Authentique Featured in the Financial Times

The global luxury counterfeit and replica market is worth an estimated $1.9tn, with black-market manufacturers using increasingly advanced techniques such as laser cutting and 3D printing to confound even the creators of the original product. With AI technology, luxury brands and resale companies have armed themselves with the data-fuelled authentication systems they believe will finally outwit them. These systems essentially compile a digital encyclopaedia of counterfeit and authentic article properties, to then spot tiny inconsistencies in fabric, stitching or metals. LVMH-owned brand Patou recently launched AI-verification system Authentique Verify, effectively digitally “chipping” their items at the very beginning of the production chain, allowing them to track them and prevent any return fraud (where fake items are sent back in lieu of the original). Photographs of the authentic products, taken on a phone, process all their microscopic properties – which, like fingerprints, allegedly cannot be replicated. 

This is an excerpt from the Financial Times article. For the full article by Rosalyn Wikeley named ‘Can AI end the era of the fashion superfake?’ please visit the link here >