A luxury bag expert has revealed the easy trick you need to know in order to spot a fake Louis Vuitton purse – and it’ll leave you double-checking every purchase.
The information was shared by brand Luxe Collective in a video posted to their TikTok page last month.
Luxe Collective, based in the UK, sells pre-owned luxury items from high-end brands like Chanel, Goyard, Hermès, and of course, Louis Vuitton.
Unfortunately, these designs often fall victim to being made counterfeits – but with this trick, you’ll be able to tell in no time whether or not your bag is the real deal if you bought it secondhand.
As an example, Luxe Collective’s co-founder, Ben Gallagher, used the brand’s $2,570 Pochette Métis purse.
‘If you open up the back zip pocket, you will find a date code in it,’ Gallagher explained.
‘The code should be two to three letters followed by four digits,’ he continued.
Gallagher said that the letters are representative of the factory location and, in models made before 2007, the first and third digits represent the month that the bag was made.
The second and the fourth digit are in reference to the year that the bag was made, the co-founder shared.
For bags that were made after 2007, the first and third digit instead represent the week, not the month.
So, when inspecting your bag, it’s very important to take notice of the date code.
‘If your bag has a date code which doesn’t exist, such as the 60th week of 2027, then it’s obviously been made by a fake manufacturer who doesn’t understand the date code system,’ Gallagher revealed.
However, Gallagher said it was important to note that Louis Vuitton bags that were made after 2021 have something called an NFC chip instead of a date code – so this rule only applies to bags created before that year.
In the comments section of the post, many viewers were impressed by the useful tip.
‘I’ll be checking inside everyone’s LV from now on… Ladies beware,’ one person wrote.
Another agreed, ‘Louis Vuitton training 101 – this reminds me of my Sloane Street days.’
Others, however, pointed out that a correct date code could easily be replicated on counterfeit bags.
‘Do you think that codes can’t be real codes put on a fake bag? They only need one real code,’ someone typed.
Another added, ‘Code can be duplicated. NFC can be duplicated.’
