Holograms Tell Fake From Fendi
As Knock-Offs Get Better,
Makers of Luxury Goods
Reach for High-Tech Defense
Alligator skin, gold zippers and straight stitching used to set apart a bona fide Fendi bag from a knock-off. But with the quality of fake luxury goods rising, Fendi is adding another touch: holograms.
The Italian fashion house, a unit of LVMH Mo?t Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury-goods group, has been gradually stitching holograms into the lining of its handbags, boots, suits, scarves and even mink coats costing tens of thousands of dollars.
The rectangular, colored stamps, with encrypted codes visible only with a special magnifying device, are designed to help police and customs officials quickly identify whether a Fendi-branded bag is authentic. The holograms also have a wireless tracking device that allows Fendi to monitor whether a genuine product has slipped out of the company's tightly controlled distribution networks, or whether it's being sold in an unauthorized store. (The tags are deactivated when an item is sold.)
"The best way to fight [counterfeiting] is to stay ahead" of the counterfeiters, says Michael Burke, chief executive of Fendi, whose black-and-brown logo with two mirroring F's is one of the most copied labels in the world. "We want the certainty to quickly determine whether [an item is] fake."
Luxury-goods makers are using holograms to fend off knock-offs.
Fendi isn't the only luxury-goods company using holograms, though the fashion industry doesn't like to discuss it. Gucci Group -- which owns the Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta labels -- confirms that it uses similar technology. Companies are skittish about discussing their latest antitheft technology, since they've already seen signs that counterfeiters are copying them.
Holograms have been used for years to ensure authenticity of consumer goods, from tennis rackets to concert tickets. But luxury-goods firms have always believed that their innovative designs and careful craftsmanship were enough to distinguish exclusive wares from fakes.
That's changing. Over the past few years, as counterfeiters have become more sophisticated, the quality of their products have improved. Today, many fake handbags are made of good leather, packaged elaborately and sold (usually unwittingly) in high-end accessories stores. French fashion house Louis Vuitton, also a unit of LVMH, acknowledges that copies of its handbags are sometimes so good that consumers realize they're fake only when they take them into the company's boutiques for repairs.
In addition to holograms, some luxury-goods firms are experimenting with infrared and ultraviolet inks that can be applied directly to products. The ink is invisible but can be seen under a particular reader; if police or customs officials don't see the tell-tale ink, it's a fake.
Security experts say holograms are difficult, and expensive, to copy. Holograms are made with heavy, expensive machines that create patterns using laser beams. The holograms often include bar codes, images or numbers that are visible only under a special forensic machine.
It costs �15,000, or about $18,000, to create a hologram's encrypted image plus a few cents for each copy tagged onto products. For fashion houses, that represents "one euro out of a thousand, but for [counterfeiters] it's one euro out of 10," says Marc-Antoine Jamet, who is general secretary of LVMH and serves as the head of France's Union des Fabricants, which lobbies for anticounterfeiting measures.
A hologram tag inside a Fendi wallet and on a scarf (above).
Still, even luxury-goods executives admit holograms aren't fool-proof. "Holograms are better than nothing, but they are already being copied," says Claudio di Sabato, head of security at Italian fashion house Prada Group NV.
Indeed, police in Naples said they recently uncovered a warehouse with photocopiers used to create fake holograms -- with the basic design but without the deep colors and multidimensional images -- for counterfeit handbags. And a Fendi saleswoman recently said she had already seen a bogus Fendi handbag complete with a hologram.
It's also unclear what effect the holograms will have on consumers. Most women who buy from carts on New York City's Canal Street and roadside stalls around the world know they're buying a knock-off -- and don't care.
For customers who do care, luxury-goods experts say the holograms should allow consumers who buy from secondary retailers or from used-goods stores in the hopes of getting a good deal, to know whether the product is authentic. But "if the consumer doesn't know how the product or hologram should look, they will be fooled," says Angie Houston, who operates a Web site, mypoupette.com, to educate consumers about how to find real Louis Vuitton products.
"I wouldn't ever base my purchase on a hologram," says Ashley Bates, a 35-year-old graphic designer in Boca Raton, Fla.
Still, Fendi hopes that the added complexity of its holograms and the fact that customs officials and police can smoke out fakes more efficiently will provide an extra deterrent against counterfeiting. The technology is considered so valuable at Fendi that only two people at the company know the codes behind the encrypted holograms.
