<p><text class="_textbox_x434h_15" direction="ltr" height="11.88299560546875" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="139.35748291015625" x="90.02420043945312" y="-382.5" data-test="textbox">In the age of realistic </text><text class="_textbox_x434h_15" direction="ltr" height="11.88299560546875" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="88.00389099121094" x="233.5716094970703" y="-382.5" data-test="textbox">designer dupes</text><text class="_textbox_x434h_15" direction="ltr" height="11.865997314453125" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="190.4034423828125" x="322.252197265625" y="-382.5" data-test="textbox">, authentication can be hard. </text><text class="_textbox_x434h_15" direction="ltr" height="11.88299560546875" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="86.12199401855469" x="155.03749084472656" y="-366.5" data-test="textbox">According to </text><text class="_textbox_x434h_15" direction="ltr" height="11.88299560546875" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="53.98011779785156" x="246.3195037841797" y="-366.5" data-test="textbox">Certilogo</text><text class="_textbox_x434h_15" direction="ltr" height="11.88299560546875" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="144.5697021484375" x="301.39019775390625" y="-366.5" data-test="textbox">, it doesn&rsquo;t have to be.&nbsp;</text></p>

<p data-start="71" data-end="700" style="text-align: center;"><strong>PHOTOGRAPHY</strong> Nicola Pagano</p>
<p data-start="71" data-end="700" style="text-align: center;"><strong>STYLED BY</strong> Fernando Echeverr&iacute;a</p>
<p data-start="71" data-end="700">Picking out a fake used to be a game of spot-the-difference: comically misspelled logo, uneven stitching, chipped hardware. Today, with counterfeiting tactics more sophisticated than ever, &ldquo;superfakes&rdquo; can look and feel uncannily real. Shoppers can no longer judge by sight or touch alone. According to Certilogo, a Milan-based company that specializes in product authentication, the only way to give consumers a surefire way to confirm authenticity outside of buying from a physical brand store is to have a direct line to the manufacturers&mdash;which is exactly what the Milan-based company has been creating over the past 20 years.</p>
<p data-start="702" data-end="1579">&ldquo;Working together with a brand is the safest way of saying, <em data-start="762" data-end="796">Okay, this product is authentic,</em>&rdquo; says Michele Casucci, the founder and GM of Certilogo. After spending weeks trying to authenticate a watch he&rsquo;d bought at an airport store, Casucci launched the company in 2006 to make that process seamless for everyone else. &ldquo;I thought, why are brands making it so difficult for consumers to know a simple fact, like <em data-start="1116" data-end="1145">This is an authentic watch,</em>&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I started to think there was a customer need.&rdquo; As e-commerce was starting to show signs of growing into the retail behemoth it is today, he saw a brand necessity, too. &ldquo;I thought it must be in the interest of brands to protect their brands online, but also to assure the customer about the authenticity of their purchases. That thought became a sort of fixation, and then the fixation at a certain point became a company.&rdquo;</p>

Emporio Armani Fall/Winter 2025. Getty Images.

<p data-start="1581" data-end="2287">Since then, Certilogo has worked with a range of luxury and premium brands, from Max Mara and Emporio Armani to Diesel and Giuseppe Zanotti, to create &ldquo;connected products,&rdquo; physical goods with a digital footprint. For consumers, this translates to a &ldquo;marker,&rdquo; embedded into every piece at the manufacturing stage, that lets anyone who scans it confirm its counterfeit-proof authentication instantly. Alongside authentication, Certilogo provides a digital product passport (DPP), which shows materials and processes used in an item&rsquo;s manufacturing, the supply chain, and the environmental impact. In plain terms: If the former serves as a verified identity of the product, the latter is the story behind it.</p>

<p><text class="_textbox_x434h_15" direction="ltr" height="21" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="60.344970703125" x="713.728515625" y="-443.03009033203125" data-test="textbox">The </text><text class="_textbox_x434h_15" direction="ltr" height="13.290008544921875" lengthadjust="spacingAndGlyphs" textlength="53.2349853515625" x="781.2759399414062" y="-443.03009033203125" data-test="textbox">more new technologies come up, the more counterfeiters will become savvy.&nbsp;</text></p>

