Genuine Vintage Chanel Zippers

The other day, one of my clients, Andrea, aka PancakeChild, said one of the vantage points of my Chanel bags is that mine has an EP zip, which is true to the authentic. EP zip is unknown to most of us. Sadly, I don't know enough of Chanel's range of zipper type, so I did some research on Chanel Zip alone, and it turned out to be very rewarding. Here is some information I found:

We are going to look at vintage zipper pulls, the following examples are some of the zipper pulls I have often come across from vintage Chanel bags from early 1980s to late 1990s. There are several variations, and if you have a vintage Chanel bag check against these pictures and if the zipper pull matches the below examples your bag is most likely to be authentic Chanel.

Company ‘DMC’ zipper pull with a rounded double ‘C’ pull tag:

Three circles triple C:

Quite common on the early 80’s style look for a circle with three ‘C’s inside the circle

OPTI DMC:

Another common zipper pull found on bags from the 1990s.

LAMPO

Lampo zippers are synonymous with vintage Chanel bags and are often found on the late 70s to early 80s bags.  Lampo is an Italian company and has been make accessory zips since 1887.

Sometimes you can find ‘LAMPO’ engraved on the main zipper pull. Interestingly you can find Lampo zips not only on vintage Chanel bags but also on vintage Louis Vuitton and sometimes Gucci and YSL bags. 

LAMPO 2: 

Sometimes you can tell a Lampo zip by its zipper pull it has a ‘bulbous’ shape, sometimes it may say ‘L’’ for Lampo on the reverse side sometimes its left blank with no ‘L’ stamping.
 
Reverse side of a ‘Lampo’ zip with initial ‘L’:

Another company that is synonymous with luxury brands are 'Eclair' Zips.  The first original zip was invented in the US in 1891.  But in 1924 the 'zip' was patented in France by the French company 'Eclair' and their Rouen based factory become the main supplier of quality zips to majority of Europe.  Often Eclair zips are used on late 70s or early 80s vintage Chanel bags and also on vintage Hermes bags.

Eclair zip on a vintage Hermes bag:

Eclair zip on a vintage Chanel:

Sometimes vintage Chanel bags have a 'plain slider' i.e a plain zipper pull with no company or trade markings - don't be alarmed this does not mean the bag is a 'fake' as long as it has a rounded double ‘C’ pull tag at the end it should be fine.

Early EP style zip with a rounded double ‘C’ pull tag.  EP zipper pulls are still being used on present day ‘modern’ Chanel bags. I have also found EP zips used on vintage Celine bags.  EP zips are part of the 'Eclair Prym' group - see orginal Eclair zip above, the French 'Eclair' group later merged with the German 'Prym' group in 1999.

Modern EP Zipper:

Example of a ‘modern’ day EP zipper as seen here on a authentic 2.55 caviar classic bag from the 2005 collection.  This style of EP zipper is usually found on authentic 2.55 classic such as black, biege, white caviar and lambskin flap bags.  The zipper pull usually have a thin leather pull tab please note that the leather pull tab should match the main bag base, i.e if the bag is caviar skin the leather pull tab should be caviar skin too!

YKK Zippers

YKK is a very common zipper make, they are found everywhere including even on some 'modern' day Chanel bags, the YKK zipper should be found on the following:

2005: Medium Red Caviar [seasonal]
2006: Large Coral Lambskin [seasonal]
2006-2007: Large Violet Lambskin [seasonal]
2006-2007: Large Bleu Fonce Lambskin [seasonal]