Melissa lifts Hermès Birkin-Bag from the orange box. Now there is a given order. It checks the packaging with a UV light-this is how the small Hermès logos appear on the box. A first sign that the bag is not a fake. Then the Vestiaire Collective employee inspects the big logo on the box: Does the color fit? The font? Even small details such as the silhouette of the horse in the logo are important. Do you see the horse’s eyes? And the rider’s hands? She checks the same on the pocket’s dust bag. “Here they often become careless,” says Melissa and means counterfeiters. The authentication expert at the French second-hand platform knows exactly what she has to look at. The material and the color of the bag fit, the seams are clean – the packaging is already authentic.
