
How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video] - tlrobinson
https://youtube.com/watch?v=jolbYvAMorY
======
ryandrake
Ive always truly believed that gullibility was one of humanity’s biggest, most
exploitable weaknesses, if not the biggest. You can fake your way into almost
anything with confidence and basic acting. I’m reminded of the folk wisdom
about simply holding a clipboard and acting like you belong can get you into
private areas of 90% of companies. All the fraud people fall for, all the
scams, obvious phishing, you’d think we’d start educating people to be more
skeptical/cynical but it keeps happening.

When I was much, much younger back in the 90s and obsessed with video games, I
faked my way into one of the major industry gatherings which I won’t name,
simply by pretending to be a “games journalist” and acting the part. A pack of
fun looking business cards, a fake web site, and a cheap silk shirt was all it
took. It’s incedible what people believe if you don’t break the air of
sincerity. This was a harmless prank, but I can see how tempting it is to use
this power for evil, and it’s evidenced by the fact that so much fraud
continues to be successful.

How, besides education, do we turn off this trust-by-default gene? It’s really
an evolutionary dead end.

~~~
aesto
Trust-by-default is pretty much the definition of social capital, which is
thought to be incredibly important for a functioning society. Basically, it's
more efficient to trust people and be exploited once in a while, than to never
trust anyone, which would lead to high transaction costs for any social
interaction. Short intro by Robert Putnam, the big cheese in the field:
[http://robertdputnam.com/bowling-alone/social-capital-
primer...](http://robertdputnam.com/bowling-alone/social-capital-primer/)

~~~
Joe-Z
Exactly. The other day I was carrying 2 relatively heavy boxes (furniture; I
just moved into a new place) and suddenly a guy comes up to me and asks if he
can help me. At first I was kind of flabbergasted, but after a second I was
like 'he's just trying to be nice' and gave him one of the boxes. We carried
it until we arrived at my apartment complex and had a nice chat along the way.
When we arrived we exchanged numbers, since I learned he was new in the city
and looking to meet new people and improve his language skills.

If my mum knew about this she'd probably think I'm crazy, being afraid of
someone running off with her stuff. But in the end I think "trust-by-default"
is a good way of going about life and meeting new people. Also, there's still
gut-feeling. Maybe I'm an outlier there but I'm pretty quick in determining if
someone is being sincere or just sweet-talking me to get what he/she wants.

~~~
ionforce
> Maybe I'm an outlier there but I'm pretty quick in determining if someone is
> being sincere or just sweet-talking me to get what he/she wants.

Personally, I feel the same way. But it's illogical. What data do you have
that you're good at ferreting the genuine from the not?

~~~
Joe-Z
I of course don‘t have data to back this up. But, I think, a lot of it comes
down to how you approach these sorts of situations. According to my
experience, how open you are - and stay - in kind-of-sketchy situations will
get you a long way in dealing with people that others might have just written
off as „someone trying to scam me“.

That actually reminded me of a really cool poscast episode I listened to this
week:

[https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/long-
distance](https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/long-distance)

(A guy trying to get to the bottom of an indian call-center scam, leading to
all sorts of pleasant interactions along the way)

~~~
deadmetheny
The second part of that episode is in no way pleasant - in particular when
they met the two scammers at the bar. Their flippancy could have very easily
led to a much worse ending than it did.

[https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/103-long-distance-
part...](https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/103-long-distance-part-
ii#episode-player)

~~~
Joe-Z
I know, I know... I wasn‘t referring to this part as being pleasant :)

------
acconrad
My wife and I went to Paris for our anniversary and we didn't realize until we
were there that it was Fashion Week.

I am genuinely not surprised at all that this guy made it to the top.

Streetwear has become so ironic because the lines have blurred between haute
culture/high fashion and bargain basement designs that you genuinely can't
tell what is $800 (Balenciaga Triple S [https://www.balenciaga.com/us/triple-
s-shoes_cod11271302nb.h...](https://www.balenciaga.com/us/triple-s-
shoes_cod11271302nb.html)) and what is $55 (Nike Air Monarch
[https://www.nike.com/t/air-monarch-iv-lifestyle-gym-shoe-
lPt...](https://www.nike.com/t/air-monarch-iv-lifestyle-gym-shoe-lPtRrS))
unless you know the brands and styles.

~~~
StrictDabbler
That Balenciaga is an absurd shoe. It's the running shoe equivalent of a Gaudi
hotel facade. It looks like it belongs on the cover of Yellow Submarine. The
lines are crazy. The curves of the sole section near the front of the shoe are
in a complicated dialogue with the curves near the back.

Check those tangents, man. If you've ever used something like illustrator,
imagine where the spline controls would be. Then try the same with the Nike.
They're different.

I wouldn't pay $800 for those shoes because for me, $800 is a lot of money. If
I were megarich and I needed sneakers maybe I'd pick the Balenciaga out of an
appreciation for how they're pushing the edges of sneaker space. I'd be more
likely to buy nice leather shoes because they'd suit me better.

The reason you can't tell the difference between that and a generic sneaker
for middle-aged men is that you're used to the higher fashion brands using a
separate set of cultural symbols as their baseline instead of looking at the
design itself. We've gone past that. Rich people aren't wearing wingtips to
show how rich they are anymore.

In fact, "formal" clothing and couture has long been a way to show you're on
the way up, not that you're there. Old money doesn't try to keep up with
fashion.

Rich people want to wear sneakers, t-shirts, jeans, hoodies, and all the other
normal sportswear that everybody else now wears but they want it to be
interesting instead of generic. That's a valid role for a fashion designer.
Not addressing that market would be idiotic.

The reason it's easy to fake your way to the top of fashion week is actually
that 90% of everything is shit, in every field and at every level, so there's
no way to look at a given person's stuff and say definitively "nope, I can
clearly tell you aren't successful by the way your clothing designs look". You
might kick Michael Kors out by accident.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
I don't think anyone wears those shoes. They're just for sneakerheads to
collect. Then it's just a game of telling people what they should desire.

