Luxury goods manufacturers have been increasingly protective of brands, and Parisian courts have sided with homegrown companies against eBay twice now with a ruling against the online auction site in the amount of €40 million ($63 million) for its role in facilitating the trade in knockoff Louis Vuitton handbags, luggage and other accessories. Christian Dior, another brand owned by Vuitton parent LVMH, had earlier won a small judgment against eBay in French courts for the unauthorized sale of Dior perfumes — the perfumes were real, but were in breach of exclusivity agreements Dior had signed with other retailers.

"French forbidden writer" Francois Dor writes in to add that the French court of Nanterre fined him 45.000 Euros for referring to Louis Vuitton bags as being "feces and urine colored." He also notes that the Prime Minister's wife, Bernadette Chirac, is a big fan of the bags and that LVMH chief Bernard Arnault is a big fan of the Chirac administration. Conspiracy? Probably not. General stupidity? Of course.

Louis Vuitton parent company, LVMH, forced French journalist Francois Dor to shut down his website www.oedipe.net after he posted an article on the typical LV brown and gold bag, "applying some sociological significance to its 'feces and urine colors' and the fact that 'it swings close to the buttocks.'" Let me guess: the LVMH fashion fascists didn't like what he said, so it's "infringing" on their trademark.
Tempers are rising in Milan [NYPost]

The "bag of the moment" is Takashi Murakami's limited edition Louis Vuitton and because they're impossible to get, everyone wants one. Eve was sporting one at Fashion Week, and that appears to have heightened the frenzy. Ah, the power of a luxury brand to make people completely revise their fashion sense. No UES socialite would be caught dead wearing space creatures and cherry blossomsunless it's Vuitton, darling.
Coveted purses are hard to bag [NYT]