I love vintage handbags.
A great vintage bag, in a style you can no longer find, can be the most chic alternative to any season's "It" bag.
I often find them in village markets in Italy, taken from old estates that have changed hands. They don't have second hand stores in Italy, nor do they have Goodwill, so local markets are an amazing resource for finding incredible old furniture, collectibles and on a good day, vintage handbags.
One time at an arts market in my Italian home town of
San Gimignano I found a lady selling a cache of Louis Vuitton bags from the 70's. The bags were well worn but still in enviable condition. I pored over them, looking for every conceivable sign of a fake, but they were indeed the real deal.
If you are a lover of vintage handbags, or if you are seeking out a second hand Louis Vuitton, Chanel or any other major designer handbag, it is important to know how to spot a fake and how to identify an authentic bag.
Here in the USA everywhere you look there are girls sporting fake Louis'. I don't think people realize how disgusting the trade in fake designer bags really is. It funds terrorism, involves child labor and human trafficking - it is deplorable. Before you even think about buying a knock off Louis or Hermes (or any other designer) make sure you read this article from Harpers Bazaar magazine about
The Fight Against Fakes.
One of the paragraphs that has haunted me for years, and that comes to mind every single time I see a girl cruising along with her counterfeit Louis is this:
Then I read the following passage from my book, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. "'I remember walking into an assembly plant in Thailand a couple of years ago and seeing six or seven little children, all under 10 years old, sitting on the floor assembling counterfeit leather handbags,' an investigator told me... 'The owners had broken the children's legs and tied the lower leg to the thigh so the bones wouldn't mend. [They] did it because the children said they wanted to go outside and play.'"
It's barbaric.
So now that we are clear on why we should never, ever buy counterfeit handbags, lets look at an article I found on The Zoe Report on how to buy an authentic vintage designer handbag.
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog
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