You were dreaming about it, you were waiting for this moment to come true, and here it is. Getting an opportunity to afford a Gucci bag you might rush to give your money in exchange for a luxury purchase, but before you do that, please, wait. After the moment of happiness, you might learn a horrible truth that your bag was a fake and is worth nothing.
We advise everyone first to examine a bag to make sure you are being offered an original item because Gucci is among the top three brands that are the most counterfeited. Our step-by-step guide will help you get the quality product that you truly deserve to own. Once you learn how to authenticate a Gucci handbag it will be easier for you to make your luxury accessories collection full of original items.
If you want to learn more about this fabulous Italian brand, check our Ultimate Gucci Bags Guide.
Although it's strictly prohibited to sell fake goods, some people manage to display low-quality production on the websites and even in offline stores. Here is our Gucci Bag Authentication Guide with 8 steps you need to take to spot a fake, and we are going to describe each of them in details:
- Leather and canvas
- Logo
- Hardware
- Stitching
- Interior tag
- Serial number
- Lettering and fonts
- Controllato card
Step 1. Touch the Bag to Check the Material
It's quite hard to distinguish the quality of the materials when you look at an item's picture. However, if you plan to buy a Gucci handbag in an offline store or a boutique you have a huge advantage. The fashion house respects its customers, so every bag is made of high-quality leather and canvas. Just touch the bag and if it's a real deal you would fall in love with its incredible softness. Cheap leather at the closer inspection will look unnatural, because of its machine-made origin.
Look at the double G on the canvas, you will notice different sizes of the famous logo on fake bags, as well as different spaces between the letters. In the original version, Gs always have rounded edges. Remember that the left G on the authentic logo is facing forward and the right G is upside down.
Step 2. Examine the Logo
It's true for every respectable brand and for Gucci too, that the logo is the key part of the product. The fashion house has recently updated its famous GG logo, now it is overlapping. No matter what type of Gucci handbag you buy, the logo is always placed on the front. Both letters G look like an unfinished letter O. The logo or the brand name should also be represented on the dust bag which you get for free to keep your purchase from sunlight, moisture, and dust.
Want more on authentication?
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Step 3. Study the Hardware of the Bag
For every designer bag manufacturer it's important to provide high-quality hardware to ensure that a product might be used for decades. Gucci pays special attention to the hardware, because it is easy to copy the look of the bag and make it seem luxurious but it's almost impossible to replicate all the smallest details of the hardware. The fashion house engraves its brand name on zipper, locks and other metal parts. All Gucci hardware is made of solid metal of exceptional quality or gold-plated, they wouldn't peel off with time.
Step 4. Pay Attention to the Stitching
Considering the price of a Gucci bag a customer should expect flawless stitching and a customer is usually right. Fake bags are easily spotted by breaks in threads and uneven work. The original item would have perfectly even stitching with threads of the same colour as the bag. The flaws are easy to spot on leather.
Step 5. Look for Interior Tag
Each Gucci bag has a leather interior tag with the information on both sides. On the front side, there are three lines of words looking like a heat stamp: the first line is a trademark symbol of circled R, the second line contains brand name GUCCI (uppercase letters) and the third says 'made in Italy' (lowercase letters only). On the other side of the tag there's a number, mostly it comes in two lines of 6 digits in each line. Sometimes the first line of numbers contains dots or dashes between the figures. A poorly cut tag with uneven edges may indicate that you are holding a fake.
Step 6. Read the Serial Number Correctly
We've already mentioned some facts about serial numbers, let's learn more about them. The simplest thing you can do is to look up your Gucci bag serial number on the Internet to make sure you are buying an original item. There are two lines of numbers, one below the other, each containing 6 digits and never a letter. The first line of numbers indicates the style, the second is the supplier code.
The serial number is stamped only on the backside of the leather patch inside the bag, not on the sides of the bag itself. There's a special shape for all Gucci numbers, so once you learn the font, you would easily spot a faux bag.
Step 7. Carefully Study Lettering and Fonts
To make sure that you are buying an original product, examine carefully every letter of every word. Gucci doesn't change its font from season to season, so it's widely known. It might vary a bit depending on the area of production.
Look at the space between letters and numbers, they are never touching each other. Examine the word GUCCI: sides of letter U on the logo are slightly different in size, the left line forming the letter is wider than the right one. There is also significant space between letters and it's even. Sometimes the last two letters on fakes are close to each other, but that's never a case for original items. All the letters and numbers are clearly imprinted on original bags, so if you have difficulty reading a word, that's clearly a fake.
Step 8. Find a Controllato Card
A new genuine Gucci bag always contains controllato card in its package. It is Italian for 'checked'. With a controllato card you can be sure the bag was verified by the manufacturer as a quality piece and inspected after completion.
The card contains three lines - significant GUCCI brand name in capital letters, a small sign 'controllato' below and a row of numbers from 1 to 0 divided from each other by one space. Examining the font of the card is essential too, as it might be counterfeit. The existence of the card doesn't actually mean your bag is a unique product of Italian manufacturer but the absence of it, especially in a new bag, might be a warning sign.
Still not sure if your Gucci bag is real? We can help you! At Bagaholic, we provide authentication for a $10 fee. If you need to authenticate a Gucci item, please order one of the three types of authentication:
Verbal Authentication $10
- good when you need a certificate for any reason,
Certificate of Authenticity $25
- good when you need a certificate for any reason, either to sell the bag with the peace of mind or to return a fake bag to the seller if you purchased a fake
- includes a permanent certificate on lvbagaholic.com
Certificate of Authenticity with a thorough explanation $50
- good when you need a certificate and you need to know why the bag is authentic/not authentic for any reason, either to sell the bag with the peace of mind or return a fake bag to the seller if you purchased a fake.
- includes a permanent certificate on lvbagaholic.com
- includes an explanation of why the item is fake (detailed pictures and comparisons with an authentic bag, more than 10 pics included)
PLEASE CHOOSE ONE OF THE OPTIONS BELOW
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