Real or Replica?

Arren Williams blogged today about a great new e-magazine out of Australia called Est.  In particular, he  pointed out their wonderful article called Real or Replica which compares the real Eames DAW chair to a replica.  I completely agree that the real thing is infinitely preferable to a knock-off, and that the latter is not only a poor shadow of the former, but usually a cheap insult to boot.  Arren urges design students to avoid knock-offs, saying even "great affordable design" from places like Ikea or West Elm is so much better than a cheap imitation.  On the whole I agree, but what about a quality knock-off instead of a cheap and boring chair when there is no way to attain the real thing?  What do you guys think?

The Est piece then has some gorgeous photos of the real Eames chairs styled in a variety of ways that are beautifully done:

The last one is my favourite - I love all the black accents that are so popular these days with the natural brown and red.  

So what do you think - do you go real or replica?

EST photos are by Toby Scott and Styled by Amey Rosenthal.