Authenticating: Coach!

In a normal week, I go thrift shopping at least once to buy vintage Coach bags to restore and use or resell them.  That being said, I see a lot of counterfeit merchandise.  I've been buying vintage Coach for about a year and a half now, so I feel like I have gotten authentication down to an art form because I'm to a point where with some bags I can tell it's fake without ever even touching it.  
Keep in mind, this is just a brief overview on authentication.  There is a LOT that goes into it, not just the points that I mention here.  These are some tips that have helped me in my hunt for Coach bags while thrift shopping.  Some of it is just practice in seeing what's real and what's fake.  I also recommend for specific authentication questions, visit the PurseBlog's Authentication Coach forum.
This post is pretty heavy on graphics, so if you're accessing this on a phone I apologize in advance.  Authentication is all about having a keen eye for details, and it's hard to just explain without pictures.

If the bag has a buckle, it should look like this:

This buckle is square and the edges are totally rounded.

Sometimes the buckle is rounded but flat backed, but other times there is a little bump where the buckle attaches to the bag.

If the buckle is flat like this:

or rectangular like this...

It's fake.
(This one is actually also a great example of 2 different tones of hardware too, which is also an indicator of a fake bag!)

Turnlocks are Coach's signature design closures for their bags.  They were first used by Bonnie Cashin in the 1960s and are still used in Coach products today with slight design modifications.  On vintage bags, the part that actually turns should be nice and rounded like this:

If the turnlock is kind of chunky or blocky looking like this:

It's fake.

Or even like this:

It's also fake.

The underside of the turnlock is also a good indicator of authenticity.  It should be flat and smooth like this:

Or like this:

This is from a briefcase and it should look EXACTLY like this.

But if it looks like this:

Or has grooves by the prongs from the front of the turnlock similar to this, it's fake.

There are also some easier ways to spot a fake.  For example, read the stamped creed inside the bag!  Sometimes there will be typos (grammatical and misspellings) and other times no creed at all.  There is a fair amount of variety to the creeds depending on the age of the bag itself.  The oldest bags simply have a tiny metal plate that says "Coach" or a little stamp that says it.  

The format of the serial numbers started at seven digits as XXX-XXXX then later moved to XXXX-XXX.  They have NEVER been shorter than that and since about the mid-2000's have only gotten longer.  Bags with short serial numbers (5 or 6 digits) are usually made in Korea, which is another giveaway a bag is fake.  So many fake Coach bags have come out of Korea that Coach will probably never actually do any bag manufacturing in that country.  Coach bags are/were however made in the United States, Costa Rica, Italy, China, Hungary, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.  Each area has a slightly different texture to the leather.  For example, the older United States bags are very thick and durable, while Costa Rican leather is slightly thinner and smooshy.  (Some collectors have a preference when shopping for vintage bags.)  Bags in Italy are typically pebbled leather, similar to Dooney handbags.  (More on authenticating Dooney in another post!)

Like I said before, this is just a quick overview on how to authenticate.  Hopefully it helps you in your search for a vintage (or new) Coach bag!  If you have any questions, do not hesitate to leave a comment below.  I also recommend looking into the PurseForum's Coach authentication message board.  They have a lot of experts who spend their spare time authenticating bags and are awesome at it!  

I'm back!

So I've been gone for awhile--sorry about that!  I've been trying to figure out a good way to keep writing, but at the same time not get burned out.  Writing every day without having much to say or direction is definitely difficult, and I'm still working on finding my voice for this blog.  I've definitely been keeping busy with running, volunteering, thrifting and being a domestic goddess.

I plan on keeping up with race reviews, thrifting finds and Coach rehabs.  I've been working on stocking up bags to sell on Etsy, since they allow for vintage bags to be listed on their website.  That being said, I've been working on a LOT of rehabs as of late.  Last week I had three going--two I was touching up, and another I was waiting on for replacement hardware to arrive from Coach.  (That's a lot for me, even with just a one day a week volunteer job!)  Fortunately, with Halloween coming I've been able to have some great background noise while working on my bags.

This time of year I love bringing out the old Halloween movies I watched as a kid, and I plan on going more in depth into them in future posts, but here are a few that I still adore all these years later:  The Worst Witch, Witch's Night Out, Halloween is Grinch Night, Disney's Halloween Treat, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Garfield's Halloween Adventure, the Pumpkin that Couldn't Smile, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Claymation Comedy of Horrors, Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus.  I plan on talking about most of these, since many of them are very obscure and have been long since forgotten.

Coach Restore #3

Typically when I go thrift shopping I look for a quick and easy Coach bag restore.  (The thrift stores I frequent usually have something.)  After lots of practice and a plethora of research I've gotten pretty good at authenticating on the spot but I always get a second opinion.  I came across this one last week and I practically recognized it right away.  It was a small bag called a dinky.  (Yes, the name made me giggle in the store once I realized what I had.)  It was in pretty good shape to begin with, so I figured it would be a quick turnaround.  

