Can You Spot a Fake Hermès Birkin? A Guide to Authentic vs Replica Hermès Birkin Bags

Many people are afraid to buy a fake Hermès Birkin bag, both knowingly or unknowingly. Considering these bags can run up to the $100s of thousands (especially if they are exotic leather editions) it makes sense to KNOW your Hermès before you embark upon the re-seller market to make sure you don’t get cheated by a seller. Even if you are looking for a fake it is important to know what key aspects of the bag are important to get a good knockoff vs. a piece of junk.  In this article I will be comparing my replica Hermès Birkin (which I previously reviewed here) to an authentic Birkin in the same model. Please note that the replica being used to compare to the authentic bag is a super fake so the quality is very high – your average fake bag will not be as good! At the end of the article I will reveal which bag is fake! Put on your detective glasses and try to spot the fake to see if you know your Hermès authentication as well as you do!

1. Slouchiness is not necessarily a sign that your bag is either fake or real!

Before I begin to go through key things to pay attention to when looking at a fake vs. real Birkin, I would like to note that you do not need to pay attention to the slouchiness of the bags. This is not a sign that will indicate whether the bag you are examining is fake or real. The bags featured both are made with Togo leather however the difference is that one bag is brand new, thus the leather is still quite stiff and so the shape of the bag is also more stiff. However as your Togo leather Birkin ages the bag naturally becomes more slouchy and this is part of the look of the Togo leather that many Hermès fans love, while some others prefer to keep the shape of the bag stiff and opt for other leathers which are better at keeping the shape! Look below at a well aged authentic Birkin in Togo leather to see how the slouchiness tends to look. If your brand new Hermès bag’s shape is really out of whack however this is a sign that your bag is most likely fake since the bag should have a clean shape when it is new!

2. Take a look at the stamping of the Hermès logo.

An authentic bag’s stamp should be clean and uniform, however on fake bags the stamp usually looks unclean – a.k.a spotty and irregular. Take a look at the stamps on both bags, as pictured below, to see which looks better/worse.

3. Take a look at the stitching.

Hermès stitching should be done on a slant – not a straight line. If you see the stitching on your bag is done in a straight manner the bag is 100% fake. This is probably the easiest thing to look at to weed out a very bad fake. Keep in mind however that if the threading is slanted, this does not mean that is 100% real, since many replica manufacturers are aware of this and stitch their bags accordingly. As you can see both bags pictured in this article feature slanted stitching.

4. Take a look at the hardware.

The font of the Hermès stamp on the hardware should be thin and elegant. If you notice a boxy or thick font the bag is definitely fake! Additionally the letters should not be too far apart on the stamping.

5. Take a look at the inside strap of the bag!

The strap’s cutout should be done nice and cleanly, and the threading should continue to be clean. Additionally you should see some numbers engraved into the inside of the strap. These refer to the production run in which the bag was produced. If there are no numbers the bag you have is definitely a fake!

6. Take a look at the leather of the bag!

The leather on a Hermès bag should be rich and feel buttery smooth – especially if it is a Togo leather bag. You can use your basic instincts when judging the leather – it should be smooth to the touch and feel luxurious – these bags are pricey for a reason after all!

So do you think you’ve guessed it? Which bag did you think was real, and which did you think was fake? Well time for the grand reveal… the bag on the right is fake! The bag on the left is real. Did you guess right or were you confused? Well if you were confused don’t feel to bad since as I mentioned earlier the fake being compared to the original in this article is a superfake or counter quality replica which means it is the best of the best when it comes to knockoffs. It’s hard for authentication experts to judge it to be fake, let alone the average consumer! Leave a comment below letting me know how accurate your authentication skills were!