Authentic Chloe Paddington Handbag Guide

Ah, Chloe Paddington Handbags. Certainly some of the most coveted, albeit, confusing bags to come out in the past few years. The massive demand and short supply of Chloe authentic handbags naturally caused a massive flood of replicas. Some fakes are easy to spot, some are not.

To compound the problem, the bags themselves have many inconsistencies from season to season. The result is confusion regarding what does and does not constitute an authentic Paddy. Hopefully this guide will help clear things up a bit.

Lets start with probably the quickest, easiest way to spot fake Chloe bags. If you are looking at the lock with the Chloe logo on top, and the keyhole is upside down, it is fake. On an authentic Paddington, the keyhole will be rightside up- meaning the "mushroom" shaped part will be on top. This is a good sign to look for as it easily seeable in many pictures; many other signs of a Chloe replica are harder to see in photos. The downside is that not all fakes have the upsidedown keyhole. So, if you see one you know its fake, but you cannot assume a bag is authentic only because the keyhole is rightside up.

While we're on the lock, there should be a heat stamped Chloe logo in small letters on the leather strip surrounding the lock. Also, the stitching on the lock can be straight or at an angle depending on the season. This has caused a lot of confusion.

Something to look for regarding stitching is whether it is thick or thin. Authentic Paddingtons will have thick nylon stitching regardless of the angle. Fakes many times have thinner stitching. As always, you want to look for messy stitching- you won't find it on a real Chloe.

The overall stitching can be a good indicator of a fake Paddington. Many times the stitching on a fake will be good, tight with no loose stitching. However, the thread will sometimes be thinner and the actual lines will not be as good. This subtly changes the overall look of the bag. This is not as noticeable unless you have a real Paddy to compare to, or have seen enough real bags to get the idea. For instance, on a fake paddy (even with relatively good stitching), the stitching curves on the circular leather pieces that the straps attach to are not as well formed as a real bag. A great site with close-ups of authentic Chloe Paddingtons is Net-a-Porter.

The lock should also be a brass color, not bright shiny gold. This goes for all the hardware, it should be the same color. There is however, some difference in hardware color from season to season as slightly different elements went into the makeup of the metal. But again, no really shiny hardware. Also, while you want to steer clear of bags with very stressed hardware, Paddingtons do naturally develop some wear, especially where the lock is attached to the bag- not much can be done to prevent metal on metal wear. Also, authentic Paddington locks are very heavy, the whole bag will weigh over 3 pounds. Usually fakes are much lighter.

Lets move on to the leather, one of the prized characteristics of a paddy. They are made of very soft wonderful smelling kid/calf leather. The leather is very soft and slouchy, completely unable to support itself. Many (not all) replicas have stiff leather making the bag stand up on its own. Many fakes will have uniform, unnatural pebbling on the leather. A real bag will have random, non-patterned natural pebbling as found on an animal. The heat stamp in the leather above the zipper is clear but shallow on a real paddy. On some fakes, the stamp is very deep and sometimes messy.

Another sign of a fake Chloe Paddington handbag is if the seams on the handles are pointing towards each other- towards the center of the bag. Real bags will have the seams facing out. IF you can see the inner material that the handles are formed around, the bag is fake. Also, make sure the stitching and seams are the correct color for the bag you are buying (again, check netaporter). For instance, on some 06 blanc paddingtons, the seams should be tan colored. On more recent seasons, the blancs have the same color seam as the bag.

Color has been a confusing issue for the Paddington buyer. For instance, the 06 Blanc is more akin to more recent Mastic bags- like a slightly yellow cream, whereas, recent Blanc bags are very white. There was much confusion over the noir/black bags as one season the bags were black and another a sort of slate black with blue hints, yet both under the same color name. Also, there were some authentic black bags with black interiors, though this was not the norm.

Authentic Paddingtons have silver zippers. Some, depending on the year, have metal teeth, some plastic. Some zippers are marked YKK, some are not. A cause for concern would be a brass colored zipper or one marked with a company other than YKK.

Serial# tags; very confusing, lots of misinformation. What happened over time was someone would purchase an authentic bag, say at a Chloe store or Saks, and post info about it. For instance, their bag would have YKK zippers and no serial tag and it would spread that bags with tags and without YKK zippers were the fakes, and so on and so on. With most other designers, it would be natural and correct to assume that these aspects would be consistent, but not so with Chloe.

The serial tags, found in the interior pocket, come (or in one case don't come) in three ways, so to speak. On some bags (a small%) there is not a serial# tag. On some bags there is a shorter, 6 digit #. Many times these shorter #s have the bottom of the #s closest to the seam (not always). There are also longer #s which many times (again, not always) come with the tops of the #s along the seam.

When buying a paddington, look to see the hardware is properly engraved with the Chloe logo. It should be found on the key and on the two buckles on the sides of the bag. On the right buckle the logo will be on top, on the left buckle the bottom.

The fact that a bag comes with the tag and authenticity cards is no gaurantee; these can be fake too.

So, in closing, if you come across a Chloe Paddington handbag bag that meets all the criteria for an authentic bag, and there is a return policy, it is probably worth trying to get the bag. It is never a sure thing (unless its from Chloe, Saks, Netaporter etc), but you have definitely cut down the chances of it being a fake. For tips on buying Chloe Paddingtons on ebay click here.