How to Spot a Fake Vintage Lady Dior Medium S/S 1997

This post is specifically designed to help you when scrolling through the preloved sites with identifying a real Vintage Lady Dior Medium from the period S/S 1997.  I cannot stress VINTAGE enough. Specifically S/S 1997. (I know a niche post!) This post won’t help you with newer Lady Dior’s.

If you have an eye on a bag that’s 2008 and onwards  – please read this post instead.

If you have an eye on a bag that’s pre 1997  – please read this post instead.

Dior have subtly changed a lot of features over the years. What makes a S/S 1997 bag authenticate IS NOT THE SAME as what makes an earlier / later collection authentic.   

However, there is lots of cross over! (I am not being lazy I promise) So some of the below is repetitive and in the 1997 and 2008 authentication guides.  

 Contents

1.How the bag is made

2.The leather and cannage stitching

3.Interior label/ Date code

4.Hardware

Feet

Zips

Dior Charm

7.Leather hangtag

8.Interior Lining

1.    How the bag is made

This bag takes eight hours to make and is handmade. (when we say handmade we mean the finishing, stitching, detailing, and quality control are done by artisans)

The bag was first designed in 1994 by Gianfranco Ferre. In 1995 it was gifted to Princess Diana and debuted on her arm. A star was born.  

The Lady Dior is made up of 144 individual elements. (the hardware by itself comprises of 43 separate metal parts).  

Therefore, expect serious craftsmanship.  This begins with how the bag is formed.

The bag is made up of separate pieces of leather stitched together. Note: where possible counterfeiters love to cut corners to ultimately save costs. They’ll try and get away with continuous material they can just fold over, or just double stitch over the top to give the illusion of cut pieces. You need to really examine how this bag is made – it will seriously help you.

2.    The leather and cannage stitching

The first Lady Dior’s were made of lambskin leather. Insanely soft to touch (even after 28 years). It does scratch easy though. If your bag doesn’t feel soft – take that as a warning.  But, I’d caveat that by saying if the bag is 25 years old + but has not been taken care of, the leather might be a bit dry and not as soft as it could be.

I’m pretty sure the next collection was in satin and then suede.

 The Cannage stitching

The famous cannage stitching is steeped in the brands history. It was created to reflect the pattern of the back of Napoleon III cane rattan weave chairs. Historically, when Dior would show their latest designs guests would sit on these chairs.

The thread colour of the stitching matches the colour of the bag perfectly.

The bag is perfectly symmetrical in every way.

The bag is five squares high. They are 3cm x 3cm. ( I don’t call it a rhombus or diamond as it’s a square – 90 degree angles )

Note: the tip of the top square folds over into the inside seam of the bag.

 The bag is five squares wide with 2cm of a square either side.

The bag is 3 square deep (if you turn the bag on its side and measure from the bottom of the bag)

 I would say the ‘puffiness’ /cushioning of the quilting has gone down only slightly over the years. It shouldn’t have after 20 years … but 28 years in is acceptable.

Inspect all the stitching around the whole bag and interior – it is faultless.  

3.    The Interior Label / Leather Tab

 -It’s believed Dior introduced date codes in S/S 1997.

-My bag is April 1997 and you’ll find the date code under the leather tab fixed on to the exterior of the interior pocket.

-The leather tab colour will match the colour of the bag

-This leather tab has ‘Christian Dior PARIS’ stamped in gold on the front.

-The leather tab is fixed to the pocket by a single row of 13 red stitches.

-The stitching around the other sides of the tab is the same colour as the bag.

-The leather tab does not have sharp edges the corners are curved.

-The leather tab measures 3.7cm wide

 Date Code

 -The back of the leather tab features two lines.

-The 1st line is stamped ‘MADE IN ITALY’. This should be straight not stamped on crooked.

-The second line is stamped with two capital letters followed by a dash followed by 4 numbers.

-The first two letters match the location this bag was made - MA means Italy.

-The first and third digit indicates the month and the second and fourth digit indicate the year.

Example: MA - 0947

4.    Hardware

Feet (Sherlock Holmes here)

My bag has feet.

I’m 99.9% certain Dior brought in feet in their A/W 1996 collections.

