I had so much fun writing my last review & want to continue contributing to this amazing community! Long story short – purchased the trendy (or classic?) bag of my dreams, the BV padded cassette, last autumn. Ever since I have been on a hunt for high-tier padded cassette reps; unfortunately the BST EU-based posts for those do basically not exist, and my coward ass was not yet ready to go the seller route again. I was lucky however, and was offered a bag from Jing factory through the BST „in search of“ thread in December.
I now want to share the insights I‘ve gotten whilst comparing this bag to my auth model. First off – looking at the post thumbnail: Can you tell which bag is rep, and which the auth? Experienced Repladies will probably be able to tell – I, for my part, as an owner of auth, couldn’t immediately see the differences.
Spoiler: A very good rep – I would wear this to the boutique, but only if the SA serving me was deaf.
##Deets
- Model: BV padded cassette bag with GHW, lambskin; caramel (but actually not sure bout the color)
- Factory: Jing Factory
- Purchased: off BST in Dec. 2021
- Price: 230€
- Auth: purchased for a mere 2,500€ lol
- Comparison pictures
- Factory pictures of Rep (only ones I could find; note that the engraving on the triangle differs here)
- Auth
- Mod shots of both bags
##Comparison
Dust bag
- Totally calloutable lmao
- Jing is much smaller and is not a true white
- It is not as soft and feels much cheaper than auth
- The ‚Bottega Veneta’ font is quite accurate, but printed on very messy and crackly
Leather
- The leather of the bag is surprisingly soft; no signs of dryness or inferior quality in terms of looks
- Sheen is on par with auth (maaaaybe a tiny tiny tiny bit less shiny but I think I am already going crazy from staring at both bags for a prolonged time span LOL)
- When I run my fingers over both bags with my eyes closed (without applying pressure; I will come to that part in the designated handling section), I can’t tell a difference
- The leather of the strap however feels (and looks) slightly more buttery on the auth bag
Size, shape and puffiness
- So the general shape is basically the same, but there are some differences when you start comparing them to each other in more detail
- Measurements of the Jing bag: Width: 26 cm; Height: 18 cm; Depth: 8 cm without the front flap, and 10 cm altogether – it is significantly deeper than auth as you can see (Mine is 26x18x8 cm)
- The borders/frames (idk how to call these) of each rectangle are different: you can see that they are not much broader, but somehow ‚more pronounced‘, if you get what I mean. This creates a visual effect, which makes the rectangles of the auth stick out in a nicer way, and kinda adds to the puffiness factor
- The weaves of the Jing bag do look slightly more square-ish than my auths, you can see that esp. when looking at the pictures of the back
- The flap of the Jing bag is a tad shorter, more curved, and does not produce the Mona Lisa smile in the same way, as auth does (here, mainly the middle rectangle is curved, but not the surrounding ones)
Color
- According to the Replady I purchased from, this should be the caramel color
- Afaik the caramel has a much cooler undertone; the bag from Jing is much more orange & rather looks like the „clay“ colored one? Link
- In the wild, I would say this is not calloutable however, as these bags basically exist in every colorway one can imagine
Shoulder strap
- Strap drop is more or less the same
- Same amounts of holes present
- As mentioned before: Strap is not as buttery and stiffer/not as bendy as auth
- The finish is different: you can see that the strap seems to be made of several leather pieces which were then joined. On the auth however, this is much less visible; on the Jing bag you can basically see the overlap very clearly at every location the leather pieces are joined
Hardware
- It is the same gold tone, so Jing really nailed that one…HOWEVER:
- The finish is quite different. Auth is shinier whereas Jing is more matte. This is basically not visible in real life, but as you can see extremely different on pictures (especially when we look at the triangle). Jing hardware is reflecting the light in a way that makes it look like a completely different gold tone (much less yellow undertone) on photos. I don’t see that as a problem tho, as long as no one puts an auth next to it and shoots some pics LOL
- The engraving on the triangle is sharper on auth
- The inside clasp is correct and slightly curved to fit the button nicely; however the engraved BV on auth is much thinner (and also sharper). Not a callout if you don’t have auth next to it tho
- It closes properly: The inside button sticks out significantly more (I know from pictures it looks like it’s just from the angle, but I can feel & see it clearly). I think that’s actually very nice as it makes the bag easier to close. Closing my auth can be a pain sometimes
Inside
- Inside compartment is present and correctly placed
- Zipper looks correct; so do the small buttons which fix the inner compartment to the sides of the main bag
- Inside stamping/engraving differs significantly (sorry for the terrible picture of the auth engraving lol). The „made in Italy“ is much more spaced out on auth and the general font seems different
Bag handling
- Probably the most important category here imo. I mentioned that the leather basically feels the same on the main body of the bag. HOWEVER:
- Upon application of pressure I can definitely feel that the Jing bag is much stiffer/harder – most likely due to the inside/stuffing of the rectangles and slight differences in leather quality/texture I guess
- The sound the bag makes is significantly different: hear for yourself. In real life, my auth’s basically soundless. The Jing bag sounds rubbery when touching it and opening/closing the flap. I already conditioned it (twice) but for now, that does not make a difference
##Conclusion:
Please keep in mind, that most ‚flaws‘ and differences I listed, wouldn’t be noticeable unless you got a real-life auth next to it (and plenty of time). Even as an owner of auth, I wouldn’t have spotted these differences without my bag next to the one from Jing.
„Mere mortals“ couldn’t tell the difference between auth and rep in a thousand years; probably not even those, who own an auth to be honest. I wouldn’t have noticed the subtle differences without comparing them side by side for a prolonged time. However, the devil‘s in the details. It’s the subtleties, like haptics upon application of pressure, as well as the sound the bag makes whilst handling it. For very experienced persons, so most likely the bottega SAs, this could be a giveaway. But to be honest, I NEVER even thought about how my bag sounds until I got to know all of you with your QC-craziness! 😂
Altogether, the Jing padded cassette bag is a rep I can wholeheartedly recommend to every lover of Bottega! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my comparison! ❤️🧡💛💚💙
