Expensive Gift Or a Super Fake – Louis Vuitton Damier Azur Stresa GM Bag
Expensive Gift Or a Super Fake? Louis Vuitton Damier Azur Stresa GM Bag.
We received a lot of emails/phone calls everyday from people wanting to sell us something; website design, advertising space, SEO service, bags, web hosting, cups, doormats, you name it. We also receive genuine inquires for consignment private sales, which we welcome. However, recently we received a very interesting package. It contained a brand new, never used, Louis Vuitton Damier Azur Stresa GM Bag its owner offered for sale to us. At a rather high price I might add.
Normally private collectors would send us photos to get a quote before sending the bags over. This bag arrived without any photos sent prior. When the parcel was opened, we saw a gorgeous looking bag. Its leather still pale-new, untarnished. For a used bag this would always be a bad sign. LV leather only looks that pale not for long before it turns into a darker patina. But this is a brand new bag, so its all good. It was so new, in fact, it even had plastic wrapping around the handles.
Hm… plastic wrappers around the handles? Curiouser and curiouser …
Bag received
The thing is, new bags from Louis Vuitton stores don’t come wrapped in plastic. It just looks tacky and cheap, and LV is all about style. Well, at least, we’ve never seen such plastic wrappers from any of the Louis Vuitton stores we’ve been to; in Australia, Europe, America or Japan. The owner said that the bag came from an LV store in Macau, and since none of us have purchased from that store before, we examined the bags thoroughly to verify its authenticity.
The bag looked very much like a real Louis Vuitton Damier Azur Stresa GM bag. Normally 99% of fakes can be spotted with just a glance, but this one was a real challenge. It has the right color of stitching, shape, measurements, right number of wall pockets positioned in the right spots of a Louis Vuitton Damier Azur Stresa GM bag. The date code is VI2150 meaning: made in 25th week of 2010. The copy of the receipt was dated on December 20th 2010 so it’s all making sense on paper.
It’s quite amazing how sophisticated some counterfeiters have become. We actually had fun spotting the minute differences between the real LV and this bag. We compared it to a large number of real Louis Vuitton Damier Azur Stresa GM bags we’ve seen and we want to share the details with you.
Louis Vuitton factories are very consistent with the font, stitching, logo, wording, heat stamps etc on their products of the same model, produced in the similar period of time, which helps a great deal in the authentication process.
- Wrong date code font: real LV Stresa bags’ date code font is slim and long as shown in the blow photos:
Real Date Code font is slim and long
This bag’s date code doesn’t possess the correct font. The numbers and letters in the date code are too round compared to real ones and the last 2 numbers “5” and “0” are slightly out of alignment. See the wrong date code font of the bag received in below photo:
Fake: Font is rounder, number 0 looks shorter then the rest
- Wrong heat stamp: real LV Strasa bags’ heat stamps are pressed lightly on the leather. Letter strokes are thin.
Real LV streasa bag heat stamps: light and thin
This bag’s heat stamp is deeply pressed into the leather. Letter strokes are much thicker than the ones on original bags.
Fake: heap stamp pressed deeply into the leather.
- Counterfeit zipper pull. Real Louis Vuitton Stresa logo pulls have the Louis Vuitton logo nicely engraved on the brass, using a special font with a well-rounded “O”.
Real LV zipper pull: Logos are engraved lightly on the brass with rounder logo font
Letters on the zipper pull of the bag received are smaller and in wrong font.
Fake: Louis Vuitton logo
- The bag has incorrect number of stitches on the side leather tab with brass rivet. Louis Vuitton always have the same number of stitches on the bags of the same model, manufactured in the same period of time. Real Louis Vuitton Stresa GM bags have 9 even stitches on each side of the brass rivet on the side leather tab.
Real LV Stresa GM bag leather tab has 9 stitches
The bag received has only 8 stitches on the each side of the brass rivet, which appear uneven as shown below:
Fake: leather tab has 8 uneven stitches
Sadly there are so many “close to real” fakes out there. We don’t accept any item that we can’t guarantee its authenticity. So we had to bring the bad news to the sender that the gift they bought is actually a fake. A very smart fake but nevertheless, not the real deal. In the mean time, watch out buyers. If you see a similar Louis Vuitton Damier Azur Stresa GM bag for sale somewhere, stay away. It might be this bag’s sister from Macau.
More blog posts on Designer Handbag Guide.
I wish I could have seen your comments before I purchased my fake Stresa. the pictures looked good, but when I received it, it doesnt smell like leather, totally fake. The canvas feels like the real one, doesnt smell like the real one but can pass. the issue is the lack of quality leather. Now Im disputing the case with ebay
It can be tricky. Hope you’ll get your money back!
“…new bags from Louis Vuitton stores don’t come wrapped in plastic. It just looks tacky and cheap, and LV is all about style.”
Couldn’t agree more! Today, I visited the flagship Goyard store here in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the bags and presentation failed to impress. Not only were the bags scrunched up in tall, bargain basement looking stacks, but they also had their handles wrapped in cheap looking plastic. Not what I would expect from a luxury brand. I was on the fence between getting my wife a Goyard tote or the LV Neverfull, but after seeing both in person, the Neverfull was an easy decision. =)
You are right, the stacks and plastic sound a bit disappointing… Glad you picked a beautiful bag for your wife:).
All replica handbags come with a dust bag, a care book and a verification card. These little extras look the same as the originals and only an expert can tell they are fakes. Nowadays, replicas are even made of the same materials as the original bags.
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I dont have anything against buying a replica lv because lv quality is now degrading. There are lv replica bags that are more sturdy than the real one. Some fakes are even better in quality and are even handmade like hermes (and please dont give me that reasoning that it’s used for illegal activities, no, some counterfeiters do not use the money to fund illicit activities) , for a fraction of the cost of the real deal, and this says a lot about louis vuitton. As soon as lv became a big conglomerate, the quality degraded slowly over time.
Lovely information about the details. I purchased an LV Stresa GM four years ago and still wondering if its authentic or not although I owned new LV bags. There are a lot of super fakes on online shops so still wondering if its authentic. Bought it on ebay for 900aud they called their shop brandoff from Japan. Luckily, upon reading your blog it helped me that the bag is authentic.. super happy. Your article is very informative. Thank you!!!!
That’s so good to hear darl. Glad you you’ve got the real deal:) Yeah Brandoff from Japan usually sell authentic preowned bags though it’s always good to double check like you’ve done.
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