How to Spot a Fake Balenciaga Bag

The Leather
One of the reasons Balenciaga handbags are so popular is because they are made from some of the softest, thinnest, and most lightweight leather available. Once you’ve touched a Balenciaga handbag, you will be instantly “hooked”! The leather is very thin, but extremely durable. The type of leather used by Balenciaga is a very distressed looking type of leather. Every bag has a unique appearance. You’ll find lines, wrinkles, folds and smooth spots all over the bag’s body. No two Balenciaga bags look identical.

Most of the fake bags are made from cheap leather, which has a shiny and stiff appearance to it. The leather on the fake bags looks more “cracked” than distressed.

Look closely at the fake bag’s appearance. See how shiny it is? An authentic Balenciaga bag doesn’t have this much shine to the bag. You’ll also notice that the bag’s material appears more “cracked” rather than distressed. Almost as if those lines were intentionally put there:

The leather on the fake bag is too even and structured. It looks the same all over the bag. An authentic Balenciaga will usually “collapse” when empty. This is because the leather is so thin and soft, whereas the fake bags tend to hold their shape even when they’re not stuffed.

Here is a close up comparing the leather of an authentic bag to the “leather” of a fake bag.

When you look at it this way, the differences in the appearance & texture of the leather, become much more apparent. You can actually see the stiffness & cracked appearance in the fake bag versus the soft and distressed look of the authentic.

The most obvious difference between most of the fake Balenciagas and the authentic Balenciaga is the leather. The Authentic’s is so soft that there’s no way the bag will stand upright unless it is very tightly stuffed. As I mentioned above, the authentic bags tend to collapse when you set them down, even when the bags have many things inside. It doesn’t take much inside of a fake Balenciaga bag in order for it to retain its shape.

The Tassels
The tassels that are connected to all of the zippers should be just as soft as the bag’s leather. They should hang loosely, and feel like velvet in your hands. The tassels on most fake bags are stiff and hard, and do not hang loosely.

The Hardware
The hardware on the fake bag is too silver & shiny. The hardware on an authentic bag is either brass or “dirty” silver. See the tonal differences in the authentic bag?

There are other differences also, if you look closely. See the hardware that connects the handles to the bag? On an authentic bag this hardware is rounder and wider, while the hardware on the fake bag is much more narrow and longer. Also, the studs on the bag. The studs on the fake bag have a very flat appearance to them and look as if they protrude from the bag. On an authentic bag, the hardware is three-dimensional and appears to “blend” with the bag. Also, the hardware on a fake bag is single-toned, meaning that it is only a single shade of silver (or brass). The hardware on an authentic bag is multi-tonal, and looks like different colors in different light.

Another thing to look at are the small rings on the zippers where the tassels are tied. There should be small rings on each of the zippers (the top zipper, the front zipper and the inner zipper pocket). All of these rings should be sealed or welded closed so that there are no gaps and/or spaces. Most of the fake bags (that I’ve seen) have small gaps where the ends of the ring meet. These rings are also made from a type of metal that cannot be easily bent and/or “pinched”, whereas the rings on the fake bags tend to be much to thin and can be easily bent or pinched together, or in some cases, easily fall off.

The Straps
The shoulder strap of an authentic bag should should be one solid piece with small openings at the ends where the hardware fits into. The leather on the shoulder strap of most fake bags are folded over the hardware and wrapped around it, creating a double layer of leather. The hardware at the ends should have a rounded, curved appearance to it, while most of the fake bags have more of a squared appearance to this hardware. There should also be a small eye hook that connects the hardware together. The tip of the eye hook should have a flat head and should be pushed up through the corkscrew shaped hardware. It should not stop just below it, as it does on most of the fake bags. The detachable shoulder strap is almost always connected to the bag, it is also never wrapped in plastic (or bubble wrap) and tucked inside the bag.

The Zipper
As I’m sure most of you know, authentic Balenciaga bags are made with Lampo zippers. The thing that most people don’t know is that Lampo makes two different types of zippers. An authentic Balenciaga should have the type of Lampo zipper that is written in italics with a line underneath which extends from the bottom of the “L” and the TM symbol in the upper right corner. The other type of Lampo zipper, which is printed in uneven, capital letters is NOT the type of the zipper that should be found on an authentic Balenciaga bag. The word “Lampo” should be embossed on the zipper (printed in raised letters), whereas most of the fake bags have the word “Lampo” engraved into the zipper. Please be aware, however, that there are many fake bags with authentic Lampo zippers. YOU CANNOT TELL IF A BAG IS AUTHENTIC BY LOOKING AT THE ZIPPER ALONE!!

