FIVE Ways To Authenticate Alexander McQueen Silk Scarves

FIVE Ways To Authenticate Alexander McQueen Scarves

Hello friends! Today I want to chat about FIVE Ways To Authenticate Alexander McQueen Scarves. Once upon a time, Alexander McQueen scarves were THE biggest look and honestly, I think they are back for a second innings!! We need these chic-goth silk scarves in our lives. They are part rock girl, part heiress and I’m into it!

Today we are going to be looking at the iconic Alexander McQueen silk square scarves, but I promise I will do one on the larger wool / model scarves soon too, as these differ slightly. However, for now these are some great things to look out for, plus these tips can be applied to other luxury scarves, like Hermes, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Dior and more. I’ve also written posts about these brands too, so feel free to have a read of those posts too!

Also, fun fact, I actually used to work in the luxury scarf industry so I know a lot about the craftsmanship, silk, finishes and printing process. I’m excited to share this post with you!! Let’s go!

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Are the edges hand rolled? They should be!

The edges are, in my opinion, the first thing you should check to determine the authenticity of a Alexander McQueen silk scarf. This is exactly as it sounds, the silk is tightly rolled into itself to create a rolled edge, which is then hand stitched to hold it together. This is instead of being folded and hemmed like a traditional garment, like a shirt edge or dress hem. It takes a lot of time to hand roll the edge and is a very fine craft that few people can master. Only the most prestigious brands finish their edges in this way because it is very intricate and expensive to do otherwise. Additionally, because it is a manual process, only humans can perform it and whilst there are machines which can do similar, it’s the same finish as it’s not as round of a ‘roll’ and on the machine finished scarves where will be a lot of visible thread. 

If you look at the photos, you will see the Alexander McQueen scarf is a beautiful roll and barely a dot of thread is visible on either side, where as the cheaper scarf displays much more thread and the roll is much flatter. 

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What is the scarf made from!? 

An Alexander McQueen silk scarf should be made from the highest quality silk twill. You will know it’s silk twill because it is thick and heavy and it will also have tiny lines in the weave. It’s a lot like a mens tie silk. 

Also, you will notice that when you hold it up to the light, it will seem opaque, especially compared to a cheaper version or a counterfeit version and when knotted, the silk should give a nice full knot. The best way to describe it, is like a ponytail in your hair, the real version will be a thick pony tail, the fake version will be thin. 

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Look at the print quality of the scarf

If you look closely at the Alexander McQueen print quality, you will see that it is beautifully printed. It is just a one-colour print, but the lines and edges are perfectly sharp and crisp, and there are oodles of tiny details and fine lines to enjoy. Where as fake designer scarves tend to have one big bold print with less intricate details as these are easier and cheaper to produce. Every single line should be sharp, neat, crisp and perfect with no smudges or mis-prints. 

Look at the care labels and brand labels 

Before we get into this one, please don’t worry if your scarf no longer has a label on it, or just has the label and no care label. Some women remove these and other times they can fall off easily. If this is the case, just focus on the other points. 

However, if there are care labels and a brand label have a good look at them. They should be stitched on with a few tiny hand stitches in the corner – not machine stitched along the edge of the entire label. Also, the brand name on the label should match the brand logo perfectly. It should be the correct font, the correct spacing and all the proportions of the letters and spacing should be ‘just so’. It should also state that it is made in Italy and made from silk. Please note the scarves from the McQ diffusion line may be made elsewhere, but from the premium Alexander McQueen range, it should be made in Italy and made from silk. 

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Look at the brand name printed into the scarf

Finally, look closely at the brand name and logo printed into the Alexander McQueen scarf. This can be a big tell tail sign, for instance, if you look at this post on how to spot a real Chanel scarf and scroll down to the image where you can see the brand name printed in the bottom corner, you might notice that the font is WRONG! No joke, it’s a different font to the Chanel logo font! A BIG red flag! So have a look at the Alexander McQueen Logo printed on the scarf and cross reference it with the website font. It should be identical! You want to look closely at the font, the spacing between the letters the thickness of the letters and any nuanced details in the logo. You also want to check it’s spelt correctly, which sounds silly, but trust me, it happens! 

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Ta Da! And there we have it! FIVE Ways To Authenticate Alexander McQueen Silk Scarves! I will do another post soon on the model / wool scarves, but for now, I hope this post is helpful! Enjoy! This post contains affiliate links.