Luxury Bags Made in China? Does It Even Matter?

There's currently a lot of talk about Chinese manufacturers on TikTok who claim that many new bag models from the world's most expensive luxury brands are actually just made in China and not in France or Italy.

I'm not sure if that's true but if it is, it doesn't really matter.

My Louis Vuitton Bags for Men Collection. Some are vintage but all of them are original.

As someone who personally owns several authentic Louis Vuitton bags (and I bought them with my hard-earned money, humbly), I'd say that it really doesn't matter where a luxury product was made. 

For me, what makes an item luxurious isn't the place where it was crafted or manufactured. Rather, it is the product's quality and the brand's heritage, which determine it so. A well-crafted bag from China is more luxurious than a poorly made bag from France.

Additionally, a luxury brand doesn't just spawn overnight. It takes decades if not an entire century to build a trusted and beloved luxury brand. Louis Vuitton, for example, is already 170 years old. 

When you buy a bag from LV, you buy into that legacy and heritage -- and only you can determine how much you are willing to pay for those intangibles, regardless if the item they are offering you is actually made in China.

A luxury bag's worth is what you are willing to pay for it, regardless of where it is made.

Anyway, here are my LV bag models, clockwise from left on the photo above: Louis Vuitton Laser Monogram Clarkson Défilé Brown (Made in Spain), Louis Vuitton Monogram Trotteur Beaubourg (Made in France), Louis Vuitton Damier Ebene Reporter PM (Made in France), and Louis Vuitton Monogram Gange (Made in Spain). 

I love my bags - all of them, luxury or not - but they aren't the most important things in my life. I own them. They don't own me.

PS: It seems that many of the "luxury bags" being shown by Chinese manufacturers on TikTok are not the genuine article and are just 1-is-to-1 replicas. France is very strict when it comes to slapping "Made in France" tags on products; The items would have be at least 70% crafted in their country. Also, to the trained eye, the "Hermes" bags that those TikTokers showcase hardly look authentic.