• A vintage expert with 20 years of experience says there are telltale signs to spot a fake Hermès Birkin.
• She said there are things counterfeiters don’t think about, which can help expose counterfeits.
• Here’s what to look for when choosing a vintage Birkin.

This essay as told is based on a conversation with Koyaana Redstar, head of luxury buying at Luxury of the Daya luxury online store of vintage designer handbags. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was a nanny in college in Los Angeles and supplemented my income by going to Goodwill stores, finding designer handbags at low prices, then selling them on eBay or, at the time, Poshmark.

I enjoyed it and thought: I want to make a real job of this.

My mother told me there was nothing like the fashion industry in New York. She said, “You have to go to New York.” And I said, “Yeah, you’re right, I do.”

As soon as I graduated, I was there. In New York, I worked at a consignment store, where I gained hands-on experience selling items from high-end luxury brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès, and Chanel.

Since then, I have worked for Rebag, The RealReal and other vintage consignment stores and have 20 years of experience in the resale industry.

I learned strategies that help me identify specific elements of luxury bags, from their design to their configuration, simply by looking at a piece.

For me, the Hermès Birkin and Kelly bags are probably the most iconic bags in fashion. They are classic and hold more value than almost any other bag.

Here are tips for detecting whether the vintage Birkin you’re considering is authentic.

Zipper pulls

One of the things that counterfeiters often fail to figure out is the zipper pull. For some reason, most counterfeiters don’t take the time and effort to do it right.

Zipper pulls inside Hermès Birkins and Kelly’s are some of the biggest giveaways.

With some fakes, when the word “Hermès” is pressed into the zipper pull, it appears almost bubbly, with a ridge on the edge of each letter.

You won’t see this on authentic Hermès pieces, which will have crisp, clean lettering on the zippers.

Zipper stops

There is also the zipper stop, which is in the shape of the letter H. Hermès changed this in the early 2000s: it was just a normal stop, and now it is shaped like an H .

If you compare the fakes with the real Hermès bags, you will find that the real bags have a very specific H shape. Counterfeiters will make fat Hs or skinny tall Hs.

People who make counterfeits often overlook small details, like a zipper stop, which helps experts distinguish genuine items from counterfeits.

Fonts

Another thing that counterfeiters can’t control 100% is fonts, especially how they are engraved onto the hardware.

Luxury experts can tell the real from the fake because they’ve spent years examining bag fonts and knowing what common inconsistencies might arise.

One way to detect if it is fake is to see if the foil font stamped on a bag has a green undertone. This is a telltale sign that something is wrong.

Smell

If you own an Hermès Birkin, you will know that the way the leather is treated gives it an almost perfume-like smell.

But if you smell a bag and it has a strong leather smell – almost like a boot store – not a good sign.

Hermes doesn’t feel that way. So if the bag smells too much like leather, that’s a red flag. And if it smells like chemicals, that’s even more of a red flag.

So I started sniffing bags that I’m reviewing. I know it sounds weird, but sometimes the smell is a dead giveaway.