Is Your Designer Handbag Genuine? Check Out These 10 Tips.

A brand new designer handbag is a delight, but to find out it's a fake is a very costly slip-up. When you want to get a new designer handbag, it is important to be able to spot fakes so that you can make certain that your expensive purchase is authentic. If you recognize the difference between a replica and a genuine bag enables you to make an informed choice about the purchase of any bag.

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An authentic designer handbag is made by fashion houses, well-known brands and high-end designers. Nowadays many lesser-known designers and brands also produce top quality bags. However, many sham companies make imitation replicas of bags and sell them to gullible people as the genuine thing.

If you have just paid a large sum of money on that prized new designer handbag, you may want to establish the authenticity of it. This can be a little bit difficult, but if you know the essentials, you will be able to recognize an imitation immediately.

1.   Investigate The Brand

You must recognize the brand and what unique features make it special. Check to confirm the bag you want to buy is in a shape and pattern that the designer produces. Most brands have a signature style.

2.   Check The Quality Of The Material

One of the top ways to make sure your new designer handbag is genuine is to look at the bag itself.  A designer handbag cost as much as they do because they are made of high quality materials, such as Italian leather or branded canvas.

So check the material. If it is Italian leather it should look, feel and smell like leather. Be suspicious if it smells like glue, rubber or chemicals. If it is a heavy-duty canvas, it should be strong and well stitched. The material can tell you so much about the bag's quality.

Also check the lining inside of the bag. Often a genuine bag will have a distinguishing pattern inside which distinguishes it from replicas. If the interior sounds like paper rubbing together, then it's not the genuine thing. A genuine designer bag will be lined with leather or a branded high quality lining material.

Look for discrepancies in color in the material. Although some variations will be obvious, others may be very difficult to detect.

3.   Check The Quality Of Workmanship

A real designer handbag is typically handmade by skilled craftsmen. Branded bags will have quality stitching because it is part of the designer's reputation to manufacture a quality product.

So take a really good look at the stitching. Sloppy, slanted, and uneven stitching is a sign of a poorly made bag which well may be a fake. There ought to be no loose or missing stitches and the stitches should be evenly spaced. The color of the thread should match the main color of the bag.

Also check out the seams, the shape and symmetry. Seams usually do not have glue, except for perhaps on wallets. The symbols often mirror each other on right and left seams, especially on Louis Vuitton monogrammed canvas items and more recently on Gucci and Fendi.

Also check the stitching of the lining, and see if it is double stitched or not.

4.   Check The Quality Of The Hardware

The hardware on a designer handbag should be of top quality. Hardware must be heavy weight, quality pieces with no scratches or color variations, i.e., zippers, clasps and closures should all have the same color and finish. The only exception is the brand Chloe, which often makes use of mixed hardware. If it does not look like genuine top quality hardware, i.e. it feels light or has rough edges, etc., it may be a fake copy.

Zippers and clasps must open and close smoothly.

Some brand names put their logo on the hardware. For example, check the zipper manufacturer because generally the underside of the zipper will have a logo. 

Some manufacturers, including Gucci, Fendi, Prada and Christian Dior protect the hardware with a plastic cover that is removed only after it has been bought.

5.   Check The Logo Is Real

The logo should be straight and spelled correctly. Any engraving or embossing must be neat and accurate. Logos are often area where frauds slip up. The name may be spelt slightly differently, such as Carter instead of Cartier. Or the lettering may be incorrect. For example most imitation Chanel bags have interlocking "Os" instead of "Cs", which in point of fact makes it legal to sell but is, of course, still a fake.

Most designers have a unique way of using their logo. For example the brand name on an authentic Michael Kors bag will say either "MICHAEL Michael Kors" or just "Michael Kors," and have the MK logo on a hanging metal tag. The interior and exterior normally have the MK logo as part of a repeated pattern, rather than the full name.

If the designer handbag is leather, the logo will be engraved, not just printed on the leather. The brand name or logo will also be engraved, not embossed or simply printed on the hardware.

The bag's logo, charms, attachments, etc., are characteristic of the brand down to the precise positioning and number of such features. Tags, signatures or marks stating the designer's name are an integral part of the bag's overall design and authenticity.

So check the tags and labels. Check the inside tags to ensure they are stamped into leather or hand-stitched in the lining. A clear counterfeit will have no name on the inside tag. Check outside tags as well because many designers include authenticity labels on the outside of a designer handbag.

Instruction booklets should not have misspellings or be photocopied.

