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2024 Hermes Birkin Bag Real vs. Fake Guide: How to Authenticate A Birkin?

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2024 Hermes Birkin Bag Real vs. Fake Guide: How to Authenticate A Birkin?

The Hermes Birkin bag personifies Jane Birkin’s style completely. It's classic, beautiful and timeless. No two Birkins are alike, because every single one is handmade. Birkins are a popular item with handbag collectors, and were once seen as the rarest handbag in the world. Hermès Birkin' unrivaled craftsmanship is one that many counterfeiters try to emulate. This is worrying news for any woman who wishes to purchase her dream bag. How to authenticate hermes Birkin bag? In this real vs fake guide, I prepare the most detailed specifics for you to learn how to spot fake Hermes Birkin bags. And at the end of the artical,I will also recommend you a few websites that are the cheapest to buy new and second-hand Hermes Birkin bags.

Cover Photo:hermes.com

How to Spot Fake Hermes Birkin Bags?

1. The General Look of Hermes Birkin Bag

1) Created in 1984, the iconic bag boasts as its namesake muse Paris-based British actress Jane Birkin. Jean-Louis Dumas sketched on the back of a sickbag of airplane the first design for a bag that featured a spacious interior, two rolled handles for firm holding, a flap top for protecting contents, with four studs on the base, and a turn-lock closure for securely locking away possessions.

2) The original Birkin is smaller and has curvier features whereas the fake Hermes Birkin bag is bigger and has more of a square-shape and shows bulges where you would expect a straight line.

2. The Craftsmanship of Hermes Birkin Bag

Hermès started as a saddle shop, still makes saddles, and borrows heavily from saddlers' techniques. The Birkin bags are handmade in France using the company's signature saddle stitching, developed in the 1800s. Each bag is hand-sewn, buffed, painted, and polished, taking several days to finish. Leathers are obtained from different tanners in France, resulting in varying smells and textures. A new Birkin to have a lovely leather smell that counterfeiters just can't duplicate.

Source:hermes.com

3. The Material of Hermes Birkin Bag

1) The bag comes in a variety of hides such as calf leather, lizard, and ostrich. Among the most expensive used to be saltwater crocodile skin and bags with smaller scales cost more than those with larger scales. Birkins made with exotic skins should also have an “exotics card,” which attests to the origin and treatment of the animal, and allows the resulting product to be sold internationally.

2) Fake Hermès Birkins are usually produced with synthetic leather and stamped calf grain. This material is readily available to counterfeiters, but is not real bag.

4. The Hermès Logo Blind Stamp

1）The authentic Birkin bag is printed with logo stamp of "HERMES PARIS MADE IN FRANCE" which should match the same color as hardware of the bag. The logo uses exquisite and neat fonts and is not affected by leather texture.

2）On many fake Hermes bags, the logo will look irregular, big, and/or blocky. Ensure the logo on the bag is properly centered without being uneven, lopsided, or crooked in any way.

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5. Hermès Serial Number / Date Code Check

1) Hermes date code stamps can be found in two places: Before 2015, it was on the back of the leather strap, and after that, it was on the inside of right-hand-side wall of the bag. The exact position of the date code of the Hermès Birkin bag is on the back of the leather strap in the front of the bag. There is no specific rule as to which one is on the left or right. But after 2015, that is, after the T marking, this position was found to have changed, and it moved to the inside of the bag.

2) Depending on the year of the bag, each Hermès will have a unique date stamp of of manufacture with a letter accompanied by either a circle, a square, or no shape depending on the year it was made. For your reference, I have included a chart of Hermès date stamps according to year below. The stamp will also feature the artisan's ID and an indicator of exotic skins if applicable.

From 1945 to 1970, there is no geometric shape on the outside of the engraving.
From 1971 to 1996, it was in a "○".
From 1997 to 2014, it was a "□".
Until 2015, Hermès used letters in alphabetical order surrounded by a shape to date their items.

6. The Hardware

1) Birkins most often sport hardware plated in silvery-white palladium or gold, although bags made with high-end exotic skins also use precious metals and sometimes are studded with diamonds.The hardware also features small markings.

2) When checking the hardware on a Hermes bag, feel the weight of the lock, keys, studs, and other pieces of hardware on the bag. Hermes always uses a high-quality metal for its bags, that are heavier than cheap metals that normally the replica factories use. If they feel light and cheap this should act as a red flag.

7. The Hermes Lock & Keys Real vs Fake

1) Hermès Birkin bags will come with a padlock and key on the front. Locks and keys are number-coded. Early locks only bore one number on the bottom of the lock. In more recent years, Hermès has added a second number under the Hermes stamp of the lock. The numbers for locks may be the same for hundreds of locks, as they are batch numbers in which the locks were made. The finish of the lock and key should be the same as the bag's hardware. The weight of the real Hermes lock is heavier than the fake one.

2) The key should sit neatly inside the leather clochette attached to the same leather strap as the padlock and be totally concealed when not in use. On a fake Hermès, the key will be sticking out of the bottom of the clochette ever so slightly and will not entirely fit in fully concealed. Additionally, the clochette on a real Hermès bag should be made of one piece of leather folded in half and stitched, not two pieces.

3) The padlock would have a Hermès engraving on the bottom like the other hardware on the bag. The number on the lock corresponds to the number engraved on the accompanying keys. All of these engravings need to be clean and precise, and all engraved not laser where done sloppily.

