How to Spot the Fake Louis Vuittons
With all the counterfeiters out there its really easy for anyone to purchase a fake Louis Vuttion these days. So how is it that you can tell whether the bag is real or fake. Honestly if you are purchasing a bag for yourself you should only buy from either a Louis Vuitton Store or E-Luxury as these are the ONLY places that are licensed to sell the products. Otherwise all other places you must be weary and careful of what you are buying. This guide is to help you spot fakes as they go buy on the street or in person when you are able to examine them and over look the bag.
Lets Start!....Was the Bag ever made in that style?
Many Counterfeiter make bags in styles that were never made! Know your bags! Check the VUITTON website, or Eluxury, or buy a catalog, but make sure that the bag you are looking for was ever made by Louis Vuitton. This is especially common in Multicolor bags- (there was never an Multicolor Backpack, Ellipse, Papillon, and so on), Cherry Blossom ( Louis Vuitton never made a Speedy, Alma or Cabas tote,& Pegase)Know how the bag is to be made
Louis Vuitton is high quality, the stitching is to be perfect, straight, even and regular. The handles should be soft and made of great quality leather not plastic like fakes. You can tell the difference when comparing. The lining inside the bags matter too. There have never been brown suede linings- even in the vintage pieces. Alcantara kind of looks like a suede-ish material, but it isn't suede and although is found in a grey olive-y color, it isn't found in dark brown. A Speedy , no matter how old it is should have brown cotton canvas lining, so if you see any other lining- you know it isn't authentic. Also know the small things like Should it have feet? What does the base look like? Should it have a d-ring inside? Where? etc.What about upside down LV's
Some bags do have upside-down LV's but only on one side, this is because they use one continueous piece of canvas on the bag. This is true on bags such as the Speedy styles (except French Company Speedys), the Keepalls, Papillons, and some similar styles. Most monogram pieces (any piece with a separate piece of canvas or leather on the bottom) will have the LVs rightside up on both sides.* a quick note about tags
When you buy Louis Vuitton from a boutique... it will come with tags- but they are NEVER attached to the bag
How to read current Date Codes
In 1990, Louis Vuitton began staggering the year and the month... so that the first and third number represent the month, and the second and fourth number represent the year.Example :SL 0980 - 08 of 1990
After January of 2007 Louis Vuitton Changed their format again to weekly date codes. SD 0077 is not a bag that was made in July of 2007, but is a bag that was made in the 7th week of the year 2007- so mid-to-late February of 2007.
So what those letters mean? You'll find the country followed by the letters that coordinate with that country...
France: A0, A1, A2, AA, AN, AR, AS, BA, BJ, CT, DU, ET, FL, MB, MI, NO, RA, RI, SD, SL, SN, SP, SR, TH, VI
USA: FC, FH, LA, OS, SD
Spain: CA, LO, LB, LM, LW
Italy: CE, SA
Germany: LP
So after reading your code you can look at your stamp and make sure your code and stamp match. Example "Made and France" and SL0980
Multicolors
Multcolors are the easiest for me to spot fakesFirst off if it has a bow, its fake.
If it has red LVs, its fake. (When Louis Vuitton First introduced their prototype it had red LV's on it, but when it came time for production the red LV's were deleted and counterfeiters were left kicking themselves for years to come)
On white bags the interior is raspberry alcantra and for black bags the interior is mushroom alcantra if not fake.
For white... does the color combination of LVs on the canvas look like this: 1. fuschia, black, green 2. dark yellow, dark pink, dark purple 3. dark blue, chartreuse, light blue .
For black... does the color combo look like: 1. fuschia, white, green 2. dark yellow, dark pink, dark purple 3. dark blue, chartreuse, light blue. If not fake.
There are 33 colors in real louis vuitton bags. In most fakes theres maybe 9.