I'm a luxury bag authenticator and I can tell the viral Walmart Birkin isn't the real deal from afar — here's how

Walmart; Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI

• Koyaana Redstar, a luxury bag authenticator, has decades of experience identifying fake Hermès Birkin bags.
• She said that the viral "Walmart Birkin," or "Wirkin," has several telltale signs of being a dupe.
• But Walmart is also not trying to convince anybody that the Wirkin is the real deal, she added.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Koyaana Redstar, the head of luxury buying at Luxe Du Jour, an...