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How To Authenticate A Hermès Birkin Bag

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Anh Pham

Birkin

Buying designer goods at a consignment store or online are great ways to save money and satisfy your heart’s desires, but it can also be a huge risk that you’re taking. Because of how saturated the counterfeit market has become, the amount of replica handbags, shoes or clothes being manufactured have made it harder for the consumer to distinguish between a real and a fake product. Thankfully, we sisters have been buying new and used designer products for more than 15 years. Therefore, with our long term experience and knowledge which we have gained along the way we have developed a great feel on how to spot these fake goods right off the bat.

In this series, we’re going create an authentication 101 guide for the popular brands so you can keep a look out when buying gently used products online or in store. Authentication takes up a lot of time and effort; therefore most of these consignment stores usually do their own authentication or get an experienced person to do it.

Today, we sisters will be showing you how to authenticate the most iconic handbag in the market – the Hermès Birkin bag. Here are the most important facts that you’ll need to look for when you’re buying the “Birkin”. Please keep in mind that there are many more ways of authenticating but we’re going to list the ones that are more obvious and easy to identify!

material

 

 

Material

– Hermès uses genuine leather and exotic skins for all of their handbags such as crocodile, alligator, ostrich and lizard.
– The leather is in perfect condition and is smooth everywhere with no stretch marks.

 

 

 

lock and key

 

 

Hardware

– Hermès Birkins come with a key, buckle, feet studs and clochette which is a piece of leather in a bell shaped that covers the keys.

– Most bags have a gold plated or palladium finish.

 

 

 

feet studs

 

 

– The four feet studs keeps the Birkin standing upright without wobbling.

 

 

 

 

key and lock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

– At the bottom of the lock it will state “Hermes” with an identification number that matches to the key.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

clochette

 

 

 

– The clochette cover is a sewn one-piece not two!

 

 

 

 

 

stitching

 

 

Detailing

– The stitching is aligned perfectly in a slanted and even pattern (mind you they are hand sewn which usually takes them days to finish just one bag).

 

 

 

zipper

 

 

 

– There are two ways of identifying the zippers; one which have letters that say HERMES and the other is the letter “H” which is placed at the base of the zipper.

 

 

 

 

inside

 

 

 

– There are two inner pockets one with a zipper and another without.

 

 

 

 

 

logo

 

 

Stamps and Logo

– The front center of the exterior of the bag has a logo that says “Hermès Paris, Made in Paris”. The words are clear and the second ‘e’ has an accent above it which looks like this “è”.
– The logo is always embossed onto the bag.

 

 

stamp

 

 

– Each Birkin has a stamp on the back flap of the bag. They will have the stamp of the years and the exotic materials used; for instance a square represents alligator skin, double dots (..) is Niloticus crocodile, caret (^) is porosus crocodile and hyphen (-) is lizard skin.

 

 

Dust Bags

– Vintage dust bags are tan colour in velour material.
– Newer dust bags are in orange colour and made out of cotten flannel.

Tags and Authenticity Papers

– It’s very important to know that for any of the Hermès bags they are never sold with card certificates or paper
– If the bags are wrapped in plastic then you should know right away that it’s fake.
– Also, when purchasing a second-hand bag and the seller provides an original receipt, make sure the store name and number as well as the client’s name and number is on there. This is so you can call to verify if the purchase was made there. Keep in mind that receipts can also be counterfeited, anything is possible nowadays.

Counterfeit is against the law and we at Designer Swap will not tolerate it. Therefore, we hope that this post is helpful and that you were able to learn how to identify a real Hermès Birkin Bag. Check back in a few weeks on Mondays and we’ll show you how you can authenticate a Louis Vuitton!

Photo credit Karen Tran and Devin Tadique

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Do you have any other tips that you’d like to share with us? Let us know in the comments!

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