At Kewaybagswe want to help you with your future purchases, and in this case, we are going to talk to you about HERMÈS. It was Thierry Hermès who founded the house in 1837, dedicated to saddlery (just as other luxury handbag houses began), working the leather to create the best accessories for European nobles' horses. Little by little, he innovated and brought a touch of originality to his designs, extending his name and fame throughout Europe and already in America or the East. But it was not until the 20th century that it began to enter the world of fashion as we know it today. He created his first icons, Kelly and Birkin, and great personalities wore them, giving greater prestige to designs that were already exclusive in themselves.
Today, they continue to boom, and in fact, it is almost impossible to get one of their best new models, as there is a long waiting list, 20 hours of manual labor are required for a single bag, and techniques from their saddlery era are still used, which ensure that their bags endure over time, treating the leather and finishes in a unique way.
In our times, unfortunately, counterfeits have become increasingly perfect, and sometimes, at first glance, it is difficult to distinguish a piece of handcraft from a fake, which can even be sold for thousands of euros, even knowing its origin, just to display an exact replica.
Those who adore fashion, like us, always choose to give value to a brand and its originality. Guaranteeing the authenticity of a product helps us with responsible and sustainable consumption, and assures us of the product's durability over time, as well as a guarantee of savoir-faire, of treating the raw material as it deserves, especially when talking about leather. That is why we want to give you a small guideline to know and assess what you are buying.
As on other occasions, checking the seams, the smell of the leather, and the finishes is essential, but the identifying sign of its authenticity and what will reveal all the details of the bag is the numbering. This will be found inside the bag, sometimes more visible and other times difficult to locate. In Hermès, they are stamps engraved directly into the leather that leave a slight depth with the numbering, and their location changes depending on the model and year. The stamps, besides guaranteeing their veracity, allow the factory to know which team manufactured that bag, since they have a strict policy on repairs and only the team that assembled it will be able to repair it.
We can classify them according to the indication of their stamp as we tell you below:
From 1945 to 1970 we will find letters, with A being 1945 and correlative up to Z for 1970, and each year will be identified with the letter indicated by the stamp.
From 1971 to 1996 the same will happen, but these letters will be inside a circle.
From 1997 to 2014 they will change from a circle to a square.
In 2015, Hermès was more aware than ever of the counterfeiting market that overscribed (although they did not stamp) the numbering but could confuse someone buying an Hermès for the first time. To avoid this, they made a strategic move in their stamps: not making the letters correlative. Therefore, if you have a bag in your possession that you bought in 2015 with the letter S, I regret to tell you that it is probably fake.
That is, the bags from the year 2015 correspond to the letter T. (2016 X - 2017 A - 2018 C - 2019 D - 2020 Y - 2021 Z). This era of stamps are simple, without circles or squares, and are followed by a numbering called the artisan code.
We hope we have helped you with this Post and the best advice we can give you is to always buy in establishments that guarantee its authenticity, either in the original house, a multi-brand store, or if you opt to join the second-hand revolution.
At Kewaybagswe can advise you on the purchase of designer bags, both Hermès and the rest of the brands available to you in our stores in Barcelona, Madrid, or Puerto Banús.
Do you have any questions? Are you interested in any of our second-hand designer bags? Do you want to sell us your bag? Contact us without obligation, we will assist you as soon as possible.
