The Hermes Birkin, a popular handbag among celebrities and Hampton
socialites alike, is only occasionally offered by Hermes, and can retail
for anywhere from nearly $10,000 to as high as $150,000—essentially an
unattainable purchase for the common man, and thus a symbol of luxury
and status for those that can afford it. The Kardashian sisters, famous
for their curves and airing their dirty laundry via reality television
show on the E! Network, are no exception to the celebrity Birkin bag
following.
The Birkin bag made metropolitan area headlines
earlier this month in a different context: Dr. Tara Allmen, a
Manhattan-basted doctor, is suing Tisha Collette, founder of Collette
Consignment, a local vintage store with shops in Sag Harbor, Southampton
and Manhattan, accusing her of selling a fake Birkin handbag.
This
month, the case, which was filed as a civil suit in January 2013, is
now at the State Supreme Court, because the plaintiff is seeking
punitive damages upward of $50,000, according to Dr. Allmen’s lawyer,
Joseph Vitulli, himself a part-time Quogue resident.
Dr. Allmen
said his client claims that eight years ago, in 2005, Ms. Collette sold
her a fake Hermes Jean Paul Gaultier Birkin handbag, with a price tag of
$3,500 in the shop. According to the plaintiff’s attorney, Ms. Collette
claimed that the Hermes Birkin was authentic at the time of the sale.
Ms. Collette maintains, however, that she never even sold the bag in question to Dr. Allmen.
In
a phone interview earlier this month, Dr. Allmen explained that she
pressed charges only recently because she was unaware that the bag was a
fake until a cleaning company would not clean the bag because it was
not a bona fide Hermes Birkin. Dr. Allmen maintains that it was Ms.
Collette who sold her the fake, and that the bag had been owned by Ms.
Collette herself before she sold it to Dr. Allmen.
However, Ms. Collette adamantly says that Dr. Allmen was wrong about the entire situation.
“I don’t own a Birkin and have never owned one,” she said in a phone interview. “I am in the business of selling them.”
Ms.
Collette insisted that Dr. Allmen never purchased the orange bag in
question from one of Ms. Collette’s consignment stores. “Tara Allmen
never bought that bag from me and has no proof that she bought that bag
from me ... nor has she even come into the store with the bag to
inspect,” the store owner said.
The he said-she said continues:
Mr. Vitulli stated that he and his client, Dr. Allmen, had previously
“tried to resolve this with the retailer, but they were being very
foolish,” he said, referring to Tisha Collette. He added, “She’s doing
bad things.”
The two parties do seem to agree upon this: Ms.
Collette said that she did offer to have Dr. Allmen come into the store
so that the store owner could inspect the bag and work out a resolution.
“She used to be a very good customer of mine,” Ms. Collette said of Dr.
Allmen.
Ms. Collette insisted that she wanted to help Dr. Allmen
in any way that she could. However, it did not pan out that way:
Instead of seeing Dr. Allmen with the bag in question, Ms. Collette was
served with court papers and a lawsuit.
In the interim, several
others have come to Dr. Allmen’s defense—or, rather, lined up to
criticize Ms. Collette—although she is the only one to actually take her
complaint to court. Tracy Tooker, owner of an eponymous hat shop on
Hill Street, claims she is owed more than $1,000 after Ms. Collette sold
four of her hats and turned over only $150 to Ms. Tooker. A friend of
Ms. Tooker’s, Victoria Henderson, was similarly critical of Ms.
Collette, though she offered no specific examples to support her
remarks.
Ms. Collette said that after the stock market crashed,
copies of designer items—not just Birkins, but other high-end
accessories—began popping up everywhere. Essentially, people didn’t want
their Kardashian-like lifestyles and seemingly wealthy reputations to
suffer, even if their pocketbooks were literally in the dump. So they
turned to the symbols of prosperity—fake Birkin bags and all.
“Clothes and shoes were even turning up as copies, but bags are the number-one copy,” said Ms. Collette.
Her
point? Dr. Allmen may have received the Birkin as a gift or perhaps
purchased it somewhere else, the store owner says, but she did not
purchase a fake bag from Collette Consignment.
