Splurge VS. Steal - Proenza Schouler PS1

The PS1 by Proenza Schouler is quite coveted and has been seen on many trendsetting starts under 30, but at $1,595 it  remains out of our reach, for most of us anyway.

The Mossimo Target look-alike at about $35 makes it possible to at least mimic the cool style.

Understandably, PS wasn't too happy about Target creating a similar version.  In a post on Cathy Horyn's New York Times blog today, Proenza designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez admitted the copy doesn't prove imitation is always the sincerest form of flattery. “Yeah, why save up and buy ours when you can buy theirs right away?” McCollough asked Horyn. The potential knockoff makes for awkward questions at a time when Proenza Schouler, who did a collection for Target's Go International collection a couple years ago, very recently signed off to let the mass retailer reissue looks for the 5-year anniversary Go "designer collective." Though the two bags aren't exactly the same, Hernandez says Target got the "attitude," "the weight," and "the slouch of the bag...really right.” At the end of the day, Shirley Cook, the company’s chief executive, admits, "It's just disappointing, especially from someone we worked with." A Target spokesman claims the company "respect[s] the intellectual property rights of others,". [Via]


Forever21 looks like they even tried to take a piece of the pie too on their bag that bares a resemblance.

Personally, I don't care for the look-a-like, I think the material of it looks cheap. What do you think? Are the two satchels too similar, or is there room for both?