How To Spot Authentic Prada Bag
how to spot a fake Prada
Posted by thepurseworld on April 21, 2008
Some Prada bags come in a plastic drawstring bag with the Prada logo which has all of the authenticity card information printed on a sticker on the outside. The serial number and model number are also. Authentic Prada bags use zippers from Lampo, Ykk, Riri, Opti, and Ipi. These brands should be engraved somewhere on the back of the hardware. The lining is embossed fabric or genuine leather. Some Prada bags will be unlined, but if there is a jacquard lining, you should be able to feel it through the bag. The classic jacquard logo lining will feature a coiled rope motif and PRADA repeated throughout. When inspecting the bag’s interior, check how wide or narrow the pitch of the A is on the Prada logo. Check the dust bag and authenticity card. Most Prada bags come in a soft flannel or silky dust bag.
All genuine, brand new, Prada handbags come with two authenticity cards. One will be paper and the other a plastic credit card-like card, typically in a small black envelope. The latter not only holds details of the bag style but also its serial number. How to spot a fake Prada - The Authenticity Card.
Handbags are a wondrous and beautiful extension of our very personalities. We can make quite the fashion statement with what handbag we choose to use. A handbag can change according to our tastes, our emotions, and our moods. What one person thinks is a good handbag may not be so good for another person. One deciding factor to many people – except those that are the social elite of society – is how much that handbag is going to cost. Not that you want to buy a cheap handbag, you just want to make sure you get what you are paying for. One way you can make sure to get what you pay for is by being able to detect frauds. Do you know how to detect a fake Prada handbag? Most people don’t.
Is It A Real Prada?
Of course, the is no guarantee that the handbag you are getting is a genuine, authentic Prada. However, these following steps will help keep you at the top of your game. These steps will teach you know how to detect a fake Prada handbag. While far from complete, this offers a guideline.
1. Check the hardware. All Prada hardware is antique brass. If you find hardware that is rusted, old, or worn, then it probably is not a Prada. Check the coloration, the size, and the condition. All Prada products – clothes, handbags, and/or coats – offer the same superb and excellent hardware. This includes zippers, clasps, closures, buckles, and any possible chains that may be attached to the handbag.
2. Check the handle/strap. Without fail, all Prada handbags have the best handle/straps available in the industry today. High quality equates to no frayish, strayish threads. People would not spend upwards of $2,000 USD for a handbag just to have a handle/strap that was cheap and didn’t last longer than the handbag.
3. Have you looked at that lining? The lining of all these luxurious handbags is of the finest materials. All Prada handbags have the unique Prada logo embroidered repeatedly into the lining no matter the material. Often, this material is super fine leather, velvet, or the finest cotton. The seams on the inside are all but invisible.
4. Where did you get the handbag? If you get your handbag from a ritzy department store such as Saks or Neiman Marcus, the chances are pretty good you have an original. If you get your handbag from the street corner for $29.99 USD, the chances are it isn’t an authentic Prada. All Prada handbags have a serial number and tag of authenticity located on them. This is a great way to detect the real from the fake.
Obviously when you want to know how to detect a fake Prada handbag, this is only a guideline and not a rule. Use common sense, do your research, and expect to pay a small fortune. Following these simple steps will insure that you get the most bang for your buck.
How to spot a fake
Knockoff designer goods are readily available on the street in such areas such as Los Angeles’ Santee Street and New York’s Canal Street. And the internet is full of online auctions and cybersellers offering “Inspired by” copies and outright fakes. The old method of spotting fakes was simple: flimsy hardware, cheap leather and misspelled logos were a giveaway. Now, fakes are so good (and expensive) that you simply can’t tell the difference. So how do you know what’s real and what’s not?
Some clues:
* The price. A new Louis Vuitton handbag for $100 is not authentic. The real thing often sells for $500 to well over $1000. Same thing for Prada and Gucci.
* Where it’s being sold. Authorized dealers for Chanel, LV, etc. do not sell handbags out of the trunk of a car. Nor do they sell them at online auctions or at home parties.
* Point of origin tag. Designer apparel or leather goods with a “Made in Taiwan” tag are not authentic.
Authenticity cards, product literature and tags and serial numbers
We used to see Prada clothes with fake Saks tags attached to them – how’s that for pathetic? Sadly, the fake Prada clothes are still there – generic, ugly $5 polyester clothes with a fake red Prada tag sewn on the side. Awful “Juicy Couture” knockoff velour, terry sweatsuits -with a Prada tag! Please trust me on this – the fake Prada label on these clothes does *not* make these clothes authentic Prada!
