Back Row with Amy Odell

Fashionphile's Founder on How to Spot a Superfake Birkin (with Sarah Davis)

Back Row with Amy Odell

Show Notes

Superfakes have never been better and counterfeiters have never been smarter — so how can consumers buy secondhand luxury with confidence?

Sarah Davis started Fashionphile on eBay in 1999, while she was in law school. Resale has exploded since: Her company now employs more than 350 people and authenticates roughly 1,500 luxury bags a day. Sarah reveals how she turned luxury authentication into an almost CIA-like operation, what gives away a fake Birkin bag, and how a $35,000 machine can tell if a Cartier Love bracelet is real or not.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

02:00 Law school, eBay, and the Fashionphile origin story

15:00 A real Chanel, a fake one — can you tell?

21:00 Fake bags bought at real stores

23:30 "Your dupe isn't cute"

26:30 The $75 fee that killed the counterfeits

29:30 The $35,000 machine that catches fake Birkins

44:30 Where resale goes next

Subscribe to the Back Row newsletter: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe

Follow Back Row: @backrow · Follow Amy: @instamyodell · Follow Sarah: @justsarahdavis · Shop Fashionphile: @fashionphile

Edited by Chrissi Harris.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More from Back Row with Amy Odell

Oct 19, 2026

*SUBSCRIBE to the Back Row newsletter for more coverage like this: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe. Go Premium and save three months on an annual subscription.*

Oct 13, 2026

SUBSCRIBE to the Back Row newsletter for the FULL Fashion Month Awards podcast and get more coverage like this: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe. Save three months on an annual subscription.

Oct 9, 2026

Mrs. Dow Jones (Haley Sacks) on how to stop impulse buying and why fashion month keeps you broke. Part One of two.

Oct 5, 2026

Harry and Meghan are back in the UK, six years after leaving the royal family. In the first part of Back Row's deep dive into Meghan Markle, Amy and former Us Weekly and Hello! editor Justin Ravitz — who has interviewed Prince Harry and worked with the couple's team — trace Meghan's story from her Los Angeles childhood to the night she met Harry.

Sep 28, 2026

PJ Smith, director of fashion policy for Humane World for Animals (formerly the Humane Society), has spent almost 20 years getting companies from Gucci to Net-a-Porter to go fur-free.

See all episodes →