After last week's Hermes tie sales, a few people asked how I knew mine were authentic. Below I go through the points of authentication I looked at after a google deep dive. I am not an expert, just an amateur fashion sleuth. With the internet these days, your first step should always be looking to see if a similar item or print is being sold online. You can quickly compare visually to see if there are any major discrepancies. You can often easily check logos at this stage. Remember, most fakes are not trying hard to fool you and missing or incorrect logos are easily spotted. Often this will flush out a fake fast and you can avoid a bad buy.
In this case, you want to look for the 3 logos an Hermes tie should have: the Woven tag or keeper, the Hermes logo woven into the slimmer blade of the tie, and the made in France box woven into the tie fabric on the back of the slimmer blade.
I read online that if your tie's keeper is not a woven tag, but instead a bar made of the same tie fabric, it's a fake Hermes tie. Your tie should be 100% silk too, otherwise fake!
Next, look at the lining color on the back of the tie. I read that the color of the lining should always match the background color of the tie's print. Below you can see this 'blue' tie has a gray lining because that is the background color of the 'blue' print. I looked over all my ties and was happy to see this was true. So if your is black or some other color that's not the ties' background color, leave it behind.
Now look at the woven tag or keeper more closely. It should have 4 single tack stitches holding it in place. Also the large wheel in the logo should have 6 spokes not 5. These ties retail for $300 so small details like this should be correct and impeccable.
The direction of the ties twill weave should always be going from 11-5 o'clock. This was something I saw consistently mentioned in my investigation. You can check this by looking at the front of the tie's large blade and seeing what direction the 'lines' of the weave are going in. If it's not a twill weave or going in a different direction that 11-5 o'clock, yours is fake.
I want to add that there are defiantly more points of authentication you can check like the bar tack stitch, the dovetail fold, and even on the Hermes tie box. This isn't a comprehensive guide, but I hit all these points when looking at my ties to know they were authentic. I also want to point out that vintage and older Hermes ties may have slightly different looking logos and are still authentic. There is lots of free info online on this and other items for anyone to check their items against, so please to always do your own research from multiple sources!
Fakes will feel and look off. Remember, these ties are very expensive, so they will be made exquisitely. Some fakes are companies actually not trying to fool, but trying to create a dupe that gives you the 'look' and ends up tricking some people. These will have missing logos or inferior materials that make them look off.
When it came to pricing, I looked at the retail on these ties being sold now plus what they have sold for on Poshmark before. I also checked high solds to see if I have any rare prints or popular prints/colors. I always do this when listing a high end item. Condition was also a consideration. I ended up pricing them at $200 and taking offers, but thinking each should sell in the $150 range. So far 3 have!
