This Guide is on the Louis Vuitton French Company and Gucci Accessory Collection Designer Bags

I decided to write this guide for my recent obsession with Vintage Designer bags particularly Louis Vuitton French Company and Gucci Accessory Collection Pieces. When collecting designer handbags authenticity is very important and these two collection I have studied and the authenticity can be much better determined. That is one reason to collect vintage( not having to pick through all the fakes). The second reason is that recently large respected designers such as Juicy Couture, Coach, Cole Haan, Keneth Cole have all started manufacturing their bags in China and other cheap labor countries. Vintage bags were all made in the USA and Europe. That is why they last so long because of their amazing quality.

Louis Vuitton Manufactured by The French Company USA

The Louis Vuitton French Company can be determined by one distinctive characteristic of a paper tag inserted in most of the handbags reading " Manufactured in the U.S.A. Under Special License to the french Company". Unfortuney because these tags are made of such fragile material, some authentic bags wont have this tag, however I only purchase bags that have the tag. Also larger pieces have a large paper tag inside a tab.

The second characterists is usually the name Talon on the zipper however there are several other zipper names as well.

Another great way to make a distinction between an authentic vintage LV is the leather. It is not the same leather used on the bags today. This leather was pre-dyed to a rich brown color like shown on the interior of the bag above.

Also the majority of these Louis Vuitton Bags were made with 2 Monogram Canvas pieces. If you look at the bottom you will see a long leather strip connecting the two. These means that bags such as the Speedy will not have upside down LV's on one side.

It should be well noted that Louis Vuitton French Company Bags cannot be determined by continuity. The LV's aren't always aligned, and are some times cut off ( see the picture above). The stitching often wont be perfect and many vintage bags have parts that have been restitched.

Another thing that should be noted are the discontinued styles. There are several Louis Vuitton Bags such as the one in the picture below that are discontinued and are hard to come by especially in good condition. It sometimes throws people off when looking for an authentic Louis Vuitton because they assume it might be fake, however if you see a Vintage French Company Bag in a style you've never seen it is most lilely a discontinued style

***With all this being said it's important to point out that even as far back as the 70's & 80's there were still Fake/ Replica Louis Vuitton Bags, however they are not as common as the replicas today. If you are someone interested in buying a Louis Vuitton Bag I highly suggest looking for a vintage French Company Bag. You can find amazing vintage LV in great condition and pay 100-400 instead of up to 1,000 and more. I also consider these bags to be unique and collectors items.

Gucci Accesory Collection

The Gucci Accessory Collection vintage bags are the most popular and recognizable Gucci Bags. They are easiest to recognize by the signature blue or brown GG Vinyl logo and are often accompanied with the signature Gucci fabric stripe. Below are two examples of Accessory Collection Gucci Handbags. Note the Signature Gucci Stripe and GG logo's.

 These are my favorite vintage Gucci bags to collect because of the distinctive red and white paper certificate located underneath the Gucci Tag. These tags are very fragile even more so than the Louis Vuitton paper tags. I noticed the paper tag has 2 layers which often seperates, also the tag seems to seperate very easily from the seam of the tag. Most accessory collection bags no longer have this paper certificate because of this however I like to only purchase bags that still have this because it's more of an authenticity guarentee as these certificates arent replicated although if you know the collection they aren't hard to tell. The picture below shows the Tag with the paper of authenticity.

With that being said though, the paper certificate makes the vintage bag more rare and expensive. If you are looking for an affordable authentic Gucci you might consider buying an accesory collection bag without the paper certificate. I haven't heard or seen any replica "Accessory Collection" Gucci bags and that is why they are so great to purchase.

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