Vintage Louis Vuitton Guide: Zippers

Have you found a vintage Louis Vuitton bag that you’d like to purchase? As such purse may not even have a date code, only a stamp, its hardware may become an important aspect that you have to take into the consideration when checking whether your vintage Louis Vuitton bag is real or fake.

Some of the popular vintage zipper brands you may come across are Eclair and Talon. Are old French bags with this hardware authentic?

Third-Party Zippers On Louis Vuitton Bags

Prior to the mid-1980s a lot of Louis Vuitton bags and luggage pieces used hardware made by other companies. One of the reasons why this happened is because the brand had ambition to conquer the US market without having any manufacturing entity here. While vintage Louis Vuitton French Company bags were manufactured under a special license, they might have been a little different in terms of materials.

The well-known hardware brands that Louis Vuitton used to work with include but are not limited to ECLAIR, TALON, ROBIN and Coats & Clarks.

ECLAIR zippers

A great number of vintage pre-80s Louis Vuitton bags used zippers manufactured by a company called ECLAIR. Such zippers are generally tarnished and have the ECLAIR engraving from the both sides.

From the beginning of the 80s, Louis Vuitton introduced a lot of changes in their manufacturing process. First of all, date codes were introduced. Aside from that, Louis Vuitton started to manufacture their own hardware, instead of purchasing it from third-party companies. In the 80s, many signature models such as Speedy, Mini Speedy, Papillon, Keepall, Keepall Bandouliere, Stratos, Sac Souple, Weekend, Trousse Toilette featured Louis Vuitton original zippers. These zippers had an LV monogram on both sides.

However, some early 1980s items might feature both the ECLAIR zipper and a date code.

TALON zippers

According to The French Company USA’s production license American models use TALON manufactured zippers. There is no evidence that TALON zippers are used on any model manufactured outside of America. The photographs below shows TALON zippers being used on the American models.

Coats & Clarks

Although rare, there are some products that use the Coats & Clarks manufactured zipper. The logo of C & C is clearly etched onto each zipper tab. The photographs show the older version of the Sac Sports (M41443) (the inside is made of cloth), with the Coats & Clarks zipper.

Robin

Some of the vintage editions may also feature the Robin zippers. For example, items that were manufactured in the US under special license, such as Saks Fifth Avenue editions.

Summary

This is not the full list of zippers used on vintage Louis Vuitton luggage trunks and purses. If you know other brands that manufactured hardware for the French company, comment below!

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