Ms. Collette said
Dr. Allmen should have been tipped off about the bag, wherever she
bought it, when she paid only $3,500. Even in 2005, for a previously
owned, authentic Hermes Birkin, the price tag should have been much more
than $3,500, according to Ms. Collette. “I have six in my store right
now, and the cheapest is $16,000,” she said.
Ms. Collette
expressed sympathy for Dr. Allmen, saying, “She used to be a very good
customer of mine.” Dr. Allmen had bought handbags, clothes and more from
Ms. Collette in the past, the latter said.
The store owner said
Dr. Allmen has failed to produce the actual bag or produce a receipt for
the purchase of an Hermes Birkin. She acknowledged that Dr. Allmen did
have a receipt for purchasing an orange bag from her, but said it does
not specify that it was an Hermes Birkin that was sold. However, in an
email this week, Dr. Allmen stated she does have a receipt from Collette
Consignment that specifically states the purchase of an Orange Birkin
with the store owner’s initials, next to the description. Dr. Allmen
failed to produce the receipt, however, at the discretion of her lawyer.
“My lawyer forbids photographing it, as it is a critical part of my
case showing that Tisha herself committed the fraud,” she said.
Still,
the store owner shows concern for her former customer, Dr. Allmen. “I
feel terrible that she has been duped somehow, somewhere ... I’m not
sure ... it’s a little bit weird,” Ms. Collette said. She also called it
“all a little strange that it’s happening all these years later.”
The
Birkin made a name for itself long before the Kardashian sisters could
even spell Hermes. At the height of its popularity, circa 2004, “Sex in
the City” devoted an entire episode to the cultural phenomenon that was,
and still is, the Hermes Birkin. A salesman put it perfectly when he
once told Samantha “It’s not a bag ... it’s a Birkin.” And at that,
Samantha had to have it. The problem? The waiting list was longer than
the larger-than-life price tag itself.
Samantha learned what
every other woman in New York knows: A Birkin sets you apart from other
people, because a Birkin is not just any bag. Materialistic socialites,
Samantha included, know that a Birkin is not just an expensive
accessory, but a status symbol as well.
Who wouldn’t want a
Birkin? They are more than bags—they are statements of material wealth.
In 2011, it was reported by InStyle that Kourtney, Kim and Khloe
together owned 13 Birkins; and the numbers only went up from there. Kim
Kardashian, arguably the most famous of the Kardashian trio, received a
larger-than-life, custom-painted Hermes Birkin courtesy of her
then-fiancé Kanye West this past Christmas.
Ms. Collette has
owned Collette Consignment for 14 years, and she maintains that you
don’t get the reputation she has by selling fake purses and tricking
customers into thinking they are authentic. “Every single one of the
bags in every single one of my stores are authenticated,” she assured.
“I can spot a fake really easily. If any one of them needs
authentication, we outsource to an authenticator ... especially for
high-end items.”
There are a few key things to look for when
purchasing an Hermes Birkin, Ms. Collette said. Most important,
underneath the strap there is a stamp that says “Hermes.” The inside of
the zipper also contains the same label. Each and every authentic Birkin
bag on the market is handmade. When buying anything designer,
craftsmanship and quality are two qualities to look for in
differentiating genuine from counterfeit items, and an Hermes Birkin is
no exception, Ms. Collette said. Before she finalizes any deal regarding
an Hermes Birkin, Ms. Collette said, she looks for these marks of
authenticity.
Regarding the pending lawsuit, Ms. Collette said
that she and her attorney have filed a motion to dismiss Ms. Allmen’s
complaint and are waiting to hear back. “I’m just letting the lawyers
handle it at this point. I have nothing negative to say about her at all
... just letting the courts handle it,” she said.
Dr. Allmen, on
the other hand, said she was “appalled to have Tisha Collette be so
despicable in her business dealings. One must do the right thing and
make Tisha Collette responsible,” she said.
“I’m not in any way
concerned. The judge already threw the case out once,” Ms. Collette
maintained. The store owner had a piece of advice for fellow consignment
shop owners: “Be careful. What’s to protect the consignment store
owners?” she said.
An ex-employee says Tisha Collette (left) would sell fake
designer handbags as if they were real ones; like the fake Birkin bag
doctor Tara Allmen unknowingly bought (right).