6.   Is An Authenticity Card Provided?

An true designer handbag will come with an authenticity which is a little card that usually has the manufactures logo embossed on the front and has some information about the product you bought. It sometimes includes a magnetic strip or bar code.

7.   Is There a Serial Number?

Not all manufacturers use serial numbers, but many do.  A serial number is a hallmark inside the bag which relates to the brand/style and other production information. Sometimes the serial number is also fake, but it will look different and be in a different font to the real product.

8.   Do Be Realistic About The Price

The price of a designer handbag is determined by what the purchaser is willing to pay for the brand. A real designer handbag costs a lot of money because it is well made from quality products by crafts men. They are a status symbol which reflects wealth and position. If the price looks too good to be true, it probably is and the bag is most probably an imitation.

An authentic designer handbag will cost anything from a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars depending on the brand and its availability. For example Hermes handbags cost on average around US $8000 and there is a waiting list to purchase one.

Be guarded of unrealistic deals. If a bag typically retails for $800 or $1,200 and someone is selling it for $100 or $200, you may be getting swindled. Or if you see very luxurious bags that you can buy several copies of, be cautious.

9.   Always Ask For A Guarantee Of Authenticity

Ask the seller if the bag is genuine, a copy, or a fake. Judge for yourself from the answer; keep your emotions in check and your common sense at the forefront. Traders who evade answering questions or are shifty have something to hide. Ask if you can return the bag if it's faulty or fake. As you would expect, don't assume street vendors will agree to this!

10.  Watch For Wear and Tear

.Even though this is post purchase, how your designer handbag wears can be a sign of its authenticity. For example, the leather on the handle, after a while, should look like a good worn leather coat does. It will have an "aged look". Stitching should not begin to fray and zipper handles or other embellishments that fall off prematurely may show a fake.

A real designer handbag should last a lifetime if cared for properly.

Learn About Fakes

There are many bogus brand bags on the market, particularly in Asian countries at street markets, and on the internet so be very cautious when you purchase. High-end brands do not approve of street vendors selling their bags or purses.

Illegal, counterfeit bags are put across as being the real designer's bag, right down to the very last logo, tag, charms, etc. Replica bags copy all the features of the brand, and they are passed off as the unique brand with no effort to make a distinction as look-a-likes. The cost of fakes can vary significantly from cheap to expensive. It is illegal to make counterfeit goods, and if you knowingly buy one, you are supporting illegal action.

Nevertheless, a legal imitation can be sold as "designer-inspired" if it is not a direct copy. As long as such a bag does not claim to be the genuine designer's bag and does not try to use the trademarked symbols, logos, or features it is legal. Usually the style and colors of an authentic brand bag can be copied, but some features must be altered in some way in order to avoid copyright infringement.   Even though the bag may be very similar to the brand that it's inspired by, it won't claim to be an genuine designer handbag.

To the unperceptive eye the "designer-inspired" bag can certainly be mistaken for the genuine one and you could be tricked into spending more money than it is worth, and therefore it is important to be able to spot the differences.

If you knowingly buy legal copies, be sure you don't pay too much and double check the quality!

Realize, though, that some "designer-inspired" bags can convey the blessing of the brand owner who lets lower-end knock-offs be sold by chain retailers, etc. Commonly the store will proudly say something along the lines of "as licensed by X brand for our store".

Summary

Counterfeits are more difficult to spot now than they once were. There are two main reasons: counterfeiters have become more sophisticated and manufacturers have become a bit slack. Even though no replica is perfect, there is certainly no bag that’s too hard to copy. The differences between the two are getting harder to spot. This is facilitated by the fact that workmanship in the real goods is not as good as it used to be. They’re not finished the way they were back in the good old days.

If you have reservations about your new designer handbag, take it to an authorized store. Staff of an official brand store can easily validate your new designer handbag. There are a number of factors that need to be looked into when determining whether or not a handbag is genuine or fake, but if you focus on the list presented in this article you will be a long way to making the right decision.

Discover all you can about a designer handbag if you're buying from estate sales, thrift stores or on-line auction sites. Apply the steps listed above to any acquisition of a designer handbag made at such places.

At the Large Purse Shop, we do not work for any of the valued brands that we offer, but we do guarantee that the designer handbag you buy from us is 100% authentic and new with tags and made exclusively by the fashion house. Any use of the terms Hugo Boss, Burberry, Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Coach, Dolce and Gabbana, Fendi, Gucci, Prada and any other brand are all trademarks belonging to those companies and we do not in any way claim to be these companies or work for them. We obtain all items directly from the companies themselves..