How can you spot a fake Loewe square basket bag?
25 years ago, Enrique Roessberg Loewe decided to go into the leather goods business. His brand, Loewe, quickly became a household name. With its mastery of leather, Loewe became the official supplier to the Spanish court. The brand went on to open shops throughout Europe and the rest of the world to become the brand we know today. However, Loewe has been the target of counterfeiters who constantly try to reproduce its most iconic items. In this article, we'll be focusing on one of Loewe's iconic bags, the square basket bag. Here are our tips for spotting and avoiding a fake square basket bag from the great Spanish brand Loewe.
Braiding :
One of the features that makes this bag so sumptuous is its body, which is woven from raffia. Some are even woven from recycled paper. For this type of bag, the braiding method used by Loewe is called 'jitseung' and involves rubbing, knotting and weaving the paper.
Braiding a square basket requires patience and unique expertise. As you might expect, replica factories don't go to the same lengths to create counterfeits. This lack of rigour is visible to the naked eye, particularly in the weaving of the bag.
Loewe braids each section perfectly symmetrically, which is not the case with replicas. The braiding on replicas is coarse, irregular and sloppy.
The leather Loewe label sewn onto the front of the bag is also representative of this lack of rigour on the part of counterfeiters. While the seams of this label are perfectly attached to the bag and sewn cleanly and practically invisibly on the Loewe bags, the counterfeits have sloppy and crude seams. The leather label does not hold on to the braiding.
The two photos on the left show an authentic Loewe bag. The two on the right represent an imitation Loewe bag.
The strap :
You should also pay attention to the strap on your Loewe bag. It has a number of features that will allow you to confirm its authenticity.
This leather strap is made from calfskin, so its quality is hard to match. The surface should be grainy and rough, making it durable and scratch-resistant. On replicas, this surface looks like it could come unstuck at any moment. It is also poorly attached to the bags, with large, messy seams.
The Loewe anagram on the strap is also interesting to analyse. This is usually too large on imitations of the Spanish luxury brand's bag.
Here's an authentic piece of strap with the Loewe anagram on it.
The Loewe inscription :
Also look out for the inscription "Loewe, made in spain" on the inside of the calfskin strap. The difference between a real bag and a fake lies in the font used for this inscription.
In fact, counterfeits are generally recognisable by their fonts, which are unique to the luxury brand. Replica factories then have difficulty reproducing the correct letters to the exact curvature. This is also the case for the Loewe square basket bag.
Poor-quality leather forces crooks to space the letters further apart than they should be and to enlarge them. Whereas the lettering on a genuine Loewe bag is clear and legible, the lettering on a replica bag is complicated to read and not aligned.
On the left, an authentic Loewe inscription, on the right, a replica of the same inscription.
Want to find out more about the authenticity of designer bags? Check out these articles: the Ava bag by Céline, the Hourglass bag by Balenciaga and the Saint-Louis bag by Goyard.
The underside of the bag :
The last but not least point to analyse concerns the underside of the bag. Making a woven raffia under-bag requires a totally unique know-how. The luxury house does it perfectly, the braiding is regular and tight enough to make it solid.
The underside of the counterfeit bag has certain defects. It is not very neat and the weave is irregular, making it almost impossible to balance the bag once it has been fitted.
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