Beware of stolen pictures and item descriptions!
Some items pictured in auctions look real – because they are! Some sellers steal pictures of authentic items sold by legitimate sellers.
The only way you can spot this is to watch auctions vigilantly and make sure that two different sellers don’t have the same pictures.
There’s photos of a Blue Jean Birkin, a Gold Birkin and a Black Birkin that have been making the eBay rounds for months – I’m sick of looking at them! Sometimes it will be obvious when a picture has been stolen – look for oddly cropped views of items, for example. (they look this way because the photo thief has cropped out the original owner’s name or something). “Fake” sellers also use composites of photos from different bags (showing a closeup of an authentic bag’s telltale clasp along with a full shot of a fake bag.) Another telltale sign – one that I have seen often with people selling Hermès “Birkin” bags that are fake or they do not have – a discrepancy between the picture and the item description. For example, Birkin bags of different sizes have different proportions. And each Hermes leather has a very distinctive look.
Can You Spot The Fake?
By: Jim Edwards
Published: October 28, 2002
With a market full of knockoffs, Brandweek hit the streets to expose the fake bags, fragrances and other would-be designer merchandise. Two years ago, Gucci executives discovered that discount retailer Daffy’s had been selling fake copies of its designer Jackie O bags. Gucci immediately sued the store chain, demanding to know its suppliers.
When a retailer is caught selling knockoff goods, it can normally expect to be banned from carrying the brand in addition to paying heavy fines. In this case, however, Daffy’s raised a curious defense: The store executives believed the bags were real.
Over the next two years, the suit devolved from a simple request for an injunction into a scorched-earth battle over differences in leather, buckles, hasps, straps, sizes and reptile skin?in pink, black and what the judge called “lurid purple.” Tellingly, neither side chose to publicize the war.
To make its case, Gucci brought to court a genuine Jackie O and a fake, and had its head of quality control, a 31-year employee, testify that he had “never seen” a real bag that looked like a Daffy’s fake.
The judge was unimpressed. He noted that when both bags were compared even Gucci could provide no proof as to which was fake and which was real. “The handbags were counterfeit,” the judge agreed, “albeit a high-quality product capable of fooling even the most discriminating buyers.”
In fact, Daffy’s managers had gone to lengths to ascertain the origin of the bags. First, they took a Jackie O to a Gucci store where the staff pronounced it real. Then they sent a broken bag to Gucci to be repaired under warranty; it came back fixed, without comment. Further, Daffy’s noted, the bags had come from a reputable supplier and had been as expensive as the real thing.
In September, the judge ordered Daffy’s to stop selling the bags, but ruled against Gucci on all other counts, allowing Daffy’s to continue selling Gucci product.
Undeniably, the market is awash in counterfeit products. Barbara Kolson, svp and general counsel at Kate Spade, says that for every genuine bag the New York designer sells, there is at least one fake sold illegally. “Our problem is obviously of the magnitude of Chanel’s, Prada and others,” she said. The lost revenue is about $70 million yearly, she estimated.
To assess the quality of the fake goods trade, Brandweek took a stroll along Canal Street in New York, a strip famed for its black market. We invited two experts from Boston-based brand security consultancy GenuOne, famous brands manager David Margolis and chief marketing officer Andy Barron.
All the bags we saw were pronounced fake by the pair. Bogus Gucci and pseudo-Kate Spade were particularly popular. “The labels aren’t embroidered on, they’re stuck on,” noted Barron. “The lining is either generic or it’s misbranded. They don’t think people are going to look inside.” He also found metal Prada logos missing their corner rivets and crudely embossed leather. But overall, Margolis said, “some of it looks very close to the real stuff.”
Fragrances were a different story. Barron was particularly taken with a Burberry bottle hawked from a wheeled cart outside a pizza parlor. “They had the right details?the right darkness of wood, the whole packaging. It’s got the right drawstring bag, even the label on the bottom,” he noted.
Margolis reckoned the Burberry was genuine, but had come from the “gray market,” genuine product that has putatively fallen off the back of a truck. In an effort to boost profits, designers in recent years have cut costs by outsourcing their manufacturing to factories in Asia. The factories then make more product than the designer orders and send the surplus to street dealers in Europe and the U.S.
GenuOne recommends any number of high-tech gizmos to guard against fraud, including embossed holograms, invisible ink, X-ray detection, digital watermarking, intaglio printing (which textures paper like a banknote) and dyes that change color with the angle of the sun.
