There are certain signs you can look out for, but to be quite honest it is very difficult and the only place you can be absolutely guaranteed to get a genuine Louis Vuitton bag is at the LV site or in one of the LV stores.

However, as you may not wish to pay the prices LV charges, you may be tempted to look around the internet for special offers.

So here are some tips to help spot fake Louis Vuitton bags

• If the seller has a lot of bags on offer you should steer clear. Vuitton only makes limited numbers of its bags available specifically to avoid them being re-sold. So anyone who has large quantities of LV bags on offer should be considered with a certain degree of suspicion. Take a good look at the official Eluxury website and get to know the genuine articles, knowledge is power as they say. Some so-called LV bags were in fact never produced by Louis Vuitton.

• Louis Vuitton do not use plastic or bubble wrap to wrap their bags.
• If the price is ridiculously low then it is very unlikely to be a genuine bag. Louis Vuitton handbags are expensive for a reason, they take a long time to make. Louis Vuitton leather goods are manufactured in Spain, France, or the USA, where craftsmen pay attention to every detail and use only the finest materials.
• Check the quality of the craftsmanship - LV bags are extremely well made and should look as if they are.
• Look out for creases, wrinkles, logos that are not symmetrical, seams that are obviously poor quality.
• The Certificate of Authenticity - there should be one, fake certificates also exist of course, but no certificate is a bad sign.
• Circular tags made from cheap looking plastic attached to the bag were never made by Louis Vuitton, LV do not attach their tags. When you buy a bag from LV you get two tags and possibly a care booklet. One tag says "Louis Vuitton" and will state the material of the bag - monogram canvas, epi etc. The other tag shows the model number, the French name of the bag and the barcode.
• LV dustbags just have the LV or Louis Vuitton logo Interiors made of cheap plastic, or cheap suede.
• The patterns are always lined up correctly (think wallpaper patterns) Louis Vuitton never ever have sales or discounts or wholesale prices.

These are some of the signs you can look out for, but, as I said, it is very difficult to know for sure, especially if you are buying online.

The Louis Vuitton website Eluxury state that LV products are only available at Louis Vuitton stores - or from their offical websites.

I hope this information was of use - if you are interested in up-and-coming new designer bags please check out my hubpage on Radley Bags

Louis Vuitton womens handbags are the most popular of the designer bags and also the most widely copied. The reason for this is quite simple, they were the first designer bags ever made.

Louis Vuitton was was born in Anchay, France on August 4, 1821.. When he was 14 he left his home town for Paris where he started work as a trunk maker and luggage packer, working in the prominent Parisian households. His reputation grew to such an extent that he was eventually appointed by the Emperor of France, Napoleon III, as official luggage packer for the Empress Eugenie.

This was how he acquired in-depth knowledge about what made a good travelling case and as a result he started to design his own luggage.

At the age of 33 he opened his own workshops with the aim of providing luggage suitable for the "new age" in which travel was becoming increasingly popular and lugagge was more and more in demand.

In 1854 he created his own brand to design innovative, high-quality lugggage. His watchwords were - functionality, innovation, luxury. He opened his first shop in Paris the same year. The business expanded rapidly and acquired an international reputation and a shop was opened in Oxford Street in London in 1885. The Louis Vuitton brand obtained the bronze medal at the 1867 World's Fair and a gold medal at the World's Fair in Paris in 1889. It was in 1897 that the first stores were opened in the U.S.A.

As a result of being the first designer handbag brand Louis Vuitton is the most sought after and also the most counterfeited brand. It is estimated that 99% of all Louis Vuitton products sold are fakes and their designer handbags are prime targets for the fraudsters.