How to Spot a Fake Designer Handbag

5 Tips from Michael's Consignment

1. Use your senses. "Real genuine leather is what the brands are going to be using. If you can’t smell it as being real genuine leather—if it has that plastic-y smell—you’re looking at a fake."
2. Pay attention to the stitching. "Many bags are hand-stitched as opposed to being done by a machine, so the quality of the stitching is going to be different."
3. Feather-light hardware is a dead giveaway. "The weight and the sound of the metal—like, if you’re dealing with a Chanel chain—it has a real sound to it. It doesn’t sound ting-y."
4. Ask for more photos if shopping online. "If there is one piece of advice I’d give to online consumers, it’s to ask for photographs. If someone is selling, let’s just throw out the Birkin, the big one, and it’s a $10,000 bag that they’re selling for $7,500, and you ask for additional photos and they can’t take the time to snap a couple, they probably don’t physically have that bag."
5. Only shop established resale stores that guarantee authenticity. "The way that you become an expert in this industry is that you handle, touch, feel, smell tons and tons of bags. If you’ve been in business for a year or two, and you’re looking through books to try and tell you if something’s authentic, it’s not the same thing."

Want more details? Check out Tammy's How to Spot a Fake video series. Click here.