How to spot a fake Vendula London Bag - the vegan friendly bags with style! Tips and tricks for spotting counterfeit handbags online

 "Where did you get that bag?" 

Vendula London is on online and in store brand that offer unique and wonderful bags, purses and accessories. I first found them while trying to find a unique bag for a special event and have become slightly obsessed with their unique designs! 

The mix of printed and stitched design on their signature shopfront style bags offer a daring, different style. With a large array of bag shapes and designs, you can easily find the style and shape that suits you. Many styles hold lots of items easily, with a surprising amount of pockets and zips.

Vendula London has earned it's place alongside the many popular brands which see the life cycle of their products continue long after they are sold out or 'retired' from the shelf.

Sought after bags can reach well over twice their original retail price on auction sites and Facebook groups. Styles like The Piano Bar, The Biscuit Shop, The Book Shop and The Sewing Shop are rare and popular, as well as many others. There is no definitive list of the rare and valuable Vendula London bags, and sought after styles can change daily as 'Vendulettes' (people who enjoy and collect Vendula London bags) explore and discover new designs.

 Recently two Japanese styles came into the limelight as they were showcased on the Facebook Vendula Fan Page - The Sherlock Holmes Public House Bag and Vendula & Co Department Store quickly became coveted and could be found for resale at 150-200% their market value.

Vendula & Co Japanese Exclusive

Why not just buy a Fake?

Well, apart from it being harmful to the real brand, the fakes are often very bad quality, come with no guarantee and next to no resale value. Also, you can rarely get matching purses and accessories! 

Meanwhile, a genuine Vendula London can be a collectors item, increasing in value as you show it off to your friends and family (and envious co-workers). It is unlikely you will get a return on any counterfeit product (it is also illegal to sell a counterfeit product!). 

The fake products often contain the incorrect wording, or a simplistic design, they can have pieces or artwork missing, bad quality inner linings or lack the glitter finish. Below I'll take a look in more detail about how to spot a fake.

My genuine Music Store mini bag

As a Vendula London collector with experience buying from different auction sites and marketplaces online, I wanted to give you a few tips and tricks for spotting fake and counterfeit Vendula London bags. 

This guide is written with the intention of helping people purchasing online, as it can be harder to establish if not many photos are presented. In person, I believe the quality and consistency of Vendula London bags will speak for themselves, but, if this guide helps even one person from buying a counterfeit product, it's worth it :) 

As an example, I want to look at one such sought after style -the Music Store, a retired style from around two years ago. The larger bags can reach well over original retail value and one on eBay at the moment is a crisp £180+ plus postage. For collectors with money to invest, this might not be seen as a bad price, and so you can imagine my surprise when I came across a newly listed auction on eBay for the Music Store Vendula London bag at just £25 starting bid, plus postage. Let's take a look at the differences, bearing in mind I had to ask the seller for more pictures of the inside of the fake bag.

Original, genuine Vendula London Bag, above.(Ebay.co.uk) : Counterfeit bag below. (Ebay.co.uk)

As you can see the fake design is much more simplistic and rudimentary, leaving out much of the beloved detail, especially on the signature cat stitching, as well as the loose hanging shop sign - usually an added loose accessory on a Vendula London bag, the fake is printed/partly stitched on. -

Original, genuine 

Vendula London Bag, on the left.

(Ebay.co.uk)

                         Counterfeit bag on the right.

                                        (Ebay.co.uk)

                                             

If we now examine the back of the particular style, you can see on the counterfeit product, the wording is completely different, on the original Vendula London the street sign says 'Vendula Street NW1' and on the fake it reads 'Paris Music Bar'. The zip is also different and the general look of the fabric makes me worry this might not even be a vegan product!

 Obviously, with a fake there would be no guarantee this is vegan friendly (even if it is PU Leather, the glues and accessories could be animal products). In person, there are probably more obvious differences to the feel and quality of this product, but we must go by what we are offered on the auction.

 

Original, genuine 

Vendula London Bag tag, on the left.

(Ebay.co.uk)

                      Counterfeit bag tags on the right.

                              (Ebay.co.uk)

 The tags are what gave it away for me at a very quick glance of the auction as they are so different. 

On a genuine Vendula London Bag you will always get two or three large rectangle tags, with the brand name, info about the guarantee and a tag with the SKU product code and description (which is never just the colour!) and price sticker. You will also receive a heart shaped paper tag informing you the bag is Vegan - approved by the vegetarian society. I have received at least 2 rectangle and one heart shaped tag on every bag or purse i have ever purchased from the Vendula London site. 

Obviously, used bags can be sold without tags and so I would implore you to be extra vigilant on the other clues if no tags are present. 

The Real Bags Have Quality!

Vendula London say

Because your bag has been individually crafted, you may find slight quirks and kinks that are the sign of a handmade piece. 

- I have never had an issue with any bag and find that quality of each to be amazing. Here are a few close up photographs of some of my pieces.