8. The Lining/Interior

1) The lining and interior of every Hermes Birkin bag is made with as much care as the rest of it. Many of these bags are lined with chevre leather, a goatskin that is grained and not smooth. There are Hermes Birkin bags that feature other material as the interior or lining, but the material will always be of a high quality and in most cases made from a similar leather to the exterior. If the bag is unlined or self-lined, it's fake.

2) Another way to ensure the authenticity of the lining or interior is to verify the color scheme on the Hermes website and to ensure the stitching is neat and proper without loose threads.

9. The Hermes Birkin Inside Zipper

1）Hermes make their own zippers which feature the Hermes name. Authentic Hermes zip pulls should not flop down or hang down at a 90 degree angle from the zip line. It should remain parallel to the zipper at all times. The mechanism is also a high quality design, created to lock the zipper pull in a parallel position. If the zipper pull is hanging, this should alert you to a potential counterfeit.

2）The tab will be a folded piece of leather, cut into a diamond shape in the same material and color as the bag. It should also be marked 'Hermès'. Starting in the early 2000s, Hermès began using an H-shaped zipper stop instead of the standard square shape you might see on a basic zipper.

3）H Zip Stop

The Hermès zipper features an H at the zip stop. This is made of one piece and matches the rest of metal hardware. Fake Hermès bags use a clunky thick H that often features a seam where the two pieces are joined.

10. The Feets

On the bottom of the bag, there will always be four feet that are hammered in. Counterfeiters often screw in the feet because that's faster and easier. So, if the feet feel like something you could remove by hand, be suspicious. And make sure they match the hardware on the rest of the bag: they should be the same metal in the same color.

11. The Stitching

1) Every Hermes bag is handmade and hand stitched. Using linen fiber with the merest blessing of beeswax, the Hermès craftsman sews with a tricky, two-needle technique that's difficult to learn and impossible to fake. (Apprentices practice for up to a year before they're allowed to sew a Birkin.)

2) Hermès uses the saddle stitch. This stitch has a natural slant to it. If the bag doesn't feature the saddle stitch, you should take it as a sign the bag is a fake. In the authentic Birkin, the stitching color should matche the color of the bag.

3) The stitchings in all Hermes bags is done by hand which means it gonna be meticulous, but it's not going to be absolutely perfect. But there shouldn't be any stitches obviously out of place, out of line, crooked seams, or irregular patterns on an authentic Hermes bag. In the fake Hermes bags, the stitches are done by machine because the machine can produce them faster so the stitches will be the same size and the same distance apart.

12. The Handles

The Birkin bag may be distinguished from the similar Hermès Kelly handbag by the number of its handles. The single-handle handbag is the Kelly, but the Birkin has two handles. The handles of an authentic Birkin have an upside-down U shape that stands away from the edge of the bag about five inches. Look for each handle's attachment to the bag to be overstitched to reinforce the point of stress.

13. The Hermes Authenticity Card

This is something that should raise a red flag immediately. Hermes do not issue an authenticity card. They never have and most likely never will. Many fake Hermes Birkin and Kelly bags come with these orange plastic credit cards that say “Hermes” on them.

14. The Dust Bag

1) New Birkins always come with a dust bag, and include a matching mini dust bag for the clochette. The dust bag is of a high quality, as the bag itself is, and will feature a high neat stitch count.

2) The color of the dust bag will vary depending on the year. For example, vintage dust bags are a tan velour, newer dust bags are orange cotton flannel, and post-2007 dust bags are a beige and light brown Herringbone Toile. Nowadays the color is a light beige with a dark brown Hermes logo on it. Whereas in the fake Hermes, dust bags often come in a grey color and feature a burgundy colored stamp. The authentic dust bag it's heavier and thicker, whereas the fake one is much thinner, smoother and limp.

3) The real logo of the dust bag has a double circle on the outside and if you take a closer look you will notice the difference in the font for the H, also the circle surrounding the H is different. The line underneath the horse and the carriage, there are two lines under the real one, but in the fake, there is only one single line.

4) The drawstring on the dust bag is also brown and should be made of 100% cotton. Please be aware that with some used Birkin bags the dust bag may have been misplaced and therefore this only applies to brand new bags.

15. Hermès Birkin Bag Sizes Chart in Inches and in Centimeters

Measure the bag's width across the bottom. Birkins are standardized in 25, 30, 35, 40, and 50 centimeter sizes. (In the 1990s, Hermès also made now-discontinued mini-Birkins as small as 15 or 20 centimeters.) Today, the 30 and 35 sizes are the most popular- and have been the most faked. Nothing if not precise, Hermès craftsmen make the bags to that exact measurement. Fakes are sometimes a couple of centimeters off.

Birkin 25	25 cm x 20 cm x 13 cm / 10" L x 5" W x 8"H
Birkin 30	30 cm x 22 cm x 16 cm / 12" L x 6.25" W x 9" H
Birkin 35	35 cm x 25 cm x 18 cm / 14" L x 7.5" W x 10.75" H
Birkin 40	40 cm x 30 cm x 21 cm / 16" L x 8" W x 11.25" H

Where To Buy New And Second-hand Hermès Birkin The Cheapest?

Hermès bag are available in Hermès boutiques worldwide. And you can also get a second-hand and vintage Hermès bags on some resale websites! Sign up at Extrabux.com, you can get up to 7% cash back on the Hermès bag purchase at these sites！

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vestiairecollective.com (6-7% cashback)

therealreal.com

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