How to Spot a Fake Mulberry Handbag

By Charlotte Staerck

Mulberry can be tricky to authenticate but attributes such as leather weight, texture and even scent are indicators of quality and cannot be replicated perfectly in a non-luxury bag. At Handbag Clinic each Mulberry is carefully assessed by a team of in-house experts.

Leather and Lining

Although Mulberry makes a wide range of bags, many Mulberry bags are made from grained, thick calf leather that makes them sturdy, durable, and structured. Not all Mulberry bags are lined and the lining can vary between the styles of bags. The important thing to look for with Mulberry is the quality of the material used even though this varies from style to style.

Stitching and Edging

As with all bags, stitching can be an indicator of authenticity. Counterfeit handbags will often have thick, uneven and messy stitching. The stitching on an authentic Mulberry will be straight and each stitch is the same size throughout. The edging around handles and the edges of the leather will also be neat and consistent.

Hardware

If a Mulberry has buckles these will always be stamped and the font should be consistent with that of Mulberry’s branding. An authentic Mulberry handbag will have a branding stamp that is thick, straight and even.

Mulberry also stamps rivets and other round small hardware with the Mulberry tree logo. This stamp should be consistent with that of the mulberry tree on the inner metal disc.

Mulberry mainly has used two brands of zips, RiRi and its own branded zips. If you look at the underneath of a Mulberry zip it should either say RiRi or feature the Mulberry tree Logo.

Made In

Although Mulberry used to produce all of its leather goods in England this is no longer the case. As the Mulberry factory in England has been running at full capacity in recent years the brand has started outsourcing some of its production to places like China and Turkey. Today, only about 30% of Mulberry bags are actually produced in England. So it is common to see a “made in China” or “made in Turkey” tag inside a newer Mulberry bag.

Heat Stamping and Brass Disc

All Mulberry bags comes with a leather tab heat-stamped with its logo as well as an attached metal disc engraved with the iconic Mulberry tree. The heat stamp does occasionally vary, I have seen some which feature the tree logo and some which only feature the word “Mulberry”. Although this may vary, the font will always be the same, Sans Serif. The heat stamp will also be in the centre of the leather, many fakes show off centre or uneven stamping.

The metal disc is always a key feature that the replica manufacturers regularly get wrong. The tree should be stamped very delicately with negative space between the leaves. The metal disc will also usually feature a serial number on the underneath of the disc, this also is something fraudsters regularly get wrong. Some older bags may not feature a serial number but all modern Mulberrys will have a serial number stamped onto the brass disc.

Serial Number

There are certain serial numbers that are red flags and regularly used in counterfeits. The serial numbers listed below are common numbers used in many replicas.

Regularly used fake serial numbers:
254571, 026904, 565321 and 262541

Article courtesy of Handbag Clinic, Leeds
handbagclinic.co.uk
@HandbagClinic