The Handles
The handles are weaved, or braided with leather. Balenciaga calls it “sueded leather”, which has a raw appearance to it and looks more like rope or a shoelace. It shouldn’t be finished leather, coated or protected. The following picture shows the difference in the braiding on an authentic bag and a fake one. See how the braiding on the fake bag looks like it has a protective coating over it:

The Tags
The Classique (small), the City Classique (medium) and the Voyage (weekender) should all have a leather tag with a silver plate on the front side. The Office Bag (large) and Boston Twiggy should just have leather tags with no silver plate (some older Twiggy bags had silver plates, but this was changed in 2004). Most of the numbers should be the SAME on every bag in one style. The only number that is different is the first number on the top of the silver plate (the one that starts with “No.”). The number 103208 is the model number of the Classique (small) and should appear on the bottom of the silver plate and should be the first set of numbers on the back of the leather tag, followed by the numbers 213048. The model number of the City Classique (medium) is 115748 and should be found on the bottom of the silver plate and should be the first set of numbers on the backside of the leather tag, followed by the numbers 3444.The model number of the Voyage (weekender) is 110506 and should be found on the bottom of the silver plate and should be the first set of numbers on the backside of the leather tag, followed by the numbers 213048. The model number of the Twiggy bag is 128523 and should be the first set of numbers on the backside of the leather tag, followed by the numbers 3444. The model number of the Office Bag is 132110, followed by the numbers 1669. All of these numbers should be found on all authentic bags for the current season. Many fake bags have one set of numbers on the silver plate, with another bag’s model number on the backside of the leather tag. The numbers and “made in italy” should be evenly centered on the backside of the tag. On many of the fake bags, these numbers are printed too high on the tag, or sometimes printed unevenly. The pics below show the tags from an authentic Classique and a fake Classique. You’ll notice that numbers on the backside of the tag inside the fake bag are the numbers that should appear on the tag of a Twiggy bag!

The Cosmetic Mirror
When purchasing a brand new Balenciaga bag from an authorized retailer, the cosmetic mirror that is included with the bag comes tied around the rear handle of the bag so that it hangs. It does NOT come wrapped in platic (or worse, bubble wrap!).

The Extras
You may notice that many of the bags that you find listed, will include all the “extras” wrapped in plastic. The only item that comes with an authentic Balenciaga bag that is wrapped in plastic are the extra tassels, that are included with every bag. While I’m sure it’s always POSSIBLE that a seller might wrap the accessories for protection during shipping, this is not how brand new bags are normally sold and is another way that may help you determine if the bag is fake (but again, you should not rely on this alone).

A few other things you should do when considering placing a bid on one of the Balenciaga bags listed on ebay,
(1) Contact the seller and ask them when and where they originally purchased the bag. This shouldn’t be a big secret. There are only a handful of retail locations that are authorized to sell authentic Balenciaga handbags. Many of the online sites that are selling bags with the Balenciaga name, are actually selling fake bags. (The fake Black Twiggy bag pictured above was purchased for more than $1100 from one of these sites!) You can usually tell that these bags are not authentic because either the colors are wrong, or they have way too many available. There are waiting lists that are months long at most authorized retail locations. It’s impossible for any retailer to have as many of these bags available for immediate shipment as some of these websites have.

(2) Familiarize yourself with the names of the styles, the colors and when they were released. Only a handful of colors are produced each season, and they are almost always “retired” at the end of each season. The only colors that are continuously produced are black and white. Red is an older color from approx 2 yrs ago, so if a seller has a brand new red bag which they claim they just bought, chances are it is not an authentic Balenciaga bag. You can get a list of the current colors from any authorized Balenciaga retailer.

(3) Know your seller. Check their feedback. How many Balenciaga bags has this seller sold? Do they have a continuous inventory of these bags, as well as other designer bags. Do they have more than 2 or 3 black bags currently available? Black is the most popular color and the hardest to find. It would be next to impossible for any ebay seller to have more than 2 or 3 black bags available for bidding.

(4) Unless the bag has been previously used, it is IMPOSSIBLE to purchase an authentic Balenciaga bag for less than its retail price. At its current price, with sales tax, the lowest possible price to buy a brand new authentic Balenciaga handbag (in the US) is approx. $1000. If a seller has a brand new bag that they’re selling for much less than this, chances are, the bag is not authentic. You know the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably not.”

How to Spot a Fake Hermes Birkin Bag

Shape

The authentic bag’s shape is crisp and pronounced, whereas the fake bag’s shape shows bulges where you would expect a straight line.

