This is a tale of my quest to find a good deal on a Louis Vuitton handbag. Now by “good deal” I mean finding one at a thrift store for seven bucks, not 700 dollars. If this sounds like an impossible task – I know several people who have scored high end designer bags at our thrift stores and my mind literally can’t imagine paying $1k for a handbag when I know it’s possible to find a real gem in the thrifting wild.
In my quest to find a real bag, I’ve found many dupes on the racks, each with varying degrees of wear and they’ve fooled me almost every time. I now know what date code numbers to look out for, and to carefully examine the stitching and materials. I’m confident that the next LV bag I buy will be real (even if I have to pay up a bit for it at the thrift store).
I found the latest bag at my favorite thrift store, and after examining it in the car, I realized the serial numbers were absolute nonsense, so I decided the bag would be best used as a yarn holder. The straps were crumbling apart and the leather trim was cracked and well worn, so I needed to do some bag rehab.
I went the upcycling route and decided to apply some lace trim with hot glue and crochet some straps. I then reinforced the straps with more of the lace (since crochet tends to stretch) and there you have it – a cute use for a valueless LV dupe found in the wild.
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