In a country where counterfeit bags are a tourist attraction, it can be difficult to know if yours is the real deal – although buying it out of the back of a car isn’t a good start. TOAD spoke to authentication professionals to find out how to spot a genuine fake bag.
The Luxury Closet is an online business that distributes pre-loved designer items to new homes. It’s imperative that their buyers know their Christians apart (Louboutin to Lacroix), and their couture from their Karama.
The highly-trained staff at The Luxury Closet all have backgrounds working with designer labels. Head of buying, Catherine Travers, says, ‘We receive an insane amount of fake Chanel and Louis Vuitton products, and we check every bag against our database. We have a huge database of stock, which we have built up over the past two years. If bags don’t pass our process to a tee, we won’t take them. We’re also in contact with brand experts all over the world, so if we ever doubt anything, we will check with them because all they do is study top brands and their manufacturing.’
Each product goes through a strict authentication process before the company will accept it. Catherine explains some of the initial steps they take to identify a counterfeit product. She says, ‘We make sure the material is the quality it’s supposed to be. We also check the seams line up with the material, which you see on genuine bags, as it’s important the labels and stitching line up.
‘The next thing we look at is the logo, to ensure the fonts are correct, evenly spaced and as they are supposed to be on an authentic bag.
‘Some brands come with an authenticity card, and some brands such as Louis Vuitton bags don’t. In that case, if we get one that has a card, we know it’s fake. It’s the same with Hermès Birkin– we get them in all the time with all this additional stuff and we know the real ones don’t come with all that.
‘You can easily tell if a Burberry bag is genuine because of the spacing of the plaid. There are a variety of bags where the trim is the wrong colour, too, like on this Louis Vuitton,’ she adds, showing us a counterfeit Tivoli bag.
Tivoli by Louis Vuitton
Catherine compares the counterfeit Tivoli bag with an authentic one.
‘Louis Vuitton bags have a date code, and the most recent styles have two letters and four numbers,’ she says. ‘The two letters signify the factory where it was made; all Louis Vuitton bags are made in France, Italy, Spain or the United States. The four numbers signify the week and year that it was made, so the first and the third number go together and the second and fourth go together. The first and third refer to the week, while the second and fourth mean the year.
‘If you put the two bags next to each other, you can tell the quality is different immediately. The colour is wrong on the fake bag and the leather is not the same quality as the real bag. The quality and colour of the hardware should be uniform, but on this counterfeit you can see the colour of the zip is different. Also, the font is wrong here – and it’s spaced incorrectly – we can see on the embossing that it is just not right.’
One common trick Catherine explains is the ‘authentic’ tags, ironically. ‘An authentic Louis Vuitton bag will never have a tag on the outside – they don’t come with a leather swatch or authenticity tags.’
Birkin by Hermès
Catherine talks us through how she identifies one of the most iconic bags in the world, the Birkin. ‘A genuine Birkin bag is worth around Dhs50,000,’ she says. ‘They’re amazing – they take about 40 hours to make and they are all hand-stitched.
‘One of the telltale signs of a Hermès bag is the stitching; a genuine bag will not have perfect stitching because it’s hand done.’ Catherine gestures towards the counterfeit bag. ‘On this counterfeit,’ she explains, ‘You can tell the stitching is done on a machine.
‘Also, with a Birkin, it’s all about the hardware. If you put the bags side by side you see the studs are on top of the stitching and again, the logo’s size and font are wrong – it’s much more squashed than on the authentic one. Also a noticeable point is the fabric – you can see the fabric on a Birkin is soft, whereas it’s not at all on the fake. Generally, the most obvious feature is the stitching.’
Flap Bag by Chanel
Flap Bags are one of The Luxury Closet’s most sought-after items, and Catherine says she gets plenty of counterfeit ones through the door.
She says, ‘Chanel flap bags only come in two finishes, lamskin or caviar. The lamskin looks smooth and supple and some of the fake ones just look plastic-y. The stitching should also line up on the back pocket.
‘All Chanel bags have a serial number; this style is a sticker on the inside. Every bag has a unique serial number – the first two numbers signify the year in which it was made – so we check the font of that serial number and the finish of the sticker.
‘Fakes are never in fashion. As it’s an unregulated black market, we don’t know whether the producers support child labour or other ethically questionable methods. When you buy counterfeit bags, you don’t know what you are supporting. ’
So, why not treat yourself to a genuine bag from The Luxury Closet? We have already put our orders in…
www.theluxurycloset.com
Talks with The Luxury Closet
TOAD sat down with the founder of The Luxury Closet, Kunal Kapoor
Can you explain how the concept works?
The Luxury Closet is like a high-end marketplace. We take care of the entire process for sellers, we are responsible for ensuring the items are secure and authentic, that the items are sold and the money given to them.
We get requests to find special items – for example one client is looking for a Bvlgari piece to complete a collection, she came to us and we managed to find the piece for her.
It’s a great destination for collectors, and a great place for people to buy their first luxury item.
How did it all begin?
Prior to starting The Luxury Closet, I worked for Louis Vuitton. I was showered with requests for discounts every day, by family and friends, but unfortunately high-end brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Dior don’t offer discounts at all, which disappointed them.
I began looking to make the move from Louis Vuitton, as I wanted to start a business. I started exploring the idea to see if such a thing could be done. I then realised that this concept had been successfully done in the US at the time and some South East Asian countries.
I had to make the decision between retail or online sales. We made the decision to go online and enjoyed our first month of sales in January 2012. I started very small; I made the website myself and began with 50 items.
Where do you source products for The Luxury Closet?
At first, I contacted clients who I thought may be interested in selling their items, and then scaled the business from there – we have around 4,000 items now, so it has grown considerably since then.
We deal with a lot of small sellers, who sell one or two items, but we also deal with large sellers known families in the Middle East who give us their entire collection. We have had cases where we have someone come to us and say, ‘Look, I have 1,500 bags which I have collected over the years that I don’t really use anymore.’ These are often limited edition pieces and collectors’ items
