OK… So the Louis Vuitton Cabas Piano has change throughout the years- and you’ve just seen pictures of what the Cabas Piano looked like when it was first introduced- as well as pictures as it appears today, in June of 2008.

But those changes didn’t all happen at once… and so I’m going to show you the order in which they came about.

From 2000- December of 2001, the Cabas Piano came with the seams on the base, the zipper pocket and the date code on a riveted d-ring.

(We have seen a few authentic bags with the date code representing a March, 2001 “Made in France” (VI) production, where there have been no seams on the base. There’s no explanation for why the change occurred- but we’ve seen it several times. Here is an example: 2001 Cabas Piano, no seams)

In early 2002, French made (”Made in France”- with the date code VI mostly, also DU) Cabas bags dropped the rivet. They still have the seams on the base and zippered pocket. The date code is still on the d-ring tab, but there is no rivet. The American made, “Made in USA” Cabas bags continued to use the rivet. Here’s an example:

In January of 2004, the French made Cabas bags began to be constructed with the solid base. No seams. I have seen Made in USA bags where the base still has seams in early 2004, but the American bags were also quick to replace the seamed base with a solid leather one.

The Cabas bags still had the zippered pocket, and the date code was on the d-ring. (French bags still had no rivet, USA bags did).

In October of 2004, the Made in USA Cabas bags lost their rivet as well. At this point all Cabas bags had one solid leather base, zippered pockets, date code on the d-ring… but no rivets on the dring. This carried on until Spring 2005.

(February 2005 Cabas Piano- Made in USA- no rivet)

In Spring 2005 (about May), Louis Vuitton Cabas bags lost their zippered pockets. A new, slot pocket replaced the zipper. Instead of the date code being on the D-ring, it is now on a leather tab inside the slot pocket.

(Current stlye interior in Cabas Piano)

(Current location of Date Code in Cabas Piano)

Notice that since 2007, the actual order of the numbers of the date code have changed… (read my Louis Vuitton date code guide for more historical and current date code information).

Hopefully you will find this information helpful in your quest to buy an authentic pre-owned Louis Vuitton Cabas Piano (from us- or anyone else!)

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Tags: authentication, Cabas Piano, changes, date codes, Louis Vuitton

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 5:43 am and is filed under You asked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.