To become a “master” authenticator at Fashionphile — the highest level of training to weed out designer fakes at the luxe online marketplace — takes more than 8,000 hours of rigorous schooling, according to the company. Trainees learn to quickly spot an error in the date format inside a Louis Vuitton bag, for example, or know the correct metal alloy makeup of a Cartier watch.
Its competitor, The RealReal, also relies on human senses and instinct — recognizing the smell of a $25,000 Hermès Birkin bag, or the feel of its smooth Barenia leather — but the retailer’s first round of checks is undertaken through AI, with software trained on 30 million images to discern nearly imperceptible differences in the stitching or the placement of hardware. At the same time, an algorithm calculates an item’s risk based on everything from the consignor’s selling history to the popularity of a product on the black market. (If Miu Miu ballet flats are trending online, for example, their illegal counterparts are almost certainly, too.)
Over the past few years, luxury and tech leaders have hoped to turn the average consumer into an authenticator, with the ability to check in a matter of minutes — or even seconds — if a quilted Chanel wallet on chain is legitimate or not.
The AI-driven app Entrupy claims it can alert buyers and resellers if a designer sneaker or purse is suspicious through a handful of uploaded photos, while fashion tech company The Ordre Group has partnered with Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Patou, among others, to take an item’s unique “digital fingerprint,” such as a small section of a LV monogrammed wallet’s textiles and construction. (Think of it like facial recognition, picking up on near-imperceptible details to the human eye — 10,000 of those quilted Chanel wallets would have 10,000 unique IDs.) Called Authentique, the program registers each ID on the blockchain, which can’t be replicated and is considered both easily traceable and secure, versus methods like RFIDs (radio frequency identification tags and readers) and holograms, which have been falsified.
It takes more than 8,000 hours to become a master authenticator at The RealReal, according to the company. “It’s as easy as picking up the phone and pointing it at a product… and knowing whether it’s fake or real,” asserted Simon Lock, founder and CEO of The Ordre Group. The AI-based technology “microscopically analyzes” its materials, he explained, down to how fibers have been dyed and blended, and is being trained for accuracy even when a garment undergoes wear and tear over time.
Authentique is just one version of a so-called digital ID or passport: a digitized ‘twin’ (or NFT — non-fungible token) of a designer piece that allows buyers to verify it is genuine and track its life cycle. In Europe, some kind of digital passports for garments and textiles may soon become law; over the past couple of years, some of the industry’s biggest players have coalesced around this technology to aid in both anti-counterfeiting and sustainability initiatives. Founded by LVMH, OTB and Prada Group, which collectively rep labels including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Bulgari, Marni, Maison Margiela and Prada, among others, the Aura Blockchain Consortium is the largest effort to standardize such scannable IDs across fashion and luxury, with founding members currently digitizing millions of products in their catalogs, according to the group. Aura claims that OTB alone has registered 600,000 products so far, with every Maison Margiela Tabi shoe from 2023 sporting an NFC chip within the sole.
These tactics are all part of the industry’s hope to neutralize the booming counterfeit market, with some estimates asserting that fake fashion and luxury items account for 60% or more of the multi-trillion-dollar trade in fake goods. Where knock-off bags were once mainly available on street corners and car trunks, now they are also easily available in a few clicks online. On Reddit alone, communities dedicated to discussing and seeking out replicas boast hundreds of thousands of members, while TikTok users show off hauls of their seemingly identical designer dupes, and YouTubers upload tutorials on how to spot the differences between cheap and top-tier fakes. Counterfeiters have even hosted live runway shows of the latest fashion fakes, with the logos of Louis Vuitton, Dior and YSL printed above makeshift catwalks.
A spokesperson for Reddit declined to comment but pointed to their policies, which prohibit soliciting or facilitating illegal transactions on the forum; a spokesperson for TikTok similarly flagged that its guidelines do not allow for the sale of counterfeit goods, or for content infringing on copyrights or trademarks. YouTube did not return a request for comment by CNN.
“There was a time when nobody would ever admit to buying a counterfeit,” said Sarah Davis, founder and president of Fashionphile. But now, in some social media circles, “it’s not (seen) as a negative, it’s almost seen as a hack.”