Where do you look for designer knockoff handbags? Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown section has been the place to go for years. This week, however, the area experienced a crackdown, with the police confiscating counterfeit items like handbags and watches and shuttering businesses. Although Canal Street has this notoriety, knockoff goods can be found many other places, such as South Street in Philadelphia and the internet. With prices only a fraction of those sold at department stores, knockoff handbags almost sound like a deal. Appearances for such handbags are deceiving, however, and what appears to be a Chanel or Gucci handbag sold at $30 falls apart within a few days.

Some are luckier and swear by knockoff designer handbags. After all, they look like designer bags and, really, only the designers would be able to tell the difference. But finding a high-quality designer knockoff bag is far more likely in a department store. The fashion blog for About.com gives some hints to spot a fake handbag, but other telltale signs include examining the stitching, sewing, and name plate. If the name plate, for example, isn’t screwed on but, instead, appears glued, the bag is likely a knockoff. Similarly, if it looks poorly stitched from the inside or if the zipper gets jammed easily, the handbag isn’t authentic.

One option, as we’ve seen in the product selection for Best Handbag Wholesale, is to go the designer inspired route. The bags don’t claim to be by Coach, Chanel, or Gucci, but the patterns are based on the styles by these designers. At a distance, they even look like the real thing. Another option is to go on discounted designer websites. Often, products with damaged packaging or a slight scratch find their way onto such a website and are sold at less than full price, even at 70-percent less. Both Vision In Style and Kaufman Fragrance are such discount designer products websites.

Is there a product that isn’t endorsed by celebrities? From the top brands to Payless Shoes and Walmart, nearly every product for fashion has some sort of celebrity model or spokesperson. This, as well, applies to watches. A website lists celebrities who’ve endorsed various watches by name brand makers. The website lists celebrities, along with their respective print advertisements, who’ve been featured in ads for watch brands. While many of them are no longer A-list celebrities (would Kim Basinger or Meg Ryan sell a wrist watch today?), it shows how, over time, wrist watch brands have been endorsed by various actors, musicians, or athletes.

All of the watches pictured on the linked website above are wrist watches. Some, especially those seen on athletes, are sports watches. But, regardless, all are metal link or leather band wrist watches with a basic watch face. With the exception of a few with pink or slim wrist bands or rhinestone-encrusted watch faces, most of these endorsed watches could go either way with men or women. With celebrity endorsement, however, the watches seem directly geared toward one sex or the other. Or, on another level, a different lifestyle: glamorous or fabulous when seen on an Oscar winner or strong and powerful when seen on an athlete, even if the athlete is a race car driver.

But, as many of the advertisements appear to be from the ‘90s, many more watch styles are on the market these days. One popular style, especially for women, has been cuff watches. Cuff watches are shaped like bracelets and fit around the wrist. Similarly, bangle watches, also known as watch bracelets, are looser but still look and feel like bracelets. All have a watch face of some sort attached. For wrist watches that look like those on celebrities or cuff watches for women, various wholesale dealers, such as Time World, USA, carry similar lines of fashion watches.

Urban gear seems to float under the radar of high fashion. Even though urban gear has its high-end brands like Baby Phat and Roca Wear, the street aspect of the clothing – no one will probably be caught at the Emmys in Enyce for fear of negative criticism in the tabloids – seems to put it into a category all of itself. Although standard casual clothing has picked up urban gear aspects here or there (think of Tommy Hilfiger and Polo clothing in the late ‘90s), urban wear has gone off in its own direction with separate standards and high-end urban gear retailers, such as City Blue clothing stores in Philadelphia where Allen Iverson purportedly shopped for his look. But is this such a bad thing? Alternative fashion, at the height of flannel and Doc Martens in the early and mid-‘90s, has its own niche clothing stores, as well.

As this blog has mentioned, watches, to compete with cell phones, have begun to look like jewelry. In terms of urban fashion, this often means being covered in bling to the max. In fact, watch wholesale retailers like Time World USA even sell matching watch and pendant sets to get the bling theme across. Whether the gift recipient chooses to wear a matching watch and pendant is moot but, rather, that even men’s watches have taken on the jewelry appearance of platinum covered in “ice,” or diamond studs, often associated with urban gear.

These ice watches are essentially designed like typical urban jewelry. Whether you’re looking for a higher-end Roca Wear watch or something more affordable, this means a silver, platinum, or gold colored watch covered in rhinestones, or, for high-end watches, diamonds. The clear colored rhinestones cover all aspects of the watch, from the rim of the watch face to the dial to the band. Although diamond studs still appear to be popular, often smaller diamonds or rhinestones are used on the watches instead of a larger rock.

As discussed in a previous post, one of the ways watches can keep up with cell phones for a time-telling device is by going the route of fashion. While this isn’t entirely relevant to men’s watches, it is for women’s and, as a result, many watches to meet fashion demands are being designed like costume jewelry. Whether with multi-colored glass beads or a shiny, metallic band, these watch bracelets – or cuff watches or watch bangles, as they’re often called – are designed like any standard bracelet, except a matching watch face is included in the design. This results in such watch styles as solid cuff styles, charm bracelet watches, and thinner bangles watches.

If you’re still interested in wearing a watch these days, watch bracelets give you various fashion options to choose from, and more than one will be a sure fit for your style. What are some of the options to choose from? While the types of bracelets for watches are essentially three types based on the types of bracelet designs, the materials used are endless. One of the basic materials for watches is metal, and metal watch bracelets can include smooth, polished metal, antique-looking metal, metal with details cut out or imprinted, and metal wire bands that are often embellished by smaller objects, such as glass beads, enamel inlay, or rhinestones. Watches themselves can be designed with beads in various sizes, from large glass, plastic, or wood beads to small seed beads woven together. Plastic is another common material, and watch cuffs made from plastic include softer “jelly” plastic or hard plastic. Similar to beads, plastic can be designed with endless colors, patterns, and textures.

Many of these watch bracelets give you the option of switching bands. While one watch bracelet may not match all of your outfits, owning a few will allow you to have a fashionable bracelet for various outfits you own.

Since this blog has started, most of its focus has been on handbags but, now, as many fashion blogs focus on handbags, this blog is expanding its fashion scope. One type of product we’re focusing on is watches. But, where do watches fit in fashion and, with cell phones showing time among other things, aren’t watches somewhat anachronistic? In some sense, yes, as basic watches are now being replaced by cell phones and the average person isn’t slapping a standard black watch on his or her wrist. But, in terms of design, watches have evolved into a more fashionable product, with costume jewelry or bling styling in many cases to compete with jewelry.

For this type of watch jewelry, many watches for women are now designed to look like watch bracelets. While a thinner leather or faux leather band with a watch face is still a somewhat common feminine style watch, the watch band is being designed like a bracelet. In some cases, this means the watch band can look like a charm bracelet or a cuff bracelet with a watch face attached. Others look, instead, like beaded bracelets with many strands of large and small beads. The watch faces, in addition, are designed or embellished to match the watch band and give the watch and overall bracelet appearance.

Bling has been another option for watches to keep up with fashion. With bling and urban fashion, gaudier, with gold and diamond-looking rhinestones often, is better, and this is true of bling watches. For men and women, these bling or ice watches are bigger, and some even have caps above the watch face, and the design of the watch is covered in platinum-looking metal and diamond-like rhinestones.

Standard watches for both sexes are still options for fashion, especially as a solid, dark colored brand, like a dark colored pair of shoes, goes with nearly every outfit. Many designer watch brands still carry leather and metal band high-quality watches.