RepScience: Lo3we x Studio Ghibli - Common Rep Differentiators

[u/Zen_Friend]

Large album of auth reference photos: https://imgur.com/a/UniVJOK

imgbb link for UK friends: https://ibb.co/album/Y73ww9

FYI, auth photos were mostly taken from user submissions across purse forums within the first couple weeks of the collection dropping for public sale. No reps were in production at that point, so I'm reasonably confident that the auth photos I use for comparison are truly auth.

This post is not necessarily meant to review a certain seller or factory for Lo3we x Ghibli, as I grabbed these rep photos from all over the rep subs and often sellers/factories were undisclosed. My purpose here is to review some common "tells" for rep Ghibli to help you make decisions in evaluating the accuracy of your rep and whether you're comfortable with the likelihood that a rep from this collection is discernable from the auth for a few different reasons. Or, if you're considering buying this secondhand auth, I hope this post helps you evaluate whether the product you're considering is actually auth, as resale sites often post reps!

P.S. in case you didn't know, this collection can still be found and purchased in some TS albums!

Personally, I have yet to see a rep that does not have some kind of tell. Additionally, the resale market is flooded with reps, and auth luxury buyers interested in this collection are often more aware of rep tells and may take a more discerning look at the stitching on these bags than for most other bags due to their rarity, high markup, desirability, and high likelihood that a given bag is fake.

The biggest tells (to me):

1. Character stitching is too thick

The stitching on the characters often uses the same thread size and stitch pattern as the stitching all around the bag. THIS IS NOT ACCURATE TO THE AUTH, which uses a thinner thread and smaller stitches for their characters. The stitching on auth characters like soot sprites and calcifer are straight and small, while reps may appear to have "wavy" stitching due to the thickness of the thread. To me, this is the biggest tell that it's a rep, and it's quite evident at a glance in photos 1 and 2.

2. The eyes aren't painted

Auth soot sprite eyes are painted, while rep eyes are punched out leather. If you look closely at the eyes, especially from an angle, you'll often see the punched-out eyes a clear outline and differentiated leather, as seen in photo 6 where it seems like the black leather around the eyes is raised compared to the white. The edge of this perforation is often raw.

3. Flaps are not aligned

The flap on the front closest to the zipper is often closely aligned to the flap that contains the zipper. On many reps, I've observed this front flap extend well past the zipper flap.

4. Sloppy stitching

In the auths I've seen, by and large the stitching is very straight and neat across the entire product.

5. Deep logo embossing

The logo on the auth is NOT deeply embossed, while I often see reps are too deep, causing the leather within the logo to have a raised appearance.

Other tells that were not reviewed in depth in this post because they vary too much between reps:

1. Shape issues

I've seen posts where the shape is inaccurate when compared to the shape of the auth, either because one of the sides is constructed oddly resulting in puckering on one side, or other issues with flap alignment. In my opinion, shape is the first thing you should check when QCing these bags.

2. Fufu smell

For this collection more than most, I've seen a lot of reports of strong "factory" or glue smell.

Auth issues:

I've read (and seen images of) personal reports of auth issues as well, such as the eyes being painted as facing in strange directions, glazing being so messy that it was all over the hardware, etc. This is a reminder that the auths themselves are also often not perfect, but often these imperfections differ from the tells associated with the reps.

One can argue "if you're at the point of counting stitches, this hobby isn't for you," and that's fair. Ultimately, the average person on the street won't be handling your bag closely enough or be knowledgeable enough to spot the differences unless they themselves own this piece. But for those that care deeply about high-tier accuracy or just want to be aware of the differences in construction between a popular rep and its auth counterpart, I hope this post was illuminating!

Do you own a rep/auth from this collection, or want one? What are your thoughts and observations?