After 16 years in designer consignment, a lot of what I know about handbags has simply come from having thousands of them pass through my hands. The last two years I have taken a lot more time to study this. One of the biggest learning experiences was my year-long pop-up at the Washington Square Mall. We were right next to Nordstrom, and the amount of luxury that came through our doors was mind-boggling. We saw everything from current-season bags to vintage pieces, bags that predated modern date-code systems, unusual styles, different eras of the same brands, and pieces I had simply never encountered before. It was fun, but it also forced us to get much more systematic about how we identify and evaluate handbags.
After that experience, I wanted to formalize more of what I had learned over the years. I began taking professional, certificate-based training focused on the authentication processes of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Gucci, both to deepen my own knowledge and to create clearer training and procedures for my team.
The truth is that authentication is rarely about one detail. When a bag comes into Consign Couture, we start by identifying the exact style and era. We often use reverse-image search and archival listings to find an exact match. Then we look at the leather or canvas, hardware, zipper pulls, stitching, interior construction, manufacturing location, labels and whatever identification system that particular brand was using during that particular period.
The question we’re constantly asking is: Does everything about this bag tell the same story?
And I think it is important to be transparent about this too. In 15 years, we have had one handbag we sold later come back to us because it was found not to be authentic. It had been purchased years earlier by a longtime customer. When she brought it back, we recognized it as a bag that had come through our store and refunded her, no questions asked. I hated that it happened, but the experience led us to create the three-step authentication process we now use on every designer handbag that comes through the store. Our team is trained on the overall process, I provide another level of review backed by my experience and continued authentication education, and when a bag warrants additional verification, we send it to an independent third-party authentication service. Because the reality is that extremely convincing replicas exist.
Part of what I love about true luxury is how beautifully many of these pieces age. My favorite bag of all time is a Balenciaga City bag I’ve owned for almost 20 years. It has lived a whole life with me, and somehow the leather looks and feels better now than when it was new. That’s part of what you’re paying for. A beautifully made piece can be carried, loved, repaired, passed along and eventually resold while retaining real value.
Counterfeit goods don’t offer that same history or value, and the larger counterfeit industry can also involve labor exploitation and criminal activity. For me, authentication isn’t just about determining whether a logo is right. It’s about knowing what we’re selling, protecting the person buying it, protecting the person consigning it, and standing behind what leaves our store.
Interested in consigning with us?
I’ll be at Consign Couture Sunday, September 27 from 1–4 PM doing complimentary, on-the-spot handbag evaluations and resale pricing estimates.
If you have a bag sitting in your closet and you’re wondering what it is, what era it’s from, whether it’s something we would consign or what it might be worth on today’s resale market, bring it in.
