Authenticate Dior Saddle
The curved shoulder bag from the Galliano era, brought back and copied immediately.
Introduced 1999, reissued 2018Paris
The Saddle's shape is its hardest feature to fake: a curved flap and a curved body that must meet along their whole length without a gap. Counterfeits get the curve slightly wrong, and the result is a flap that stands away from the body at one end.
The D-shaped hardware at the sides and the CD charm hanging from the strap are cast pieces and carry the same reads as the Lady Dior's charms — weight, crisp casting, even plating, free-turning rings.
The magnetic closure under the flap should pull the flap down flat and hold it, and the flap should return to the same position each time. A weak magnet or a flap that sits at an angle when closed is a construction failure.
What a Saddle does on the secondary market
Strong since the 2018 reissue, with oblique canvas versions in particular demand. Flap shape and the condition of the strap hardware set the figure.
An orientation for honest, unrestored condition — never an appraisal, and never a quotation.
Questions we are asked
- How do I check a Saddle's shape?
- Look along the whole length where the flap meets the body. On genuine production the two curves meet without a gap; counterfeits get the curve slightly wrong and the flap stands away at one end.
- Should the Saddle's flap close flat?
- Yes. The magnetic closure pulls the flap down flat and returns it to the same position each time. A weak magnet, or a flap sitting at an angle when closed, is a construction failure.
Lovenhall BagRead the handbag itself
The checks tell you how it was made. The instrument tells you what it appears to be, and roughly what its kind fetches.