Authentic Hermes Birkin (front)

Fake Hermes Birkin (front)

Authentic Hermes Birkin (back)

Fake Hermes Birkin (back)

Authentic Hermes Birkin

Fake Hermes Birkin

---

Stamp & Contour

The stamp on the authentic bag is clean and uniform, but the stamp on the fake bag looks spotty and irregular. Also, the authentic bag has a slight indented contour above the seam, which is missing from the fake bag.

Authentic Hermes Birkin

Fake Hermes Birkin

---

Hardware

The engraving on the authentic bag’s hardware, is thin and refined, but the engraving on the fake bag’s hardware is deeper, wider, and the letters are further apart.

Authentic Hermes Birkin

Fake Hermes Birkin

---

Inside strap

For the authentic bag, the cutout of the inside seam is neat, but on the fake bag, the cutout rough.

Authentic Hermes Birkin

Fake Hermes Birkin

Zipper

The authentic bag’s zipper pull has contours, the fake bag’s zipper pull does not.

Authentic Hermes Birkin

Fake Hermes Birkin

---

Inside

<

Authentic Hermes Birkin

Fake Hermes Birkin

---

Lock

Authentic Hermes Birkin

Fake Hermes Birkin

How to authenticate Coach bags

 If there is a place to come into contact with a large number of designer bags, authentic and counterfeit alike, it is among Goodwill’s donations! Coach is one of the designer brands I see most frequently, from Cashin-era all the way up to this season’s styles (OK…maybe last season’s). Thousands of bags later, I have picked up several ways to help determine the authenticity of Coach bags, and I’d like to share a few tips and illustrative photos.

General

• First, know that some counterfeit bags appear to be nearly perfect and some authentic bags may seem a little imperfect.
• It is important to familiarize yourself with Coach products in person. Visit a Coach store or authorized Coach retailer and learn how they feel and what they tend to look like. At least 50% of the counterfeit bags I see are obviously counterfeit due to clearly inferior quality.

Leather

• Coach uses various types of leather, but something they all have in common is that they are of a nice quality. Coach leather is not stiff and doesn’t look or feel like plastic. Unless it has been severely mistreated and dried out, it does not crack or seem to be damaged if folded in half. Coach leather is also not paper thin and prone to peeling (though some is easy to scuff).
• Different varieties of leather – pebbled and suede, notably, obviously feel different. Pebbled leather (like what D&B uses in all-weather bags) feels slightly firmer, for example. If the leather feels different (not bad-quality different, just different) don’t decide the bag is fake immediately.

Signature bag fabric

• In signature bags, the C pattern is properly aligned.
• The pattern should be straight and symmetrical with a pair of C’s starting in the middle and the rest of the pattern mirroring outward, with a few exceptions like the Scribble or patchwork bags.
• Coach tries to connect the signature fabric at seams in ways that look attractive instead of messy. This by no means happens all the time, but if it has in your bag’s case, it is a good sign.

One authentic signature bag's seams - lovely, no?

Lining

• Older/classic Coach bags are largely unlined and can look unpolished inside. I see leather edges that look a bit messy as well as dye lines inside at the edges or underneath the pocket near the seam, where the bag color stops and the natural color of the leather can be seen.
• Newer style bags are lined with various fabrics in solid colors, stripes, signature, logo, tattersall, and other patterns; again, the fabrics are of a nice quality, so fabric that feels cheap suggests counterfeit. There is a low-quality thin satin/acetate lining (sometimes with the Coach logo repeated on it) I’ve noticed in several fake bags. I’ve also noticed a signature lining that feels notably thinner than what Coach actually uses.

These are a few (a very few!) fabrics you may see in a Coach bag including a beautiful satin in the middle.

Authentic "legacy" lining.

• With few exceptions, signature bags do not have signature lining. Some bags, like quilted bags with signature patches can still have signature lining.

Signature bag with signature lining. Gross.

Stitching

• Stitching can be a helpful tool when trying to determine authenticity, whether in person or from a photograph. It can be easier to see the quality of stitching in a photograph than it is to see leather quality.
• For the most part the stitching of Coach bags is neat and even without major flaws like skipped stitches, wandering/sloppy lines, and asymmetry.

Top example: BAD all around. Lower two have mistakes in stitch size.

• Coach is not perfect. They sometimes sew an uneven stitch, especially notable on older bags, so don’t let a small flaw rule the authenticity of a bag out completely. Just keep it in mind as you look at other things.

Coach Creed

• The Coach creed is stamped into leather, either in front of the interior pocket in an unlined bag, or on a leather square that has been stitched into the lining of a lined bag. Some newer bags have the creed printed in “handwriting” style font in metallic ink or a regular font in metallic ink instead of stamped into the leather.

