NPR - National Public Radio - covers the Hermes Birkin bag

There are people with Birkin bags and there are the rest of us. Today on the show: the elaborate, upside-down strategy that has kept a $60,000 purse the "it" bag for 30 years. 


http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/12/25/460870534/episode-672-bagging-a-birkin

Wow - Beautiful Hermes at 2nd Time Around

http://www.2ndtimearound.com/shop-instagram

Hermes triples size of Moscow's Red Square store

(Reuters) - French luxury goods maker Hermes will reopen one of its two Moscow shops on Thursday after tripling its selling space in a gesture of long-term confidence in the market.

Hermes first opened the shop in Russia's landmark GUM shopping center on the Red Square in December 2007.

The original store occupied around 250 square meters but after expansion and relocation within GUM, the shop's selling space has risen to 740 square meters and it now offers clothing, accessories, watches and jewelry, perfumes, and home collections on three levels.

The store, now the company's second-biggest in Europe, will open at a time when Russia's economy has experienced a sharp downturn.

The company's chief executive officer Axel Dumas said the investment was taken for the long-term.

Nicolas Vlieghe, Hermes Russia Managing Director, told Reuters the company's Russian sales were rising without providing details.

Hermes took direct control of its Russian stores in 2011 from a local retail partner, having opened two stores in the capital city of Moscow in 2000 and 2007.

Bringing Home the Birkin - Book #2 ............TELL ME ABOUT IT!

Currently working on what might become Bringing Home the Birkin, Again.
If you have any insider information, something worth sharing about Hermes, Birkin bags, or anything juicy please post a comment or send me an email...I'd LOVE to hear from you.  Thanks!
michaeltonello@yahoo.com

Hermes Art Basel Miami

Reading the label right

By Namrata Zakaria, Mumbai Mirror 

I RECENTLY chanced upon a handbag on the arm of a nanny caring for my son's friend. It had the precious encircled MK logo that I spot on half the mums at school. My snob's eye can spot a fake from afar but this was the real McCoy. I'm not sure I was impressed or disturbed.

Michael Kors is a label whose sun is setting just as quickly as it rose. The American designer who turned himself into a mogul with a rash of stores across the USA and several in rising economies, like India, has hit a rough spot. In his home country, where only a few seasons ago he, along with other US-owned and -run affordable luxury labels Tory Burch and Coach, he was the toast of the fashion circuit. This summer I was happy to pick up a pair of leather flats on a discount — they cost US $50, the price I would pay for a pair from Zara or H&M.

When it's this cheap, is it still luxury? Labels that come at this price tag are less appealing to rich buyers looking for exclusivity. Michael Kors became the Louis Vuitton of ten years ago. LV had become the first purchase a new and aspirational consumer would go for, a 'starter-bag' label. In China, it had come to be called "the brand for secretaries". LV then realised its ubiquity was turning away the super-rich and, more importantly, affecting the premium brand's reputation. It quickly sliced off its small starter line, made all prices higher, removed its look-at-me logos and introduced a series of collections that harked back to its history of old-fashioned snooty travel. And before you could say "Champs Elysees", Louis Vuitton was back in the black again.

Hermes on the other hand has maintained its snob value by creating an air of exclusivity about it, that owning something from here is a very big deal indeed. Michael Tonello's fabulous book 'Bringing Home the Birkin' lifted the lid on Hermes' very special marketing mechanisms. He picked up Hermes products from smaller boutiques in Europe and sold them on ebay, throwing light on how the premium luxury label fooled customers with its fabled waiting list for the Birkin, when it really didn't exist.

Designer brands are all about an image. In India, their appeal is still in its nascent stages. So many Indians believe a designer product is a designer product, and any label will do. But each label has its reputation. And whether the wearer likes it or not, you are what you wear. Prada, for instance, stands for a snobbery in fashion, for being over and beyond trends. Moschino's playful girly vibe makes it a great choice for young girls. Valentino stands for old-fashion romance and feminine ideals of beauty. Roberto Cavalli and Versace for hooker-chic. Dolce & Gabbana for overt sexiness, Zadig & Voltaire for rocker-style badass, and Dior seems to have found its groove with Sindhi aunties dressed in white. Chanel, meanwhile, maintained its reputation as the penultimate snob —the Parisian insouciance.

Kors has slipped in the luxury stakes. So in effect, you are paying a pretty penny for something that's at the bottom of the luxury pyramid - an absolute starter label. Fendi has risen from its slumber with its new CEO Pietro Beccari, who spun the forgotten Italian label (once loved for inventing the It-bag itself) into being chic again with a swanky new store at London's New Bond Street and its restoration of Rome's Trevi Fountain. As did Christopher Bailey for Burberry who repositioned the fusty British label as a digital superhero, after its many fakes had seriously threatened its image.

Gucci needed a reputation rejig too as it was being overlooked for smaller but more bespoke Italian labels like Bottega Veneta. But one collection from Alessandro Michele made this summer such a strong political case for blurring gender boundaries and roles, Gucci hasn't had so much fun since it met Tom Ford.

But real connoisseurs of luxury have decided that smaller, almost unknown labels that offer inventive and unusual products services are the ultimate in 'limited edition'. They don't want to own something that everyone else recognises or knows about. Specialty companies and bespoke services are far more exciting. And no labels. No obvious signs of where it comes from. The big deal is in keeping a big secret. 

Reality stars have ruined the Birkin

No bag has held as firm or as long a grasp on “It” status as the Hermès Birkin, thanks to rumors of a decade-long waitlist and a line of celebrity fans, like Kim Kardashian — who has upwards of 20 of the boxy, structured totes, including one that daughter North West painted on — and “Real Housewives” like Kyle Richards.

But over the years, the style set has grown sour on the once-coveted item.

These days, anyone with a Wi-Fi connection and five figures to spare can score a Birkin at resale sites like trendlee.com. The once-impossible-to-buy find is even available at Hermès’ own stores, if you know how to ask — circumventing the so-called “waitlist.”

Although the Birkin was officially born in 1984, stories of the waitlist didn’t begin popping up until the ’90s, and demand went into overdrive after it was prominently featured on a 2001 episode of “Sex and the City.” The supposed waitlist reached a fever pitch in 2006, with news outlets reporting it had reached 10 years.

“The waitlist is a total myth,” scoffs Michael Tonello, author of “Bringing Home the Birkin,” which detailed his experience procuring Birkins to resell at a markup between 30 and 50 percent.

The secret, he says, is buying a lot of other merchandise first, then asking for the bag as a reward of sorts. It’s this strategy, he said, that allowed him to purchase millions of dollars of Birkins over the years to resell.

Meanwhile, although the bag is still selling, the fashion elites are snubbing it in favor of more limited-edition designer offerings — like Chanel’s $2,400 “hula hoop” bag, which came down the runway in 2012 and is now being resold at a 40 percent markup, according to Fanny Moizant, co-founder of the online reseller Vestiaire Collective.

And earlier this year, Mansur Gavriel’s popular leather totes and bucket bags, ranging in price from $525 to $1,195, spurred waitlists in stores from Barneys to Steven Alan.

“[Before], people would only see [a Birkin] in a magazine, or a global celebrity like Sharon Stone carrying one,” says Tonello. “Now every woman in New Jersey is carrying a Birkin.”

By Leah Bourne 

http://nypost.com/2015/11/30/reality-stars-have-ruined-the-birkin/

photos from top: Kim Kardashian (from left), Sofia Vergara and Khloe Kardashian all tote around their Birkin bags.

Irina Shayk hails a cab in NYC, Birkin bag at the ready.

Bethenny Frankel sports her Birkin around town.