As a collector, I find it easy to see the love and quality gone into each bag, and I wanted to share just a snippet of that with a few of these photographs.

I hope they can, at least in some way, convey the amount of work and thought that goes into each design.

All the materials used on every bag are vegan friendly and kind to the environment.

In some design, wood is etched and added too.

The bags use a mix of printed and stitched designs.

Shopfronts are a very popular design.

Many bags contain the brand name 'Vendula' somewhere on the front of the bag design.

Bags can be shaped like books, boats, trucks, caravans, plus many more.

Other Clues to look out for fake products:

Lining

Many Vendula London Bags have classic fabric designs inside, but some, like the Vendula Chocolatiers bag and the Vendula Vintage, can be plain liners matching the outer colour scheme. 

Every Vendula London lining will be of high quality, with either a vegan leather 'Vendula London' tag sewn in, or Vendula London embossed onto the inner lining. 

Original, genuine 

Vendula London Bag inner lining, on the left.

(Facebook.com)

Counterfeit bag tags on the right.

(Ebay.co.uk)

 

Below are some examples from my personal collection of original Vendula London bags, all purchased from the website, showing Linings and branded tags inside the bags.

Not worried about your bag's lining? Skip to the bottom of the blog for reasons to buy direct from Vendula London, plus a personal message from me! 

This photograph of the Vendula Street pouch bag shows a lovely cats, dogs and birds inner lining with flowers and cake to boot. The vegan-friendly leather tag is prominent and matches the colour scheme of the bag.

This photograph of the Pizza Truck pouch bag shows a unique Pizza and vegetables inner lining with the brand name spotted throughout. The vegan-friendly leather tag matches the colour scheme of the bag.

This photograph of the Apertivo Vendula Grab bag shows a 'cheers' wording inner lining with bubbles. The bag is a striking silver, and so is the rectangle tag.

This photograph of the matching Apertivo Vendula zip around purse shows an embossed brand on the  inner lining with matching 'cheers' wording fabric on the other side. The vegan-friendly leather matches the colour scheme of the matching bag.

This photograph of the Chocolatiers pouch bag almost appears to be an odd one out, showing a plain inner lining. The vegan-friendly leather tag is prominent and matches the colour scheme of the bag. This bag was purchased at the outlet store on the website. I wonder if it matches the original bags either way- still genuine!

In contrast, The photograph below is of the Chocolatiers tote bag comprising of a classic Vendula London inner lining. The vegan-friendly leather tag is not the usual rectangle, instead blending as part of the zip lining and matches the colour scheme of the bag. 

This photograph of the Trattoria pouch bag shows another classic Vendula inner lining with the brand name spotted throughout. The vegan-friendly leather tag perfectly matches the colour scheme of the bag.

In this photograph of the Love Boat large zip around wallet, The vegan-friendly leather tag is again embossed into the lining, the other side of the lining matches other linings in this boat range. This embossed on black was the hardest to spot. 

This photograph of the Beauty Lounge Backpack bag shows another classic inner lining, the vegan-friendly leather tag, again, matches the colour scheme of the bag.

Finally, This photograph of the Cake Boutique Backpack bag shows another classic inner lining, the vegan-friendly leather tag, again, matches the colour scheme of the bag.

From these photos you can see constancy to not only match linings or themes where possible, but also to always match the inside tag of the bags with the general colour scheme on the outside of the bag. 

Zips

Vendula London Zips are a particular shape and material, fakes can be plain zips- most notable on the outsides of the bags. 

Note: Vendula London also do use plain zips on the insides of some styles, especially purses, most likely due to sizing issues within the design. 

From the eBay auction examples again, you can see the original bag in the top photograph has a classic Vendula London style zip in both shape and material. 

The fake in the lower photograph, however, has a large fragile looking zip with a big hole in it.  (ebay.co.uk)

Four reasons to buy from the Vendula London website:

• The bag is guaranteed for one year from purchase (six months from Outlet) which covers broken clasps, zips, straps and manufacturing faults.

• You can be sure the bag won't be fake - if purchasing from VendulaLondon.com you can be sure you will got a high quality, unique bag from the company themselves.

• Collect points and get money off vouchers. The Vendula London loyalty points scheme is amazing- be sure to add your birthday for up to 2000 points on the day (£20 voucher!)

• You often get the best price on the website- this may sound crazy, but if you are signed up to the loyalty scheme, and now that they offer free postage over £50- you can bag a bargain for less the inflated auction sites are offering.

Thank you so much for reading!


I hope this guide helps and, remember, don't be too scared about fakes, they are not common and if you read this guide, should be easy to spot. I am not affiliated in any way with Vendula London, though if they have a job going, I would happily accept! hehe


Please add a comment below, I'd love to know what you think- if you have accidentally bought a fake, seen one online and realized or any tips and tricks I may have missed! Also feel free to show your Vendula collections as I love seeing them! All the best, Vendulettes!