How to Tell If Your Chanel Bag Is Authentic | Love Luxury

Chanel handbags are one of the most desired products in the fashion world. If you are going to spend your money on a vintage Chanel, you’d better make sure it’s the real thing! In this article, you can learn more about how to determine the authenticity of your bag. Read on!

How can you tell if a vintage Chanel bag is real?

The most important thing is where you bought it from.  Buyers must be very cautious of any presumed Chanel products purchased over the Web. 

There are no approved sellers of Chanel leather bags, fashion products and watches online. For now, Chanel and its approved retail chains are selling only fragrances, cosmetics and eyeglasses on the Web. 

Chanel frequently reminds its shoppers that if the offer seems too tempting, it is likely a counterfeit and that the easiest way to avoid being deceived about the origins of the goods,  is to purchase them directly from the Chanel boutiques.

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Do Chanel bags have a serial number?

Yes, you can look up your serial number to find out which year and model bag. You can verify your bag’s date by looking up the year of its production on a code chart. 

Chanel bags made in 2020 should have 30XXXXXX as a date code. If your bag has this date code, it’s likely to be authentic, however, this is not a guarantee.

What leather does Chanel use?

One of the aspects that have made Chanel so pertinent to the industry for so long is that it focuses on creativity and discovers new ways to implement its designs.

This has enabled the development of a wide range of luxury products and designer bags for shoppers to choose between. Chanel delivers handbags for a variety of uses, from fine handbags required to keep your prized possessions to huge bags that can help you move home.

Chanel uses either caviar leather, calfskin, deer skin or lamb leather of the highest quality. In addition, their materials are incredibly accessible in a variety of distinctive colours so it boils down to your personality type in the end. Get a handbag that closely fits your functional requirements, and that represents your personal style in its design.

Where is authentic Chanel made? 

Chanel charges a hefty price tag for their handbags, reflecting the lengthy design process that their products have undergone. Many of the Chanel leather items are produced of lambskin or caviar calf leather, all of which are considered to be the finest and most luxurious material in the market.

These goods are machine-stitched under strict supervision, but the cloth is hand-cut and accurately sculpted.  Chanel chooses to make their goods where the finest designers are premised, in places like Italy and France.

It has been said that Chanel performs a lifespan test with every item they create to check that each item lasts for decades! The bags are resistant to damage by liquids and extreme heat. This guarantees that both the handbag and its aesthetic are safeguarded.

Common signs of fake Chanel bag

1. Stitching

Stitching can be a very clear gauge of authenticity as Chanel uses a large number of stitches to support keeping the original shape of the bag. An authentic Chanel bag will have up to 11 stitches for every panel, which is the distance of one side of the diamond pattern. 

Conversely, a knockoff bag will typically have a smaller quantity of stitches for every panel. The lining is also another component that varies in both authentic bags and imitations. 

The lining on an authentic bag is flat against the fabric without any noticeable blotches or creases. However, falsified bags will generally not have this detail or use poor leather, which can be quickly creased and even slightly loose.

2. Leather

The preferred leather used on many Chanel bags is lambskin which should feel smooth in close contact and have a noticeably soft feel. The quality level of the leather in use by Chanel should be helpful to differentiate from the texture and style of a falsified leather product. 

If you are scanning a leather bag made of lambskin, make sure it feels incredibly soft and comfortable. Another common leather used among Chanel products is caviar skin made of pebbled calf leather. 

This leather type has a grained aesthetic and is less smooth as a result. It’s much less prone to scratches, and it’s more durable than the lambskin. When you’re running your hands over authentic caviar leather, you’re supposed to feel elevated dimples.

3. Brand Hardware

One of the most renowned and noteworthy features of Chanel handbags is the CC lock. The classic 2.55 lock has a rectangular shape and has no logo or Chanel branding. Chanel makes bags with both locks styles so that if your bag has a rectangular lock, it can still be genuine. The CC lock can be either elevated or flat, with the right C extending over the left C at the upper end and the left C intersecting the right C at the base. Knockoff locks usually have minor errors, such as the form of the Cs, the positioning of extra metal just above the lock, as well as the aesthetic of the interconnected Cs. The lock stem is another characteristic worth keeping an eye on. 

Genuine lock stems were crafted with 24K gold in the past and more recently since 2008 they are made with gold-toned hardware and, even if used for a long period of time, still retain their condition. That being said, the replicas are normally fitted with gold, which will brush off after light usage. Scan the press studs for durability. Authentic press studs will also retain their shape after use, while replicas will scrape and quickly rust. The signature of the company is yet another way of confirming the genuineness of a Chanel bag. Check for the logo and the reliability of the signature. 

A lot of knockoffs use a slimmer font and scramble the branding so that it continues to sit on the leather instead of embossing it. The placement of the engraved Chanel logo is also another component worth checking out. This should be one and a half centimetres below the quilted C with the width of the Cs and the disparity between them should stay at 0.9cm. The width of the authentic Chanel logo is 3.3cm.

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4. Authenticity Card

Authentic Chanel handbags must come with an authenticity card, which contains a unique number you can verify to ensure the bag itself is genuine. Not all authenticity cards are real! 

An easy way to check if the authenticity card is genuine will be how many numbers are in the code. If the bag was produced between 1984 and 1986, it will have 6 digits, if it was produced between 1986 and 2004 it will have 7 digits, and if it was made from 2005 it will have 8 digits. 

Presently Chanel does not issue authenticity cards with 9 digits or more.

Now that you know how to tell if your vintage Chanel handbag is the real thing or a copy, you are ready to make a purchase. Good luck!

Please remember, this is a guide to authentication, counterfeit goods are becoming more and more sophisticated as the years go by, the best way to ensure the authenticity of your Chanel bag is to have it independently authenticated.