<p>While currently DPPs are a bonus&mdash;a way for consumers to learn about the provenance of their purchases and make conscious decisions&mdash;they will soon become mandatory in the EU, under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation that requires brands to release traceability and sustainability information. That said, Casucci cautions against treating DPP as a box to tick. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re a brand, you can use the digital product passport not only to be compliant with the regulation but also to create new business opportunities,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t want to have a business model that only grows when your volumes grow, which is environmentally not so smart an idea, then, rather than volumes, it is about value, and you create value with experiences and with services.&rdquo;</p>

Top CERTILOGO Pants DIESEL

<p data-start="502" data-end="890">Casucci says the digital layer has the potential to keep the brand connected to shoppers beyond the purchase, via services that keep products in circulation longer, such as repair programs and extended warranties, as well as loyalty benefits and exclusive content. &ldquo;Through the connected product, the relationship with the customer doesn&rsquo;t end with the sale, but it continues afterwards.&rdquo;</p>
<p data-start="892" data-end="1833">This bridge also extends to the booming secondhand market&mdash;a space that, according to Casucci, &ldquo;is becoming huge and culturally cool&rdquo; in luxury fashion&mdash;with Certilogo (acquired by eBay in 2023) connecting consumers to brand take-back programs and resale platforms. &ldquo;Imagine a new customer that you&rsquo;ve never heard of, discovering your brand through a secondhand platform&mdash;not only because it&rsquo;s more accessible, but because <em data-start="1312" data-end="1323">pre-loved</em> has become part of the fashion conversation,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Over time, that connection can evolve into a genuine relationship&mdash;one built on shared values and emotional affinity with the brand. It would be short-sighted not to embrace this opportunity.&rdquo; Consumers benefit just as plainly from this relationship in a market that&rsquo;s even more likely to get targeted by counterfeits: &ldquo;When you buy something secondhand, you need to be one hundred percent sure that you&rsquo;re buying the authentic bag or watch or clothing.&rdquo;</p>

Certilogo founder Michele Casucci, courtesy of Certilogo.

<p data-start="1835" data-end="2800">While the concept of a digital ID isn&rsquo;t entirely new to fashion, what sets Certilogo apart is the technology that the company has honed over the past two decades. While more simply crafted digital IDs&mdash;think QR codes that redirect to a brand website&mdash;can be cloned by counterfeiters, Certilogo&rsquo;s Secure by Design methodology stacks multiple protections: &ldquo;a combination between AI-based fraud detection system and intelligent image recognition application,&rdquo; Casucci says. Each machine-readable marker (delivered via QR codes, contactless NFC tags, or both) carries a unique numeric identity for every item; any attempt to replicate or reuse that code triggers the system. Not only is suspicious activity flagged, but the data is piped back to clients. &ldquo;The brand can get information about how many products have been scanned, which products have been scanned, in which countries,&rdquo; says Casucci. &ldquo;All of this information is hugely valuable to empower brand protection.&rdquo;</p>
<p data-start="2802" data-end="3117">In the digital age, where you can buy a luxury item without ever leaving the house, the counterfeiting problem is getting harder to spot with the naked eye: &ldquo;The more new technologies come up, the more counterfeiters will become savvy,&rdquo; says Casucci. Good thing that, with Certilogo, you no longer have to even try.</p>

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<p data-start="0" data-end="279" data-is-last-node="" data-is-only-node="" style="text-align: center;"><strong>MODEL:</strong> Marina Nechyporuk<strong> </strong>FASHION MODEL MANAGEMENT<br data-start="53" data-end="56" /><strong>CASTING</strong>: Carlo Savoldi<br data-start="78" data-end="81" /><strong>HAIR:</strong> Manuel Sunda JULIAN WATSON AGENCY<br data-start="124" data-end="127" /><strong>MAKEUP:</strong> Karin Borromeo BLEND MANAGEMENT using VICTORIA BECKHAM BEAUTY<br data-start="204" data-end="207" /><strong>PHOTO ASSISTANT</strong>: Amedeo Trezza<br data-start="237" data-end="240" /><strong>STYLING ASSISTANT:</strong> John Mark Bertenshaw</p>
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How Certilogo Is Changing the Future of Fashion Authentication

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