AKMV Are the BAMAIN items from Dubai “fake”?
These days we stayed in a hotel in Paris opposite a multi-story BALMAIN Paris store. That reminded me of the BALMAIN store in Dubai, located in the well-known Dubai Marina Mall, which at first glance looks very credible (right next to Dior), so you wouldn’t suspect anything. On the contrary, they lure you in with 70% discounts.
If you look more closely at the tags on their products, you’ll notice the goods are not made in Europe, but in Asian countries (China), and there are grammatical errors on the tags (a T-shirt labeled as “Tee shirt,” a women’s T-shirt marked as “men”). This already tells you something because on world-renowned brands like BALMAIN Paris, this shouldn’t happen. But who checks tags nowadays, especially when shopping in a well-known mall next to Dior?
After paying, they pack your items in plastic bags—no boxes tied with a ribbon, no subsequent #unboxing on Instagram.
We were curious in the office how such a store could operate when selling “fake” products is strictly prohibited in the UAE. Are these really counterfeits? So we contacted the BALMAIN brand in Paris through their official website balmain.com and received the following response:
„The BALMAIN GROUP has nothing to do with the store you mentioned; We are not sleing (note: likely a typo, meant ‘selling’) MEN’S ITEM and do not manufacture in PRC.
It seems that these goods are manufactured and marketed by another local operator, distinct from our House, who had been assigned rights over the BALMAIN brand for menswear only (note: this likely explains why they sell women’s T-shirts labeled as ‘men’) for the UAE and was supposed to run its business under its own responsibility. It has come to our attention that this operator has significantly breached the rights of our House – including telling its clients that its products were manufactured by our House, which is not the case – as a result of which we have referred the matter to the relevant authorities.” (source: email communication contact@customercare.balmain.com)
In our further communication, the fashion house PIERRE BALMAIN S.A.S. also informed us about ongoing litigation with this seller: “PIERRE BALMAIN S.A.S. has opened a litigation process for some months against this company before courts and cannot share any information with customers, because of the confidentiality of the court actions, but please rest assured that legal steps have been taken.” (source: email communication contact@customercare.balmain.com)
Conclusion:
If we have understood correctly, this seller probably has some authorization to sell exclusively men’s clothing in the United Arab Emirates under the BALMAIN brand, but these are not products of the BALMAIN Paris brand, which are produced by the fashion house PIERRE BALMAIN S.A.S. in Paris.
Recommendation
Please note that if you search for BALMAIN stores in Dubai, besides the one mentioned in Dubai Marina Mall, you will find others with similar goods. Therefore, we recommend purchasing only from stores listed on the fashion house’s official website. “Please kindly note that in the UAE, our House markets ladieswear and kidswear only in our flagship store as mentioned in our online store locator at https://www.balmain.com/storelocator/us/#search/country/ae.” (source: email communication contact@customercare.balmain.com)
Of course, we also recommend carefully inspecting the products, including information about where they were made (“made in”).