Clients are slowly coming around, but part of the problem is the designers themselves. In their rush to deliver year-on-year growth, many have reduced retail prices. And, whereas designer apparel was once only available in Paris, it is now on sale at the local mall, reminded Pamela Danziger, president of the luxury consultancy Unity Marketing and author of Why People Buy Things They Don’t Need.
Marketers have thus trained their consumers to be, well, cheap. In a study sponsored by House & Garden, Danziger found that women made most purchases at a discount in all luxury categories except for makeup. “This has serious implications for luxury marketers,” she said. When faced with an expensive Jackie O and a cheap counterfeit, Gucci will lose every time. “If you can’t really tell the difference and you’re getting it for 10% of the cost, why not?”
The consumer needs re-educating, argued Kate Spade’s Kolson. “The real problem is a strange perception among middle-class women and their daughters that it’s OK to buy knockoffs,” she said. “Some of them just don’t care. They think it’s cute.” Each fake damages the brand and, judging from the tone of her voice, hurts Kolson personally. She recently received a letter from the chief counsel of a Senate subcommittee, whose father had been caught selling “cheesy” counterfeits in his gas station in California.
“He has the ear of President Bush! I told him I’m letting your father off, but I’m keeping your name and number to torture you,” Kolson said.
Until recently, designers refused to talk about their fake problem. (Neither Gucci nor LVMH returned calls for this story.) Now they have formed trade associations like the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition to campaign against fakes.
But it’s an uphill battle. Consider this: During the Gucci lawsuit, the genuine Gucci bag was stolen from the court clerk’s office before it got to the judge. “The court could only offer its apologies [for] this embarrassing event,” the judge wrote. The bag was not recovered
Origin: pradafan.com
Prada bags, known for their classic aesthetics that never go out of style, are unsurprisingly some of the most popular designer bags in the world.
While they come with hefty price tags, these purses are well worth the investment. Prada clutches usually start at around $300 while regular handbags usually cost more than $1,000.
Cahier Leather Shoulder Bag, $2,950 at Farfetch
Unfortunately, counterfeiters make a lot of money by creating fake Prada bags. In November 2019, Prada handbags and other luxury purses worth over $2.2 million were seized at Washington Dulles International Airport.
If you’re thinking of ordering a bag from a third-party site, make sure you know you’re getting the real thing.
Where to buy Prada bags
If you have been wanting to get your hands on an authentic bag from the Italian luxury fashion house, the websites below are the most popular stores to buy them online.
How To Detect Authentic Prada Bag
1. Farfetch
2. Amazon
3. Nordstrom
4. Saks Fifth Avenue
5. Bergdorf Goodman
1. Check the dust bag and authenticity card
Most Prada bags come in a soft flannel or silky dust bag with the Prada logo printed on the front, though there are very few exceptions.
The font used on the dustbag print should be consistent with the Prada fonts used all throughout the bag.
Lily Allen exiting a Prada store in London on December 19, 2008
Your bag should also come with care booklets and a sealed authenticity card showing the bag’s serial number and style information.
Some counterfeiters can also replicate the dust bag and authenticity card, but fake replicas will typically have low-quality prints with uneven spacing and discoloration.
2. Logo kerning and spacing should be even
Prada’s logo, which includes the inverted triangle, is one of the most distinguishable designer logos. Genuine Prada bags should have logo plaques that are clearly readable, evenly placed, and secured on the leather.
Prada’s logo includes an inverted triangle
The color of the plaque should match the color of the bag’s leather. Some styles do not have the inverted triangle logo but instead have the words Prada Milano displayed.
The logo plaque should be easy to read
Check that the kerning or spacing is consistent and the font used is the same in all the other brand markings all over the bag.
3. The inside should have an interior plaque
Aside from the exterior logo plaque, Prada bags also have an interior plaque, which design may differ depending on the bag’s style.
Newer bags display Prada Made In Italy
Older styles display “Prada Milano Made in Italy” done in three lines. Newer styles, however, will have only two lines that read “Prada Made in Italy.”
Some non-leather styles feature the leather patch on the interior instead of the ceramic plaque.
4. Hardware and zippers are of high quality
The hardware is critical in determining the authenticity of a Prada bag. Some counterfeited purses use cheap zippers and hardware that are prone to discoloration.
The hardware is critical in determining the authenticity of a Prada bag
Genuine bags will display high-quality hardware that can be gold-plated or stainless steel. These should have brand name engravings that are properly spaced and readable.
