Let me start with a confession: I’m a leather craftsman who has been restoring vintage Hermès bags for wealthy clients for years. Last week, I was introduced to lxybags·ru.
That day, a client brought me a “vintage” Kelly bag she’d bought on a trip to Paris—except it was a replica so finely crafted that even I had to spend 10 minutes under a magnifying glass to spot the flaws (the saddle stitch had slightly uneven tension, but who cares?).
She’d paid €5,000 for it without even realizing it. I later tracked it down on the lxybags·ru forum, where craftsmen dissect the reproduction process.
Surprisingly, their Birkin replicas use the same grade of Togo leather as the mid-range authentic brand.
Ironically, this shook my snobbishness. The allure of luxury is exclusivity, but the best replicas reveal how arbitrary that hierarchy is.
Authenticity isn’t about the leather, it’s about how you wear it.