A Case for Authenticity: J Crew Bubble Necklace

 I don’t like fakes.  No, this is not an angst ridden Holden Caulfield statement, I am referring to those made in China phonies that have infiltrated the market to make the consumption problem bigger.  Those products marked as if they are brand name items, but in reality they are just a cheap imitation- usually the too-good-to-be-true price tag is a huge indication.  Normally, the fakes immediately look, well… fake.  However, now knockoffs are so popular that some pirates are making products a little more difficult to detect between the real and the dupes.  As a person who has a side eBay business flipping my thrift store finds, I have become ever so studious in the art of authentication.  I pride myself in selling only originals, but as a regular thriftier I do come across many, many fakes.

You know what my biggest argument against Christianity was?  That all Christians were a bunch of hypocrites.  At the time I hadn’t met anyone who lived to the standards of Christ.  I would describe all the flaws of all the people that I knew were Christians, I didn’t see their intention in trying their best to live holy lives I just saw their shortcomings.  These weaknesses I held as enough to make my case against organized religion…  Months before my brother died he asked if he could speak to a priest, mom took him to a nearby parish and because they hadn’t scheduled an appointment and probably caught the priest of guard, he yelled at them.  He told him that he didn’t have time and if they were regular parishioners they would know to schedule an appointment and not come just whenever they NEEDED to come.  This was a real hard blow for my brother who was battling with schizophrenia and his thoughts went into interpreting this interaction as God having left him.  I was so angry with the priest because he was supposed to be Jesus and when he rejected my feeble brother – you know what they say, “mess with me, but don’t mess with my loved ones!”  In the years since, I have come to the conclusion that we all hate liars, but that I need to be less judgmental with people.  We all have bad days, we all stumble we all fall; but, the difference in a Christian is that Jesus picks us up and motivates us to try better next time.  Little by little, one fall at a time we are invited to change and become holier.  Thus, Christians are not hypocrites, they just haven’t arrived at holiness – like everyone else we are works in progress…  That priest had a bad day, a moment where he didn't live up to the Christian expectation, but I have those off days all the time so now I understand that even ordain people have flaws, but that doesn't make them phonies.

...I have digressed from my original purpose…  I love accessories and when I found my first J Crew Bubble Necklace that retailed for $150 dollars at Goodwill for $6.99 I just about passed out.  Since, I found five more and because I found two of the same color I figured I would try selling one on my eBay store.  That’s when I realized that many people where not fooled into paying the hefty price and the pirates of China capitalized on those beautiful beads.  After serious research I concluded that only one of my pieces is an original and the others are fakes.  Aww, the woe of that discovery!  Though I only paid a few bucks for each, the fact that I was lied to, that my keen eye to spot the real had been fooled made me so mad.  It was also an awakening into how big the counterfeit world has grown.  Now in addition to shoes, bags I need to learn how to spot "real" costume jewelry!  Some of you might be thinking that I am being a bit dramatic, but fakes are very harmful.  I will dedicate a future post into the world of counterfeits and the effects of it because lies no matter where are no bueno.  

But today I will go over the real J Crew Bubble Bib Necklace vs the J Smew copy.

The white one is the real $150 in 18K gold plated brass with hand-set resin cabochons and beads, the red is one of the many replicas of this iconic statement piece.  From afar both look exactly the same, but a trained eye would see difference immediately...

The chain on the white one is larger and has remained gold even though the necklace was released in 2012, the replica is much smaller, flimsier and has tarnished with age. 

The end stopper, the real one has a simple gold fixing at each end of the beads the red one has a lace-like much bigger stopper.

The back design is subtle in the real J Crew and a nice shade of gold and much more defined both in detail and yellow color in the fake one.

Finally, the clasp on a real bubble necklace is a lobster clasp and the brand name tag is round with a bit of middle rise.  The fake tag is much bigger, flat and the clasp is different. You can also see that with time the real one has kept its color while the dupe has tarnished.

I live for authenticity whether in people or the things that surround me because I know that while the differences between the real and the fake necklaces are visually subtle the cost between the two affects a whole lot of people.  In a future post I will discuss the effects of counterfeits and why the real deal is much, much better for society.  I will also add my knowledge on identifying the real deal for any authenticity nerds out there (smile).