The corners were in good shape, so I figured all it would need was just a bath and some conditioning and it would be good to go.  I was mostly right.  This one had a little surprise--something spilled inside and sunk through the bag to the back of it.  I was surprised to find blue all over the paper towels I had shoved inside to help with the drying process and to reshape the bag.  And it somehow leaked out to the back of the bag.  Thankfully, all it took was a quick wipe with some vinegar and it was good as new!  I then focused on shining up the brass hardware, which required some elbow grease and patience.  (And a knife to help remove it from the bag.)  After that I just applied conditioner and shoved some newsprint inside to help it maintain its shape.  And ta-da! 

A brand new looking bag at a fraction of the cost!

Coach Restore #2

Restoring vintage Coach bags is probably one of the most satisfying and maddening hobbies out there.  (Okay, and it's also a little random.)  Sometimes you get a completely different bag compared to what you started with, and other times you can hardly tell a difference.  My second restore is one of those examples.  Coach names a lot of their bags, and this one is called "Willis."  This is a bag I paid $10 for, and found a navy blue version of it hanging up with it so I bought both.  (Brand new, this bag goes for $300!)

Here's what I started with.  Not too bad, right?

Here's what the finished product looks like, before shoving in newsprint to help it keep shape.

So this one is a perfect example of a really subtle result, but required a LOT of work.  The turnlock (in the center of the bag) is all shined up in the bottom picture, the corners of the bag are shiny again, and the places that the brass on the strap rubbed are much less noticeable.  I also had to glue the hangtag back together, which had a front and back to it but was an easy enough fix with some tacky glue.

This one ended up being an interesting case.  It reeked of cigarette smoke, so I threw it into a rubbermaid container with a small cup of baking soda and another of activated charcoal.  I must have gotten a little too over eager since I should have waited until it was totally dry.  Instead I waited until it was mostly dry.  Because a few days later the bag was covered in MOLD!  It was fuzzy inside and out, so I wiped it down with vinegar and propped it open on our deck for a few hours on a warm day.  (It's a natural way to kill off mold in this situation!)  It looked pretty good after the first application of vinegar and a sunbath, but I did a second one just to be sure.  
For me, a proper restore takes at least 3 days from start to finish depending on the size of the bag, how thick the leather is, how many pockets the bag has, and how much hardware is on the bag.  This one?  Two full weeks.  Needless to say, I took some time off after this project!

My First Coach Restore

I plan on at least attempting to alternate posts about running and thrift shopping as much as possible.  Since I went thrift shopping today, I'll start there.
I am crazy about thrift shopping.  I make it a point to go at least once a week to my favorite stores, usually on the days that they have huge sales (which happen three times a week, but since I can I avoid going on weekends.)  It started as trying to complete a "spice of life" pyrex set that the previous tenant of our old apartment left behind.  Then I started exploring a little bit further around the store.  And I discovered how amazing it is to go thrift shopping in a suburb!!  When we lived in Blacksburg, I was lucky to find an unopened box of 5.25'' disks (a little piece of my childhood), and a VHS of an old Degrassi special (oddly released on my 9th birthday!)  

Oh no.  Thrifting now is so much more amazing than that. I'm able to find designer purses more often than not, and I would say about half the time they're real.  (However, a lot of the time they are also trashed or aged.  So if you're not afraid of a little bit of work it's worth the effort!)  The first vintage Coach bag I found that I restored to its former glory was a Stewardess.  There are many ways to restore a Coach bag, but this is how I like to do it.

Before

After

The whole experience of my first restore (or "rehab") was a little nerve wracking, but totally worth it.  The process goes like this:  You dunk the bag in warm, soapy water.  (I used a mild dish soap.)  Yes.  You put a leather bag into water.  Essentially you're giving the leather a drink, since chances are it's very dried out like my bag was at first.  The water will have changed color when you take the bag back out.  Case in point...

ewwww

Then you dry off the bag as much as you can, and let it air dry the rest of the way.  I also stuffed paper towels and even an empty box from birchbox in there to help reshape the bag.  

Now the hardest part:  Waiting for it to dry!

Also note, this bag is NOT lined--it just nothing but leather and brass.  This makes the whole dunking process a lot easier and a lot less nerve wracking.  Once the bag has dried, you can clean the brass, and then condition and preserve the bag to help product all your hard work.  Keep in mind that this is a VERY brief tutorial, and it's different for every single bag.  Sometimes the bag is more stained than others, or more worn in some places.  I've learned a lot by reading some of the advice on the PurseBlog Forum specifically for Coach bags.  It is totally worth the wait and the work.  Once the leather conditioner was full absorbed into the bag, it gained an amazing, super soft (what some would describe as "buttery") texture that you expect from a Coach bag right off the shelf.  Rehabbing bags is very addictive.  Since this first rehab, I've been on the lookout for my next project bag.