~~~
dorkwood
I only found out about Balenciaga recently, and since then I’ve seen two
people wearing their gear: a young guy wearing their shoes, and a young girl
wearing one of their sweaters. My theory is that they’re status symbols for
kids with rich parents.

------
danielw68
He also faked his way to creating a #1 ranked restaurant on Trip Advisor.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqPARIKHbN8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqPARIKHbN8)

~~~
denzil_correa
TripAdvisor's response to it was

> Most fraudsters are trying to manipulate rankings of real restaurants. It
> doesn't reflect the real world as the restaurant itself was fake

The video was very cool though.

~~~
lozenge
Considering how much money is on the line, it's laughable to think they can
prevent fake reviews of real restaurants.

------
tabs_masterrace
Well he made a website advertising his brand name, then went to what is
essentially a fashion conference, showed up professionally, dressed as
designer with cards, and they let him in?

Isn't that what you expect/hope for?

~~~
tashoecraft
Id?

~~~
pjc50
Why? People don't routinely ID one another in social interactions.

~~~
posamari
I imagine earlier commenter suggested that fashion conference organisers
should ID attendants on entry, this is a routine practice at many events.

What do you mean?

~~~
alphakappa
If Georgio Paviani was real, it could also be a pseudonym for a real human
being, in which case there would be no ID that you could show. Pretty sure
Lady Gaga's driver license doesn't use that name.

------
jimmies
I used to watch "Nathan for you" which is the somewhat comedic version of the
business hacking theme. The difference is that the main protagonist did not
always succeed. But when he got lucky and it worked, it was funny as shit.

My favorite episode is the best buy tv episode.

~~~
ric2b
Nathan for you is absolutely hilarious and brilliant. He has quite a few
incomplete episodes on youtube if anyone wants to check it out. For example:
[https://youtu.be/xMW-SzZKJ-Q](https://youtu.be/xMW-SzZKJ-Q)

------
buboard
Then again this is the world of fashion where reality doesn't matter, it's all
about perception, brand and connections. His restaurant prank is even better.
It would be impossible to keep up these feats for a length of time , but
nevertheless it is impressive how he pulls them off.

~~~
logfromblammo
My hypothesis is that _everybody_ fakes their way into Fashion Week. It's all
one giant LARP event that somehow spun out of control, and now nobody knows
how it manages to keep going all by itself without any GMs, or how to stop it,
if there were somehow an emergency that required it to not take place.

Now go re-read the Verge article or watch the video, presuming that _everybody
is faking_ , and see if the hypothesis can be falsified at any point.

The part where he gets the badge? _That 's just some person with a badge
printer, playing the part of the registrar._

That part where he's trying to convince Italians that he's Italian? _They 're
not Italian either._ "Oh, _of course_ I'll speak English to you, another
completely genuine Italian person, _for the sake of your photographer,
obviously_."

It's sort of surreal, actually. Because then you can expand the hypothesis
outside of Fashion Week, and it never stops.

~~~
TeMPOraL
God, this comment is so good, I'm favouriting it.

It resonates though. I suppose many of us sometimes feel that we aren't the
professionals we seem, that we're just faking and role-playing to the best of
our ability, and somehow things turn out ok. Then there's a view that this
applies to most adults, from janitors to leaders of nations, and the whole
world is just one big fake fest...

~~~
ericb
I agree, great comment. I'd favourite it too, but how does one favorite an
individual comment on HN?

~~~
DanBC
Click the timestamp of the comment to take you to a page that has a few more
menu options- flag / unflag, favourite, etc.

Your list of favourited comments is at the bottom of your profile page.

~~~
ericb
Thanks!

------
Palomides
article/non-video version of the same(?) content:
[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59d8v5/i-bullshitted-
my-w...](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59d8v5/i-bullshitted-my-way-to-
the-top-of-paris-fashion-week)

~~~
crtasm
Fun piece, it's not just the initial blag but the escalation to being invited
(without asking) to a private view and getting to swan about in a designer
dress.

The he tracks down the closest thing to the real Georgio Peviani.

------
bliblah
Reminds me of when someone got backstage to the Conor McGregor and Floyd
Mayweather press event and filmed the process.

source:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PL1BC1s8CQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PL1BC1s8CQ)

~~~
cf498
Reading this, I have to mention Jayson Streets social engineering talks.

I am still sad that the superball walk in with a ladder was fake.

------
kelvin0
When a 'joker' can make 'experts' look like idiots, you have to wonder about
the relevance of the subject matter (in this case haute couture in Paris).

------
kreeWall
This guy also has one where he made a #1 restaurant that didn't exist -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqPARIKHbN8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqPARIKHbN8)

------
victor106
impressive. but to be honest for a guy with white skin and blue eyes its not
that hard to fake your way into the fashion week.

~~~
edgarvaldes
More about being somewhat young, handsome and charismatic. White skin and blue
eyes sure helps, but to some extent only.

------
hi41
That was fun. Few years back a couple faked their way to President Obama's
dinner at the Whitehouse. I think confidence is supremely important. I can't
fake like this. I would get caught just by my looks when I lie.

------
silveira
One day he will become president somewhere.

~~~
buboard
you may jest, but yeah, charisma is not an absolutely positive quality, and
Democracies depend too much on emotion