My homework to come to this conclusion is roughly 3 hours trawling Getty images, old magazine collections and Vogue. Just to look at the feet on Lady Dior Bags.

I have seen numerous Getty image pictures dated S/S 1996 and the bag does not have feet.

But, I have seen a couple of pictures on Getty images of a patent leather medium Dior bag with feet dated A/W 1996.

I have seen also seen a Large Croc Lady Dior in a Getty image carried by Princess Diana dated November 1996.  This bag  features feet.

I have seen a bag that was being sold at auction that pre dates 1997 [meaning no date code]. It featured feet but had old stitching circa 1995-1996 era.  Not the newer S/S 1997 stitching.  -

Meaning voila A/W 1996 they must have come in!!!

Zips

Lampo manufactured the zips for Dior during this time period. These zips are the original zips that should be on your bag. Yes, I actually emailed Lampo and asked them.

Interior Pocket Zip

The interior pocket zip is red and attached to a small leather pull via a small gold toned keyring loop.

The back of the Lampo Zip features a ‘5’ and an old Lampo logo. The zip pull has Lampo running vertically down it.

Bag Main Closure Zip

The bags closure zip features lampo on the back

Dior Zip Pull

This zip then has a pull – this is made up of a small key ring chain  and 3 gold loops attached to it. The Oval CD attached to this feels very, very, heavy. The oval is framed by textured metal. (it almost looks like its shimmering). The same for the CD font - it slightly shimmers. This is a tiny, tiny, detail, but the CD isn’t smooth – but textured.

This is the same for the CD printed on the eyelets.

The CD should be crisp and not thick and smudgy.

Hardware:

4 Gold Rings that attach the handle to the bag

These are fixed into position.

 They have tiny holes at the back of them. If you push a needle into these it activates a spring mechanism which opens. This is in place so you can take the handles off the bag should you need to clean them or repair them.

 Screw heads

 These are mock screw heads and not actual screws

DIOR CHARM KEYCHAIN

The Dior Charm is not attached to the gold toned O loop hardware which connects the handle and is not on a pivot like in later collections. I believe they started doing this from Autumn /Winter 1997 onwards.

It is on a key chain ring.

Again, I have studied two photos of the late and magnificent Princess Diana from 1996 carrying the bag and you can see the keychain ring rests on top of the hardware as opposed to fixed into it and through it.  

Further information: In 2014 Christies Auction House sold a 1997 (Autumn/Winter)  Lady Dior and the loop was fixed into position – like it is on bags today.

7.    The leather hangtag (the oval disc of leather behind keychain ‘O’)

The ‘O’ fits perfectly onto the leather hangtag. The stitching outlines the

Christian Dior PARIS. A few places online say this should say Christian Dior ONLY. But, they are not talking about vintage Lady Dior’s.

 8.    The interior lining  

The lining is red. The bottom lining is a separate panel of material stitched in place. It is not just one continuous piece of material.

It is a cannage stitching design and the red thread is shiny set against the more matte lining material.

It is eight squares wide. CD is stitched into the centre of the second square down, second square across, and then repeated four squares along. (The CD is stitched upside down looking from right to left)

Four square down, four across – CD is stitched right side up, and then the same and then repeated four squares along.

The pattern then starts again one row down.

Not going to lie it’s probably easier watching me explain it, check out my social videos.

9.    Size

1995 - 1996

Dimensions  24 x 21 (just under) x 11cm 

1997 Dimensions

Dimensions: 24 x 20 x 11 cm  [1997 Dimensions have stayed the same to this day – Dior made the bag shorter by 0.9mm]

Please remember:  I’m not an expert…I’m sure I’ve missed loads of things  and this is by no means an exhaustive list,  I’m also not an authentication site.

 I love researching into the history and construction of the bags.  I buy from reputable sellers that put their bags through multiple different experts in order to authenticate them.

I’m just super passionate about people not spending their hard earned money, being led to believe they are purchasing an authentic bag and then it turns out to be fake. The counterfeit market for handbags is billions – believe me we’ve moved on from street stalls, and side streets. These fakes are everywhere! 

-Designer bags are prohibitively expensive for the majority of people despite what social media has you believe. Hello £5.5k on a Dior bag