…to walk around with fake bags!
Chanel is not just a fashion brand. Chanel has made history and inspired women for more than hundred years. Still the simple black and white style a la Chanel is reinterpreted again and again. Chanel is timeless, it always works!

The brand attracts women of all ages but success hardly has only good aspects. Gabrielle (Coco) was not that kind of woman who wanted everyone to buy her clothes, she wanted her style copied on the street, but not the brand. To copy a style is absolutely not the same as producing and selling counterfeit items.

When I was in Paris one week ago I hardly did anything else then walking around in Chanel boutiques, trying on clothes and getting carried away by this luxurious elegance. My goal though, I have to admit, was to return home with a classic Chanel quilted bag. I felt in love with a beige jumbo one, but after two days I admitted to myself that I am to young to use 4 000 dollar on a bag. So I went home without one…

Still I google the bag every day, and over time I realized just how many websites actually sell fake Chanel bags… Simply taking advantage of the reputation Chanel built over the years. But actually worse were those who claimed to sell authentic bags. Chanel does not sell their bags online!

At first I was sure this was only happening in America… But after a quick search on the Norwegian buy-and-sell website finn.no I found at least ten bags for sale claiming to be authentic.

The first thing which came to my mind was that they have to be fake, all of them! Because, let us be honest here: Once you own a Chanel bag, would you ever sell it?

There has always been Chanel in my life, both my grandmothers were dedicated to Chanel from their youth until now. Fair enough my mum was not quite Chanel, but as me and a friend once spilled a bottle No 5 when we were ten years old and I saw that furious face of my friends’ mom, I knew Chanel must be something really special.
Later I started reading books about Gabrielle (Coco) and I studied pictures of both old and new designs. So you could say I always have been above average interested in Chanel.

Of course when I spotted those fake Chanel bags on finn.no it really made me furious… So I started with the first person, asked her an awful lot of questions, like where she bought the bag, why she is selling it and asked her to take pictures of serial numbers, authentication card and receipts…

To make a long story short: It turns out, not only do those people fake bags, they also make fake authentication cards and even receipts! After a quick google search of her serial number, it turned out to be a well-known Chanel fake and there are programs to make and print fake receipts. Stupid enough the receipt did not even look like the original ones.

Yes, I have shopped at Chanel before and I know how the “receipts” look like and what they say and not…
After I got enough evidence, I reported her to finn.no and they took down her “auction”. I think people like these should be police reported not only removed from buy-and-sell sides.

Anyway I will not stop asking and reporting until all those fake Chanel sellers are removed!
My motive? Respect; The house of Chanel and all those people who ever worked so hard to get there Chanel is now, deserve so much better then getting ripped off!
And the next time you see fake bags or clothes no matter which brand, you should think about that by buying those items, you support an illegal business and weaken the original brand!
So if you are interested in buying a Chanel bag, you should step away from vintage shops and the internet and and rather take a look in one of Chanels boutiques all over the world. Only by purchasing this way you can be guaranteed an authentic item…

Read more about Chanels battle against counterfeit items here.