Video: Portero's Accessories Director Show How to Spot a Fake Chanel or Hermes Handbag
Posted on June 29, 2011
Makers of counterfeit goods are getting every more sophisticated with the quality of their copies. Elizabeth Bernstein, the Accessories Director of the luxury pre-owned website Portero talks to WSJ's Elizabeth Holmes about how to spot fake handbags and wallets, which are commonly sold on Ebay and other sites.
Many consumers have been scammed by dishonest sellers of so-called vintage handbags, so it's important only to buy vintage items from reputable sellers. Also, you should get educated about how to spot fakes.
For an Hermes wallet, Elizabeth says the Hermes leather is soft and has hand stitching. The fake has machine stitching, a cheap zipper and isn't even real leather.
For the Chanel bags, the fake is made lesser quality materials, where as the real bag is soft lambskin. The diamond quilting usually doesn't line up on fake Chanel bags, but on some of the really good fakes the diamonds do line up. But the stitching is still too big. The real bag has gold plated chains.
The fake Hermes handbag is made of a lesser material which is embossed to make it look like real calfskin. The hardware is pretty close to the real thing on these fakes, though.