An example of an authentic creed stamped in metallic ink in a handwriting-type font.

• The creed in an authentic bag has no misspellings, typos, or words running into each other.

Some very obviously bad creeds - misspellings, typos, words running into one another, etc.

Here are some additional fake creeds, identifiable by the pressure of the stamper - one is way too light, the other is a bit heavy.

• Creeds are not consistent in every way. Some are stamped a little more lightly than others (though they should always, always be readable), some have a different font size, some have justified alignment with weird spacing, some have left alignment, some center the last line, etc. It seems to depend on the country of manufacture, the age, and probably the factory.

A few creeds from authentic bags. Note that they differ in font and/or style, that's OK!

• Some smaller Coach items do not have creeds, like wristlets, wallets, pouches, cosmetic cases & other small accessories.
• The number on the creed is not a proper serial number on post-1994 bags; rather, these numbers represent the month, year & place of manufacture (before the dash) and the style (after the dash).
• Some older bags did not have numbers, just the creed.
• Each style is assigned its own style number, so if your bag was made 1994 or after (or you suspect it was), look it up. It may still be on Coach’s website, so start there. If it isn’t, do a google search for “Coach” and the style number (the numbers after the dash). This will usually give you some product search results or images. If the sellers or websites are trustworthy* compare your bag to the one in the photo. You can also search on purseforum.com’s Coach board, where the people are knowledgeable and may have had a past discussion about the bag you are researching.
• Vintage and uncommon bags can be difficult to find images of because vintage bags do not have a style number and uncommon bags are uncommon. It may be best to simply ask about it on purseforum.com if you can’t find any information at all and all other signs point to authentic bag.

Hangtags, dust bags, price tags, cards & other accessories

• Hangtags are not reliable for authentication as they are removable, nor are the rectangular hangtag or the lozenge hangtag reliable for authentication. There are fake hangtags on real bags, real hangtags on fake bags, missing hangtags, replacement hangtags, and real hangtags that look fake (Coach has used many variations over the years and many do not scream “high quality!”). If you authenticate a hangtag you have only authenticated the hangtag, not the bag it is attached to.

Here is an authentic Coach hangtag from a vintage bag, just to illustrate that not all authentic hangtags are created equal.

• Price tags, cards, dust bags, and any other accessory or paperwork can be faked, and sometimes real paperwork & accessories accompany a fake bag. Fake paperwork most often means fake bag. One way to identify paperwork as fake is by finding misspellings, typos, missed spaces, odd wording & other such issues.

Fake price tag on a fake bag.

• Real paperwork, dust bags, etc do lend a bit of credibility to a bag but cannot be relied on as proof of authenticity. You must check everything else as well.
• MYTH: a fake fob means a fake bag – untrue!

Zippers & hardware

• Zippers sometimes move smoothly but sometimes don’t, so don’t let the latter throw you off completely.
• YKK, Talon, riri, and Falcon are the zipper brands I most often see in Coach bags. Some of the older zippers (like Falcon) are marked underneath so the marking is hard (but not impossible) to see.

Vintage hardware was unsurprisingly different from modern hardware and is sometimes stamped "solid brass."

• When I have encountered bags with generic zippers on both the outside and inside the bags turned out to be fake, ultimately - however, it is not unusual for exterior zippers to be unbranded.
• Of all Coach bags I’ve seen with COACH zipper pulls, they have been counterfeit. I have read that some authentic bags have had COACH embossed zipper pulls, but the ones in the photos are those I often see on fakes.

• Many modern bags have the Coach logo imprinted on the hardware. It is sometimes subtle – on the inward-facing side of a buckle, for instance. The logo need not be on every piece of hardware or even the majority. Sometimes it might only be on one thing, and sometimes there are none at all.

Assorted authentic hardware, some stamped, some not.

A few examples - authentic stamped hardware, counterfeit stamped hardware.

• The shape of the hardware is important to pay attention to. Some differences are very obvious if you pay attention.

Fake turnlock vs authentic turnlock.

• MYTH: all authentic Coach bags have YKK zippers – untrue!

Country of manufacture

• Most modern Coach bags are made in China, not the USA. The country of manufacture appears in the creed, but there are sometimes fabric tags sewn into the lining as well.

Coach may have "made in china" tags but they are never the cheap papery type.

• I have seen authentic Coach bags made in the USA (some specifically marked New York City), China, Turkey, Costa Rica, Mexico, Italy, India, Hungary and the Dominican Republic. There may be others as well.
• Coach bags are not made in Korea.