How To Authenticate Vintage Clothes
Let’s face it: vintage is trendy and everywhere. The people want “simpler times” back and wear the aspired nostalgia on their skin. But how do you know that the vintage clothes you buy are not fake?
Before the pandemic hit, the clothing resell market was on track to double in size. Now, a year later, experts at ThredUp suggest that the global resell market (excluding traditional thrift stores) will surpass fast-fashion in size by 2029.
When even the Kardashians open up their first personal clothing resale online store, you know it’s real! Unfortunately, not everyone is as trustworthy when it comes to authentic and original branded vintage clothing as the Jenner clan.
Reading that the online second-hand market is set to grow up to 69% only in 2021 I only have one question: How do I know if that Stone Island jacket I am currently watching on Depop is legit?
1. Start with Quality
This might only be helpful if you see the item in real life before purchasing it. But in any other situation in which you are looking at a branded or even designer vintage item, you need to check the quality.
How? For Nike sneakers for example check the weight of the shoe. Nike usually produces its sneakers relatively lightweight to make it more comfortable to walk and run in them. Should you come across a shoe that seems too heavy for a normal sneaker — screw it, not worth it.
Other leading marks could be the leather quality for example. If you have a what-seems-to-be vintage Gucci bag smell its leather. Especially older items from designer houses have an astonishing leather quality, that has a distinctive leather smell. If there is no leather smell or the item smells like chemicals — screw it, not worth it.
2. Tags & Labels
When Phil Knight founded Nike he definitely did not expect that of all things his apparel will be so popular around Gen Z kids as it is today. As a by-product to one of the first pairs of Nike’s the company started producing merchandise in the mid-70s and since then changed their clothing tag multiple times.
Nike is the perfect example of how tags can determine if a product is authentic and even give away in which era it was produced. Vintage connoisseurs know for example that a red tag suggests that a particular item was produced in the 90s. The older the item is the more likely it is to be produced in the US. More detail on that here.
Sizes and materials can also give away the age and authenticity of a product. Nike products mostly have a blend of cotton and polyester. If you should see something like “Dacron Polyester” or “Qiana Nylon” you can be sure it is older than you think. These materials nowadays just go as polyester or nylon. Shortly after the development of synthetic fibers, brands made sure the customer knows, where a certain material is coming from.
3. Zippers & Buttons
As a kid, I wore a particular Adidas track jacket basically every day. I was amazed by how detailed even the zippers had the Adidas logo imprinted on them. I certainly didn't expect to write about this 20 years later.
When you look at branded clothing the details matter. Zippers but also buttons give away more information than you might think. Many major brands have their own logos or names imprinted on their zippers and buttons and it is very unlikely for a high-priced product to have unbranded zippers.
But there are authentic items with third-party zippers as well. On items that Stone Island does not have its own imprints on, the zippers have to be by either YKK or Lampo. If you see a non-branded zipper or some minor quality one — screw it, it's not worth it.
The same goes for buttons, even though buttons are easier to replicate. You still can be sure that when you buy any vintage product by a respected brand that they have their own imprints or engravings on their buttons.
4. Special codes
Wouldn’t it be great if every single piece of clothing had its own code so you can check it up in a database to confirm its authenticity? Yes, and it became reality a long time ago. Before you could scan a QR code in your Gucci bag or check the authenticity of your jacket on certilogo.com (a service provided by Stone Island) major brands already developed signature codes to identify counterfeits.
Louis Vuitton as an example introduced a six-digit manufacturing code in the early 80s that implies where and when an item was produced.
Another example is Chanel’s authenticity cards that came along a Chanel bag starting in 1984. According to my research (370 more Medium articles and I might be able to get my own Chanel bag), from ’84 to ’86 the authenticity cards contained six-digit numbers, from ’86 to ’04 seven digits, and after ’05 eight digits. If you see an authenticity card with more than eight digits — ditch it, it’s not worth it.
Stone Island’s authentication is even more complex: every item comes with an ART number attached that implies from which collection it is, which season (fall/winter or spring/summer)it was released, which brand it belongs to, what type of item it is (Knit, shirts, sweatshirts, etc.) and additional information about the manufacturing. A common tip is to double-check a Stone Island product if the last three digits of the ART number are 222. This is very common throughout Stone Island counterfeits. Don’t ditch it yet though, just double-check.
Every brand is different and has developed different techniques to distinguish between real and fake. Should you find yourself in a situation in which you doubt the authenticity of a product I recommend researching common rules-of-thumb for that particular brand. And if you doubt because the price seems too unreal: I hate to break it to you, but it might be unreal.
My last words I want to dedicate to all the counterfeiters and the possible negative emotions we might feel towards them: “Don’t hate the player, hate the system” and we live in a system of exploitation. And as long as LV and the C-on-both-sides produce 1000€ bags in sweatshop conditions for terrible wages they should not be surprised about the same people firing back.
