How to Tell if Vintage Designer Clothing Is Real

To tell if a vintage designer piece is real, check several things together: the brand label and the care tag behind it, the fabric content against the fabric itself, the stitching, the hardware, and any style or serial codes. They have to agree with each other and with the era the piece is from. No single detail proves it; a piece is real when everything adds up. Below is what that means for denim, bags, cashmere, leather and sheepskin, silk and designer labels, with photos of our own pieces.

Updated 18 October 2026

On this page: What we look at Denim Bags Cashmere and knitwear Leather and sheepskin Silk Designer labels Questions

Every piece at Kitanesque is checked by hand before it is listed, by Andra, who trained in fashion design and has sold second-hand clothing on eBay since 2015. This page says what that check involves, what it does not, and what you get if we are wrong.

What we look at

1. Labels. The brand label: weave, lettering, how it is sewn in, whether the design matches the era the piece claims to be from. The size and country labels next to it.
2. Care and composition tags. Fabric content, wash symbols, country of manufacture, style or batch codes. A tag that is missing, printed badly or in the wrong language is the commonest giveaway.
3. Fabric and lining. Weight, hand, how the material has aged. A 2003 pair of jeans should feel like one.
4. Stitching and construction. Stitch density, seam finishing, bar tacks, pattern matching across seams. Factory work is even; copies rarely are.
5. Hardware. Zips (maker, pull, tape), buttons, rivets, buckles: engravings, weight, how they are attached.
6. Serial, date and style codes where the brand uses them, and whether they match the label and the tag. A US label carries an RN number: the registered identity of the company behind it, which we check against the FTC's public register, so “RN 93243” on a Diesel label has to come back as Diesel.
7. Bags and leather goods. The heat stamp, patch or plate inside; the creed or code tag, and whether its style number matches the model; the engraving on zips, snaps and clasps; the edges, corners and handle fixings; the lining and how it is sewn in.
8. Wear that matches the age. A vintage piece has lived. Wear in the wrong places, or none at all on a "1990s" piece, raises the question.
9. The story. Too good to be true usually is: a price that makes no sense, or too many identical pieces about, is a reason to say no before anything else.

A piece that does not add up is not listed. There is no "probably genuine" category.

How we reach a conclusion

Looking is half of it. What we find on the piece is then compared with what we know, from three places:

1. Our own record. More than 500 pieces measured and photographed, label included, and selling the same brands on eBay since 2015. For the labels we handle most (Miss Sixty, Diesel, True Religion, Miss Me, D&G, Moschino) we know what the label, the codes and the hardware looked like in each era because we have had them on the table before.
2. Reference material on how each brand's labels, style codes and hardware changed over the years, and which factories and hardware makers it used. When a piece is from a brand we see less often, this is where the time goes.
3. Our own description. What we write has to match what the piece says: the brand on the label is the brand in the title, the size on the tag is the size we give, the composition on the care tag is the material we describe. If they disagree, the piece waits until they do.

The conclusion is yes or no. Everything agrees and the piece goes on sale; something does not and it does not. What we checked stays visible: the label and hardware photos are in every gallery, and the measurements are on every product page, so you can check our work.

Denim and designer jeans

On jeans, the waistband label, the button and the rivets carry most of the evidence: the label's weave and wording, the engraving on the button and its maker's mark, and the stitching on the back pockets.

These are our photos of our pieces, the same ones you see on the product pages. Every piece has its label and hardware photographed, so you can check what we checked.

Bags and leather goods

On a bag, most of the evidence is inside: the heat stamp, patch or plate, the creed or code tag and whether its style number matches the model, and the engraving on zips, snaps and clasps. Then the outside: edges, corners, handle fixings and how the lining is sewn in.

Go deeper: Real vs faux: shearling, sheepskin and leather.

Cashmere and knitwear

Real cashmere starts with the composition tag: it should say 100% cashmere, or give the exact blend. Then the knit should agree with it: dense, even and soft, light for how warm it is.

• The composition tag. “100% cashmere” or the exact percentages. A blend such as 70% cashmere and 30% silk is real cashmere, but not 100%, and it should be described as a blend.
• The brand label and the care tag together. They should belong to the same brand and the same years. Knitwear sold in the US often carries an RN number on the care tag.
• The knit. An even, dense knit; very thin, see-through knitting at a cashmere price is a reason to look closer.
• Pilling. Small bobbles at the underarms and cuffs are normal for cashmere and are not a sign of a fake.

Go deeper: Is it real cashmere? What the labels say · what the care labels say.

Leather, sheepskin and Afghan coats

Real sheepskin is one material: the wool grows out of the skin, so the inside of the coat is the fleece and the outside is the suede side of the same skin. Faux shearling is a fabric with a pile on a woven or knitted backing.

• Part the wool. On real sheepskin you see skin at the roots; on faux shearling you see a backing fabric.
• The cut edges. At cuffs, hems and seams real sheepskin shows the thickness of the skin; faux shows fabric.
• The label. Real sheepskin coats often say so (“real sheepskin”, “genuine shearling”); faux ones list fibres such as polyester, acrylic or modal.
• Leather jackets. The care tag names the leather (for example lamb leather) and the lining separately; the hardware on a branded jacket is usually branded too.
• Penny Lane and Afghan coats exist in real sheepskin and in faux. Both can be genuine vintage; the difference is the material, and the title should say which.

Go deeper: Real vs faux: shearling, sheepskin and leather.

Silk

Real silk is confirmed by the composition tag (100% silk, soie, seta, Seide) and by the fabric: a soft, dry hand and a natural sheen. Polyester tends to look glassier and feel slippery.

• Shell and trim. Good labels list the main fabric and the trims or lining separately; read both.
• The brand label and the size system. The label should match the brand's labels from the piece's era, and the sizes printed on it should make sense together.

Go deeper: Is it real silk? What the labels say · what the care labels say.

Designer labels across the decades

A designer label is read together with the tags behind it: the maker's tag, the care tag and any style code have to belong to the same line and the same years as the label.

• Younger lines have their own labels. D&G was Dolce & Gabbana's younger line, Moschino Jeans and Love Moschino were Moschino's, Versus was Versace's, McQ was Alexander McQueen's. A piece should carry the label of its line.
• The maker's tag. Behind the brand label there is often a tag naming the company that made the piece, with its town and country.
• The care tag tells the time. Wording, languages and legal references change over the years: Italian care tags from the 1990s and 2000s often cite the 1973 textile labelling law (n. 883).
• Security labels. Some brands added holographic labels in the 2000s; where a brand used one, it should be there and look right.
• The logo itself. Fonts, spacing and logo shapes changed over the decades; a label should look like the brand's label from the piece's era.

Go deeper: How to date vintage clothing from its label: RN and CA numbers, country, care wording and fibre names as decade clues.

Questions people ask

What we do not do

• We are not the brand and not a third-party authentication service, and we do not issue certificates. What you get is the judgement of someone who has handled these labels every week since 2015, and the photos to check it against.
• We do not sell pieces we are unsure about, and we do not describe a reworked or customised piece as original: the Atelier pieces say so in the title.
• We do not buy from or sell on behalf of customers, so everything here was chosen and checked by us.

If we are wrong

And then

Once a piece passes, it is measured flat by hand in inches (bust, waist, hips, length, rise, inseam) and the numbers go onto the product page and into Will it fit?; it is washed or cleaned, photographed on Andra, and every flaw we found is written down. Not sure about a piece? Ask us before you buy, or use the WhatsApp button on the product page.