The engraved brand name, always in bold and capitalized letters, is placed on hardware like buckles, zippers, metal feet, locks, and buttons. Authentic Prada bags use zippers from Lampo, Ykk, Riri, Opti, and Ipi. These brands should be engraved somewhere on the back of the hardware.
5. The lining is embossed fabric or genuine leather
The interior of a genuine Prada bag typically has as much detail as its exterior. Also, the bag’s lining showcases a pattern that displays the Prada name horizontally.
Check the interior details and lining
The color of the printed lining should match or complement the bag’s exterior color. However, not all styles have this printed lining.
Some bags feature Nappa leather lining, which exhibits a more modern finish.
The printed lining should match or complement the bag’s exterior color
6. The leather should feel luxurious
Authentic Pradas are made from the highest quality calf leather, which should feel soft to the touch. Fake leather may look real from afar but it feels rigid and stiff to the touch.
Prada purses are made from the highest quality calf leather
Regardless of the style — classic, ruched, printed, or studded — the leather used on these purses is distinctly rich and supple.
Prada clutches will not display excessively bright and shiny hues
Pay close attention to the colors in printed styles. Fake Prada bags will display excessively bright and shiny hues while original ones would have smooth and even coloration.
Because of the cheap materials used, counterfeit designer bags also tend to feel heavier than originals. Be mindful of the texture and weight of the bags you purchase.
7. The stitching should be neat and even
One of the telltale signs of a counterfeit Prada bag is messy, uneven stitching. Original Prada purses showcase perfect, even stitches done with a sturdy thread which should be the same color as the bag’s leather.
The topstitching on most Prada bags is slightly angled
Notice that the topstitching on most of Prada’s bag styles is slightly angled. This is hard to replicate, and most counterfeiters just use a normal straight stitch.
Prada’s topstitching is hard to replicate
Be on the lookout for uneven stitching that looks like it’s about to come off – a clear sign of poorly made counterfeit Pradas.
Prada Questions and Answers
Where are authentic Prada handbags made?
According to The Wall Street Journal, “about 20% of Prada’s collections—which range from bags and shoes to clothes for men and women—are made in China.”
“Sooner or later, it will happen to everyone because [Chinese manufacturing] is so good,” Italian billionaire fashion designer Miuccia Prada said in an interview.
Prada also manufactures products outside Italy in other cheaper countries such as Vietnam, Turkey, and Romania.
A prime example of traditional Milanese craftsmanship is this black Saffiano leather logo suitcase from Prada featuring top handles, a two-way zip fastening, a front logo plaque, gold-tone hardware, multiple interior compartments, a hanging leather tag, and a sleep mask with pouch
Prada’s Arezzo factory in Tuscany, which is responsible for producing much of the leather goods, apparel, and footwear, also employs a lot of Chinese workers.
The New Yorker writes that Italian luxury labels are “using inexpensive immigrant labor to manufacture handbags that bear the coveted “Made in Italy” label.”
What does Prada mean?
The Italian luxury fashion house was founded in 1913 by Mario Prada and his brother Martino as Fratelli Prada (English: Prada Brothers). Prada is a habitational name, meaning that the name derives from the inhabited location associated with the person given that name.
Most likely the surname originally derives from Prada de Conflent, the Catalan name for Prades, a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. Its inhabitants are called Pradéens/Pradéennes in French, and Pradencs/Pradenques in Catalan.
Do Prada bags ever go on sale?
Classic handbags like the Saffiano tote hardly ever go on sale. However, some seasonal bags and discontinued purses can be purchased at Nordstrom Rack and Saks OFF 5TH.
Is Prada an expensive luxury brand?
Yes, Prada bags are expensive. However, bags from Gucci and Chanel usually cost even more.
Celebrity Fans of Prada Handbags
The Milan-based brand is well-loved by many fashionistas and celebrities including the Kardashians, Taylor Swift, and Lily Collins. It’s a normal sight to see A-listers using Prada totes to complete their outfits.
Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and Selena Gomez are only some of Hollywood A-listers who love their Prada bags
How To Spot A Fake Prada Bag Video
Sisters Kourtney Kardashian and Kendall Jenner are fans of vintage Prada
Emily Ratajkowski enjoys her an afternoon out with her Prada “Cahier” bag
Fashion icon Alexa Chung and model Miranda Kerr go for the top handle Prada totes
Even Hollywood youngins Lily Collins and Emma Roberts love Prada
For more tips on spotting a fake from an original Prada bag, you can watch the video below: