake manufacturers are usually getting the current season's items copied - it is easier for them to obtain the real item from the shop or picture from the catalogue as a prototype to mass produce fakes!  From the economical stand point, fake items from current season will generate the most profit!)  Thus, when you check their listings, they usually use the runway picture right besides their fakes, just to tell you how "real" their items are!  Or even worse, they actually have their own models (whom you have never seen before in any runway show!) to dress on their fakes and pretend to be a runway photo! (Check eBay China, most of the exact same fake items - especially Marc Jacobs - poor Marc!) are being offered there.  At the same time, they never sell brand name shoes or accessories (too hard to copy, cost too much to produce, and is very hard to make them that looks alike the real!  Fact #3) Back to Marni, can you believe you could get a current season's Marni jacket that retails in store for US$1,000 now for US$289 on eBay?  and the seller even ask you to submit best offer? or that starts from US$99 with no reserve? Fact #4) Please check with any Marni store nearby you, Marni DOES NOT produce size 36 for the jacket or dress this season! Also, check the material composition of the jackets and dress with the store! The last time I tried to point out how difference is the material being used between the fakes and the real, now almost all of the fakes' seller have revised their listing on the material composition and will not provide picture of the material tag anymore!  So in the foreseeable future, you might see that they will not list up any size 36 ;)  Fact #5) If any of you could remember the picture of the material tag they show in their earlier listings, the composition % was being cut off from the tag so there is an empty hole on the material label.  Some of them claimed that the jacket is from Marni's factory, and thus the material tag was cut off - which DOES NOT make any sense at all.  I have just phoned Marni's office in Italy yesterday, and they have already confirmed that, Marni DOES NOT offer any current season's items that cannot pass their quality control out to ANYONE and will not bother to cut off just in the middle of the tag (Imagine how expensive the labor is going to be!).  Their current season's samples are NOT allowed for sales until at least two seasons after.  So you won't be seeing 2005 F/W sample on the same year of 2005!  Most importantly, Marni's factory is NOT located in China!  Fact #6) Because of the scale of economy, these fake manufacturers cannot just produce one or two pieces of fakes and make a profit on that, thus the fakes are usually being MASS-produced, this is the reason why you will see different seller IDs that offer the same fake Marni jacket, with basically the same or similar pictures (these people are really taking my comments on their listings now and have revised their pictures on eBay at the next time they list, so please check their ended auction too to the earlier pictures!)  Also, this is the reason why, you will be seeing many different color selections of the same jacket (dying a different color is cheap, but getting a different fabric and have it made into another style will raise their cost in the fakes produced!  Some color doesn't even exist in Marni! (I wonder what Consuelo thinks of the new color of her design!?) Fact #7) Always buy from a seller that you know well.  Marni is an extremely small category on eBay indeed, there are no more than 20 regular sellers here, and almost all Marni sellers know each other very well, and almost all Marni sellers can identity with each Marni buyers as well, we are a very friendly circle and thus I enjoy selling and buying of Marni so much here, if you see someone who is very new in selling Marni and is offering a lot of Marc Jacobs, BCBG, Cacharel or DVF here, it is almost confirmed that this is a counterfeit dealers, no matter what rating this seller has; if you have any concern, you are free to email any regular Marni sellers like me or other you see all the times for the past 5 years on eBay.  I am most happy to answer question!