How to Tell if a Chanel Bag is Real or Fake: Authenticating a Chanel Mini Square Flap

Recently I've purchased a Chanel mini flap bag from a private seller. The bag didn't have the serial number (as seller stated, she took the bag to dry cleaning and the serial sticker fell off).

I also had an authentic Chanel bag mini flap at home. As soon as I receive a new bag I'm gonna sell and I'm not sure whether it's authentic, I usually authenticate it via Entrupy.

However, as soon as I started to examine the bag I had received, I noticed that it doesn't need any further authentications.

Can you tell which Chanel Mini Square is real and which is a replica?

Here's the correct answer:

• Beige is FAKE
• Brown is REAL

Now let's practice the authentication and understand why the beige caviar Chanel bag mini flap doesn't look real at all.

Chanel mini flap bag is available in two versions, Rectangular and Square. You can learn more on Chanel flap sizes in our article here.

Authenticating Chanel Flap Bag by Its Serial Number

Serials are the most important part of the bag when it comes to authentication. Just by looking at the serial you may know that the bag isn't real.

However, when a serial number is missing, giving a verdict becomes harder.

We won't examine the serial as one of the purses doesn't have a serial number. The absence of serial is not normal, however, it's not a 100% giveaway. A lot of authentic vintage Chanel bags don't have a serial cause at some point the inside was treated with a cleanser or it was stored in a place that has too much moisture. The sticker glue on authentic Chanel bags is very good but it can fall apart during dry cleaning.

If you come across a Chanel handbag that doesn't have a serial, authenticate it. It's not necessarily a red flag, just a precaution. Please be aware that if a handbag doesn't have a serial, this is generally reflected in its price.

Authenticating a Chanel Bag: General Guidance

From the overall look, you can see that one of the bags is much more used. Both bags appear to be nice though. You can't tell a lot from their appearance if you're not an expert.

If you have enough expertise you may see that the beige bag has lost its shape which is untypical for Chanel quality. However, the diamond pattern is even on the bag and looks quite nice. There's also extra stitching on the ends of the beige front flap which seems suspicious because the brown mini doesn't have it.

Regarding the stitching, most Chanel Mini Square bags don't have it. However, there were several authentic Mini Bags that were produced with this extra stitching - in 2017, for instance.

 The backside is consistent between the bags. Again, we see that shape is damaged.

Beige bag looks cheap inside. Chanel Mini flap bags are structured inside and the inside cannot be pulled out. That's a dead giveaway.

Here are other tips on authenticating Chanel.

Authenticating Chanel by Hardware

Pay attention to the CC overlapping. On the fake Mini Square, the upper CC overlapping looks much messier and the CC lock looks plain. On the authentic brown Chanel, the overlapping is nice and the CC letters look puffier. 

The screws on the beige bag are larger which is often an indicator of the fake. However, in many cases it's hard to spot the difference, especially if you don't have an authentic bag at home to make a comparison.

The zipper pullers are apparently very different. If we take a closer look, the letters on the left one are plain inside. The letters on the brown Chanel are abrasive inside. Not every Chanel fake has this giveaway and apparently there are fakes that have abrasive letters too.

If you look closer, you'll notice that the font is different too. The authentic C is wide, round and is exactly the same as on made in stamp. The ends of the fake C almost meet each other.

Authenticating Chanel by Its Made In Stamp

Looking at these photos, you can easily tell that they're different. You don't yet know why but the font is not the same. There's a reason behind it: the beige Chanel bag is not real.

Need to Authenticate a Chanel Item?

 To have your bag authenticated, please purchase the product below and send us the pictures via email.