A List of Perfidious Fakes
This is a resource to help identify specific fake items that are difficult to identify.
Terms
Grey Goods – Grey Goods are items that shouldn’t be in the hands of a consumer, but are. This includes things stolen off the line by employees at the manufacturing factory, extra items made by the factory without the knowledge or consent of the designer and sold without the knowledge or consent of the designer (and without paying the designer their cut), items that the designer said were incorrect and wanted destroyed which were sold or donated instead of being destroyed, etc. These items are generally not considered legitimate items.
Fake / Counterfeit / Replica (in lolita) – An item made using another companies intellectual property. Ex: fabric printed with art that is copyrighted, items made by one person with someone else’s tag sewn in to trick consumers, items with a brand name on them that isn’t the brand that made them.
B-Grade items / Seconds – Items which have some form of damage. If you are rating items by quality, these get a “B” or a “2” instead of “A” or a “1”. If they have been given over to the designer, and sold by the designer, or the designer has authorized the sale of them, they are totally legit. No items on this page, to the extent of my knowledge are legitimate B-Grade items that the designer has allowed to be sold. Counterfeiters often lie and say items that are 100% fake are overstock, or B-Grade “real” items and that is how they can sell them for cheap.
Overstock / Deadstock – Items which didn’t sell and are sometimes sold to another retail establishment to make them go away. Most lolita brands use luckypacks to get rid of their deadstock.
Angelic Pretty Cardigans (Fakes/Grey Goods)
A seller on taobao was claiming these were factory seconds and sold them several years after the release date. Regardless of if they are or not, they were unauthorized for sale. That said, they do NOT have the correct Angelic Pretty tags.
How to spot:
- Item does not have the brand tag
- Wash tag says Angelic Pertty, not angelic Pretty (r and e swapped in pretty)
- Item number is incorrect. In the hot pink example, this is supposed to be Polka Dot Knit Cardigan, Item number: 122NK3-15103 (https://lolibrary.org/items/ap-polka-dot-knit-cardigan) or Milky Way Knit Cardigan/ item number:122NK2-15101 (https://lolibrary.org/items/ap-milky-way-knit-cardigan). In the light pink example, it’s supposed to be Cutlery Embroidery Knit Bolero, Item Number: 112NK1-15085 (https://lolibrary.org/items/ap-cutlery-embroidery-knit-bolero) But the tag is for Vintage Sailor Knit Cardigan / Item Number: 122NK3-15102 (https://lolibrary.org/items/ap-vintage-sailor-knit-cardigan) for all of them.
The source for the hot pink items was this thread on rufflechat, reproduced here only for educational purposes / due to FB being terrible for search. Star cardigan images taken from Depop for educational purposes only. (Thank you to Noeru for sending in the light pink photos)
Fake Angelic Pretty Belle Epoque Rose OP
How to spot:
- The buttons are flatter and more daisy shaped than rose shaped
- Some of the lace trim is different
- The item number on the tag is for the 2011 JSK release of sweet cream house (note the J prefix). The legitimate item should have item number O-3685
This seems to be a continuation of the same scam as the knitwear. The counterfeiter understands the items should have tags, but they don’t understand that the tags are unique to each dress. I would not be surprised if they started out making replicas of country of sweets and just keep using the same tags.
Fake AP Bunny Rings
May have come into production prior to 2012, but were definitely for sale in 2012.
May have come from the shop Shirley Deer.
May also exist with a glitter ring base.
These are widely in circulation as real.
How to spot a fake
All of the replicas seem to specifically be based on the June 2009 version of the ring which has fewer face stitches than the earlier releases, but there are legitimate rings with the fewer stitches.
The sax ring base seems to be a more saturated / brighter shade of sax on the fake and a more muted pastel on the real ring.
The light pink ring base with black spots is likely a tell, no record of a legitimate ring in that color way has been found so far.
Lastly, replicas may have the the inner ear pink pieces of acrylic on the wrong ears. The longer piece should touch the bow. The shorter piece should be on the ear without a bow. This is the easiest tell.
Special thanks to eevee.berry who submitted the closeups.
Innocent World Bag (Fake)
Copy of the Ribbon Biscuit Bag.
How to spot a fake:
- No internal IW tag
- Hearts on the lower corner details are too large, there should be two sizes of heart punches, the fake uses the same size in both places.
AP Cross Bag (Fake)
Fake version of Milky Cross Bag.
Fake AP Rosette Bag
Fake version of Chocolate Rosette 3-way bag. Fake has incorrect lining / no tag. Lining should have Angelic Pretty printed in cursive and bow tag.
Fake Melty Moon Bag
Fake of Melty Moon Bag. Fake has the wrong hardware. Zipper charm should be a small, solid star. Fake has a large star outline.
Present Ribbon Pochette (Fake)
Fakes do not have an inner Angelic Pretty Tag.
Sweet Cream Shoes (Fake/Grey Goods)
Labeled by clobba as not able to be sold to Japan…. and Clobba was doing group orders for secret shop shoes at the time. Fake or grey goods version of AP’s Sweet Cream Shoes. I personally do not know any reliable way to identify these. The ones Clobba bought mostly sold to the western comm.
Dream Sky “factory replica” (Fake/Grey Goods)
Due to how random and inconsistent the use of “correct” vs “incorrect” parts are, This likely is a grey goods item cobbled together from the extra stuff the factory had after a run, but it’s not 100% guaranteed. Please note that if an item doesn’t make it into the brand’s hands before sale, it’s not considered legit.
JSK was sold for 690 Chinese Yuan There seem to be variations on this as far as if it has the correct lace or not. Most seem to have the AB Hearts instead of the star beads on the straps. At least one (Oo Jia’s copy she used to make AP replicas from) popped up that actually does have the right lace.
The same seller sold other prints, but little information is available.
Fake Dream Marine
Information taken from this post.
Fake Holy Lantern Set
Holy Lantern Zipper JSK and bow set, based on one of the releases of this legitimate set.
Tells for this set include the fact that there is no small purple AP tag on the back of the headbow, and that the lace pattern is slightly different between the real and the fake. The largest tell for this specific dress is that the tag is the tag for the [MTO] Misty Sky Brilliant Color OP Set which has the item number PST-210166 and lists the materials for that dress, not this dress. Notably missing is the fiber content for the flocking material which is present on legitimate tags.
Comparison information from this thread which also has many legitimate tag photos.
Fake Angelic Pretty Misty Sky Brilliant Color OP Set
This very likely exists and would have the tag seen in the above Holy Lantern Zipper JSK. Except for this one, the item number would match.
General Angelic Pretty Tags
Top is fake, bottom is real
Top was potentially taken from a cheaper item and sewn in to a fake dress, note the crease in the center of the tag.
Fake Usakumya with Baby Tag
This is suspected to be in circulation as several sold on LM.
Best indication is the texture of the Baby tag, as the ribbon on older Usakumya can be shiny