Ebay is a wonderful place to find authentic designer items at deeply discounted prices, if you know what you are doing.  While I have found most Sellers to be honest people, there are the unscrupulous Sellers out there who are selling counterfeit, knock offs, and just plain fake items.

Recently, there has been a glut of nonauthentic Marc Jacobs' clothing items, especially dresses, that have come up for sale on Ebay.  Due to the ongoing lawsuit between Louis Vuitton and Ebay over counterfeit goods, LV and Marc Jacobs have not done VERO pages on Ebay.  This guide will attempt to help you, the honest Buyer, to spot some marked differences between the real and the fake.

Following are photos of a Marc by Marc Jacobs Scarf Stripe dress.  While both items were bought on Ebay, the differences are many.  Throughout this guide, the authentic item will be on the left, while the knock off is on the right.

The dress on the left is the authentic dress.  The dress on the right is a fake.  You can clearly see the difference in the way they hang.  The real dress has much more body; the dress keeps its shape even on the hanger.  The dress on the right is flimsy and floppy.  The sleeves stick out to the sides, the cuffs are not sewn on straight and the belt sags.

Let's take a closer look at the belt:

The real belt, on the left, is stiff with interfacing, and stands up on its own.  The fake belt is just a piece of fabric sewn into a strip with no interfacing or stiffening material of any kind.

The real difference can be seen in the buckle.  Marc's hardware is his passion;  it is all high quality metal, and almost always embossed with his logo.  See the buckles in the above two photos.  The real buckle, in the top photo and on the left in the two lower photos, is a high quality metal tubular piece with the Marc Jacobs logo embossed into a barrel roll on it.  Be careful about the logo, though.  I have seen belts with the logo stamped into the buckle, not embossed.  The edges of the square stamp are evident around the name.  These are not authentic, either.  The real embossed logo will have NO other marks around it.  The letters will usually be a black Marc and a white Jacobs.

The finishing of the belt is revealing also.  The real belt has top stitching on its carrier.  The fake one is floppy and unfinished.  The studs holding the buckle on are centered and all on the white stripe; on the fake one they are crooked and misplaced.

The body of the dress will reveal many errors, if you know what you are looking for.  Here are a few:

Every one of the authentic Scarf Stripe dresses will have the same collar.  It has a brown edge, one yellow stripe and the rest is dress colored.  The fake dress, on the right, shows the obvious flaw.  And, in my opinion, is not nearly as pretty as the real one.  It is too harsh and stripey.  It is too heavy and ruins the look of the dress.

This is an inside look at the hem of the dress.  Again, the differences are obvious.  The real dress is finished beautifully, with straight sewing and an even stitch length.  The seam binding on the hem is sewn to the edge of the dress, and then sewn to the body of the dress with straight and even sewing.  The fake dress is not finished at all.  The seam binding is not the right color.  It is not sewn to the edge of the dress, and it is not even attached to the body of the dress at all.  There are hanging threads, and the stitching is crooked and uneven.

These photos also illustrate the inherent difference in the quality of the silk fabric being used.  As you can see, the real dress on the left is thicker and more substantial, a real silk twill.  The printing of the logo MJ is less opaque, and cannot be seen through the material very well.  The fake dress, on the right, is a much thinner silk.  It is not a thick woven twill, like the real one.  The ink goes right through it.

This guide will be continued in Part Two, as there is a limit to the number of pictures I can add to this guide.

I hope this guide has helped illustrate some of the major differences between an authentic Marc by Marc Jacobs dress and a forgery.  Won't you please take a moment to click the "Yes" button below the question, "Has this guide been helpful?"  It will encourage me to write more guides!