Originally Posted by Prada Psycho

If you laid eyes on a tag that said "Made in Italy" it was definitely made in Italy. The rules of international commerce (as I understand them, anyway) require placing the country of manufacture tags in everything now. Doesn't matter what the item is or the company. Also, it's not just the suede lined bags. Some of them are made in Italy. The only way anyone can tell with 100% certainty is to look for the "Made in [wherever]" tag. Don't assume because it says "Prada Milano" on either the outside or inside metal/leather tags that it's made in Italy. Good example: I recently ordered a Lancel bag. Clearly stamped "Lancel Paris" on the outside label and inside label. All the information that came with it talked about how wonderful Paris was and how special this French company is. I pull the lining out, lo and behold: MADE IN CHINA. I did some research on that one and sure enough, this dyed in the wool French company has been farming out their bags for manufacture to China the past several years. I'm done with the whole thing. I've sold all but two of my older leather Pradas and my three nylon Pradas. The only new bags I'm buying now are Cole Haan, Michael Kors and bags that I know for fact are made in China or Indonesia, etc without having to rifle through the bag looking for "made in" tags. They are also priced accordingly. This is what bites about Prada sneaking the Made in China bags into their higher end bags: the prices are no different than the bags made in Italy. If I buy an Italian bag, by gawd, I want it MADE in Italy. If it's a French bag, I want it MADE in France. Rant over.....

Very interesting!

My v.d. bag (BN1777) has 2 of those white tags (1, 31) and the small black Made in Italy tag attached to the white tags inside the pocket lining. So I guess just pointing out that sometimes they "hide" the Made in Italy tag as well.

Out of curiosity, what are these white tags with numbers on them? Fashionphile seems to always show a photo of this white tag on the bags they sell.. And I'm always like "What is this? Why do I care? Should I care?" :) I guess now we should care!


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Originally Posted by aptreex

Very interesting! My v.d. bag (BN1777) has 2 of those white tags (1, 31) and the small black Made in Italy tag attached to the white tags inside the pocket lining. So I guess just pointing out that sometimes they "hide" the Made in Italy tag as well. Out of curiosity, what are these white tags with numbers on them? Fashionphile seems to always show a photo of this white tag on the bags they sell.. And I'm always like "What is this? Why do I care? Should I care?" :) I guess now we should care! tree

Yes, that's also where you'll find the Made in Italy tag on certain styles.

Honestly, I've never been 100% clear on those white tags myself. As best I can decipher, it's the number of the bag. What I mean: say Prada made 100 of your BN1777 style bag. Yours is the 31st of that style made. Make sense?

Now whether or not that's what it means? No idea!

Bottom line, the white tags mean NOTHING in terms of authenticating a Prada bag (since the fakes have them, too), so I don't understand why so many sellers put so much emphasis on them.

sorry to hear about your lancel bag. I guess I was just shocked by the poor quality as it was my first prada bag and 2 were faulty kwim. I'm going back to lv thank you and I know now made in Italy doesn't always mean better quality. I still can't get over that how a brand like prada could put up with or work with such cr:&.

ok I'll stop ranting now too lol

Originally Posted by Prada Psycho

If you laid eyes on a tag that said "Made in Italy" it was definitely made in Italy. The rules of international commerce (as I understand them, anyway) require placing the country of manufacture tags in everything now. Doesn't matter what the item is or the company. Also, it's not just the suede lined bags. Some of them are made in Italy. The only way anyone can tell with 100% certainty is to look for the "Made in [wherever]" tag. Don't assume because it says "Prada Milano" on either the outside or inside metal/leather tags that it's made in Italy. Good example: I recently ordered a Lancel bag. Clearly stamped "Lancel Paris" on the outside label and inside label. All the information that came with it talked about how wonderful Paris was and how special this French company is. I pull the lining out, lo and behold: MADE IN CHINA. I did some research on that one and sure enough, this dyed in the wool French company has been farming out their bags for manufacture to China the past several years. I'm done with the whole thing. I've sold all but two of my older leather Pradas and my three nylon Pradas. The only new bags I'm buying now are Cole Haan, Michael Kors and bags that I know for fact are made in China or Indonesia, etc without having to rifle through the bag looking for "made in" tags. They are also priced accordingly. This is what bites about Prada sneaking the Made in China bags into their higher end bags: the prices are no different than the bags made in Italy. If I buy an Italian bag, by gawd, I want it MADE in Italy. If it's a French bag, I want it MADE in France. Rant over.....

I don't like this whole topic

favorable that I can't find this made in .. tag in my bag .. that's really weird .. that bothers me ..

Originally Posted by minababe

I don't like this whole topic favorable that I can't find this made in .. tag in my bag .. that's really weird .. that bothers me ..

You really have to dig to find it. Which bag are you talking about?

I didn't realize this was buried in this thread. I wonder if the title of this thread should be modified. I am absolutely horrified. I can not believe what I am seeing and reading. Seriously, made in CHINA? Ugh.

Sorry Prada, you've lost me too...

it's been so long since i bought a prada handbag. i was looking at a prada nylon the other day and thanks to this thread, first thing i checked was the 'made in' tag. i refuse to pay a designer price for an italian-branded purse that is made in China. The bag was made in italy... it went home with me.

Originally Posted by marose28

it's been so long since i bought a prada handbag. i was looking at a prada nylon the other day and thanks to this thread, first thing i checked was the 'made in' tag. i refuse to pay a designer price for an italian-branded purse that is made in China. The bag was made in italy... it went home with me.

That's what drives me nuts. Not too long before I got the "Made in China" leather/suede bag, I bought a Prada nylon messenger. A very nice one, but nevertheless it was nylon. THAT was made in Italy.

Yep, Prada wants too much money to have to rifle through bags looking for provenance tags. Besides, I've been enjoying the Cole Haan and Michael by Michael Kors that I've purchased recently, so my bank account is VERY happy with Prada's subterfuge.

oh gawd, i really have to visit more of tpf's subforums. i need to discover new brands to like that do not cost an arm and a leg. I'm sure my DH would like that. well, at least Prada's mainly off the table for me right now - ok, except for that small nylon messenger with saffiano straps. it was yummy.

Hi ladies, I second hsensi's opinion that the title of this thread may need to be changed. Just last week, I bought a Prada bag that turned out to be made in Turkey. However, as I really love the design and it appears quite well-made, I will most probably be keeping it. For all we know, maybe Turkish craftmanship is superior to Italian craftmanship?

it's sad... i noticed that MJ was making bags in Hungary and Vietnam as well, but still raising prices on their bags. not cool.

^^ Yeah, my more recent MJ bags (circa 2010-present) are also made other countries (Hungary, Romania) but when I emailed the MJ company to inquire about this, I never received a reply. I stopped buying MJ bags because the quality in my opinion, isn't what it used to be like 10 or so years ago. Cannot write this in the MJ forum of course

Anyway,I hope Prada doesn't continue to manfacture their bags cheaply while selling it to us at full-price. I think I am still going to buy another Saffiano Lux and a Vitello Daino tote in the near future but we'll see...

I agree - I will not pay premium designer price for a bag that's made in China. This is exactly the thing that put me off Coach and Burberry, which I used to favour.

It really is a shame. I'm seeing more bags being made in China. I was checking out a bag this morning on Beyond the Rack, almost bought it, but I had second thoughts because it was made in China.