全息防伪：打假领域显身手
鳄鱼皮、金制拉锁、直针缝都是正品Fendi皮包用来区别于赝品的特征。然而由于仿冒品的做工越来越精细，Fendi正在开始采用一种新的防伪技术：全息防伪。
这家时装公司是全球最大的奢侈品集团LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton旗下的企业。公司正逐步在其手袋、靴子和服装的衬里处加上全息防伪标记，甚至售价3.7万欧元的貂皮大衣也不例外。
它是一个长方形的彩色标签，上面的密码只有使用特殊的放大仪器才能看到。这种全息防伪标签可以帮助警察和海关官员迅速识别Fendi的正品和赝品。另外，防伪标签上还有一个无线跟踪设备，Fendi可以用它来监控是否有商店在未被授权的情况下销售Fendi产品。
“打击假冒产品的最好办法就是走在制假者的前面，”Fendi首席执行长迈克尔?伯克(Michael Burke)说，我们希望能够迅速鉴别产品的真伪。Fendi那个两个“F”字母头脚相对的品牌标识是全球遭抄袭最多的商标之一。
虽然时尚界都不愿讨论这个问题，但Fendi决不是唯一一家使用全息防伪的公司。拥有Gucci、Yves Saint Laurent和Bottega Veneta品牌的Gucci Group表示它也使用了类似的技术。各家公司在讨论它们采用的最新防伪技术时总有些躲躲闪闪，因为他们发现造假者正亦步亦趋地跟在后面。
全息防伪技术已经使用了多年，从网球拍到音乐会门票等各类消费产品都用它来区分真伪。只不过奢侈品公司一直都对自己产品的创新设计和精细做工充满信心，认为这就足以将它们与仿制品区分开来。
如今这种观点发生了变化。在过去的几年中，造假者变得越来越老道，假冒产品的质量也在不断提高。如今，一些假冒的手袋都用真皮制造，包装精美，被堂而皇之地摆在高端饰品店出售。
同为LVMH旗下企业的法国时装公司路易-威登(Louis Vuitton)也承认，假冒该公司品牌的手袋做工十分精制，有时候消费者只是在将手袋拿到专卖店修理时才发现是假的。
更多信息
? 仿冒品：造的、卖的一锅端为了防止造假者偷学制作工艺，奢侈品公司对他们的供应商和工厂实施了十分严格的控制。它们同时也在寻找新途径来打击造假者。其中一个策略就是诉诸法律，不仅销售假货的零售商会成为被告，就连向这些零售商出租店铺的业主也要受到牵连。上月，纽约市坚尼街(Canal Street)的18名业主同意在零售店门口张贴警示标牌，声明这家店主没有获得销售路易-威登产品的授权，如果店主这样做了，房主将把他清除出去。
而对于产品本身，最新的防伪策略就是从技术上做文章。De La Rue Holographics是一家为欧元钞票提供全息防伪的英国公司。公司表示它也为几家奢侈品公司提供了服务，但由于签署了保密协议，它拒绝透露具体公司的名字。新加坡的Singular ID也是一家开发全息防伪等识别技术的公司，它认为欧洲的奢侈品行业是一个前景广阔的新市场，并计划在意大利北部地区设立一家子公司。
除了全息防伪外，一些奢侈品公司还在试验使用红外线和紫外线油墨，它们能够直接用在手袋、香水瓶等产品上。这种油墨用肉眼是无法分辨出来的，只能依靠特殊的读取设备。如果警察或是海关官员找不到这些墨迹，就可以认定眼前的是赝品。
防伪专家称，全息防伪标签很难复制，成本也较高。它用到一种昂贵的机器，这种机器能用激光光束印制出图案，全息防伪标签上通常印有条形码、图像或是数字，只有借助一种特殊的仪器才能看到这些图案。
制作一个全息加密图案须花费近15,000欧元（合近18,000美元），而在产品中印上这种图案每次又要再花费几美分。“对于时装公司而言，这意味著从一千欧元成本中拿出一欧元，而对于制假者，则意味著从10欧元成本中拿出1欧元，”LVMH的秘书长马克-安托万?雅梅(Marc-Antoine Jamet)说，他还是法国Union des Fabricants的负责人，该组织旨在推广各种防伪方法。
Fendi产品上的全息防伪图案以一个大双“F”为主，周围环绕一圈小的双“F”标识。Fendi还在全息防伪标签的背后贴上了一个跟踪芯片，用来监控是否有正品从公司严格控制的分销网络中流出去。
不过，即便是奢侈品公司的管理人士也承认，全息防伪并非完美无瑕。意大利时装公司Prada Group NV防伪负责人萨巴托(Claudio di Sabato)称，有总比没有好，但已经有人在仿制这些全息防伪标签了。
实际上，那不勒斯专门调查造假和逃税的警察称，他们最近在一个仓库发现了用于制作假全息防伪标签的复印机，这些标签的基本图案与真的标签相同，但没有深的颜色和多维图案。
Fendi一位发言人近期也表示，她已经发现了带有全息防伪标签的假冒Fendi手袋。
目前尚不清楚全息防伪标签会对消费者产生怎样的影响。其实多数在路边小店购买奢侈品牌的人都知道买的是赝品，但他们毫不介意，因此有没有全息防伪标签对他们而言根本无关紧要。
不过，奢侈品牌专家表示，有了全息防伪标签，那些从二级零售商或二手商店购买名牌商品的消费者就会知道他们购买的是否是正品了。
当然前提是他们知道如何用它来鉴别。经营mypoupette.com网站的休斯敦(Angie Houston)说，如果消费者不知道正品或是全息防伪标签的模样，他们可能就会上当受骗。
她说，即便是有了全息防伪标签，对于没有受过培训的普通消费者而言，赝品仍有可能以假乱真。
佛罗里达州35岁的图形设计师贝茨(Ashley Bates)说，我不会单凭全息防伪标签就贸然出手，她说唯一一种能避免买到假冒品的方法就是去该品牌自己的店面购买。
不过，由于全息防伪增加了仿制正品的复杂性、同时也让警察和海关官员能更高效地查出假冒商品，Fendi希望藉此能给造假者形成更多的威慑。Fendi十分重视全息防伪，全公司只有两个人知道加密防伪标签的代码。
