Jeff Koons's cavernous studio is already humming with activity when
he arrives a little past 10 on a bright September morning, striding
across the floor like a chef inspecting his kitchen. A former nightclub
(one glass partition still bears its name, Amnesia, engraved in script),
the multilevel space is crowded with wooden packing crates, ladders,
and larger-than-life statues swathed in sheets of plastic like shiny
togas. In the midst of this fantastical scene stands a slender woman
with cropped auburn hair and a serious expression. Her name is Svetlana
Kuzmicheva-Uspenskaya, and she's a collector of Koons's work as well as
his friend and, most recently, collaborator. Her philanthropic
organization, Project Perpetual, will auction new works by Koons to
raise money for the United Nations Foundation in November. "The idea for
Jeff's contribution was originally smaller," she says, "and then with
his touch, it grew into what we have now."
What they have now, exactly, involves a medium that Koons has never
worked with before: handbags. Specifically, about a dozen Hermès Birkins
of varying sizes and colors. These are no "ordinary" Birkins (if such a
thing exists)—they have been donated by Marc Jacobs, Sofia Coppola,
Diane von Furstenberg, and others, and will be incorporated into Koons's
works for the auction. "I wanted to have people participate so that
it's not just about writing a check," says Kuzmicheva-Uspenskaya, who
was born in St. Petersburg and currently lives in Paris with her
husband, businessman Alexey Kuzmichev, and their five-year-old son.
"It's about people giving something tangible and significant, that they
have an attachment to," she explains. "The Birkin bag is a symbol of
luxury that everyone recognizes."
"I wanted to make a work of art that could be in a museum and that I could be proud of." —Jeff Koons
The auction's star piece will be a nearly six-foot-tall plaster sculpture, inspired by Pablo Picasso's 1902 painting La Soupe (The Soup),which
depicts a woman proffering soup to a young girl. In Koons's piece, the
woman is holding a Birkin bag. "I've been asked many times to make works
for charity," says Koons. "It's a little difficult for an artist to do
that, because you just make your work. But I became very engaged in this
program. I wanted to make a piece that could work for the charity, a
work of art that could be in a museum, and that I could be proud of."
For Kuzmicheva-Uspenskaya, November's event is only the beginning:
She will soon enlist more artists for Project Perpetual's donation-led
initiatives. "People could give lipstick—I don't care," she says. "When
you give up an object of value and then an artist transforms it, I
believe it will touch people." Or, with Project Birkin, they can carry
it.
Right now it’s possible to click on Christies.com
and bid on a Warhol drawing, a Helmut Newton photograph and an ostrich
Hermès Birkin bag. Often there is a selection of rare wines to be
purchased there, too.
And last year, the auction house introduced a buy-it-now feature echoing eBay
that offers a head-spinning variety of watches that can be snapped up
instantly. “The main objective here is the acquisition of new clients,”
said Steven P. Murphy, Christie’s chief executive. “We’re building our online business the old-fashioned way, brick by brick.”
So
far the auction house says it has invested $50 million in hiring
experts and building its own infrastructure. It dipped its toes in
online-only auctions in 2011 with a sale of Elizabeth Taylor’s clothes
and jewelry. That effort ramped up considerably last year when
Christie’s held 51 online-only sales. Officials there said that number
was increasing by 50 percent this year.
Both Christie’s and its rival Sotheby’s
introduced online bidding during their live auctions about four years
ago. Their success, coupled with the realization that a new population
of online shoppers is waiting to be tapped around the world, is what is
driving their focus on online-only sales.
Christie’s website offers a broad variety of watches that can be purchased instantly, without bidding.Credit
Christies.com
While
Christie’s is promoting its homegrown e-commerce business, Sotheby’s is
taking a different route. In July it announced a partnership with eBay.
In the next few months Sotheby’s plans to broadcast most of its live
auctions on a new area of eBay’s website. And over time Sotheby’s and
eBay will add more options for shoppers, including online-only sales.
Sotheby’s hopes to lure eBay’s nearly 150 million customers into being
as comfortable buying a 19th-century dining room table or Damien Hirst
print as they are a new suitcase or a pair of sneakers.
“Both
auction houses are racing to catch up with luxury retailing that has
been a huge success online,” said Josh Baer, an art adviser who
publishes the Baerfaxt, an industry newsletter, and who was hired by
eBay last year to help shape its art programs. “It is now clear to
everyone in the art business that it is no longer if online sales of art
can happen, but who executes them best.”
He
added: “Just like the brick-and-mortar world, they start with content,
inventory and buyer experience. Categories like cars and fashion — both
of which are called emotional categories — are among the most popular
areas for eBay, and for that reason it is banking on its own brand and
that of partners like Sotheby’s to move customers into regularly buying
fine art and objects.”
Christie’s,
however, is starting out small and going it alone. Noting the success
of luxury retailers like Net-a-Porter, 1stdibs and Gilt, which entice
shoppers by showing merchandise in the context of an alluring online
environment, Christie’s has hired experts from some of these sites to
shape its initiative.
John
Auerbach, 36, joined the auction house last year from Gilt to lead its
e-commerce efforts. He has watched shoppers spend larger and larger
amounts of money at Christie’s online-only sales. Right now, he said,
the average price on its site is about $11,000, but in May a buyer
purchased a drawing by Richard Serra for $905,000, making it the most
expensive online-only purchase for the auction house to date.
Competition was stiff. Eight bidders competed for the 2009 abstract
drawing, according to Mr. Auerbach.
“People
are becoming more comfortable online and buying art from digital
images,” he said. “This was a well-known drawing by a famous artist.”
For
those who wonder what Christie’s online business is all about, Mr.
Auerbach answered some questions about his world, trying to demystify
how it works and talking about what its goals are.
Q. Why
does a successful company like Christie’s that is so well known for its
live auctions feel the need to go into the online-only sales business?
How does one avenue for selling feed off the other?
A.
It’s a way of serving customers — existing and new — where they want,
when they want and how they want. It’s also about capturing a younger
consumer. When you consider that about 71 percent of our e-commerce
traffic has come from visitors who are new to Christies.com, and of them
11 percent have gone on to register in regular auctions and 39 percent
of these clients bid on pricier merchandise, it’s a pretty compelling
picture.
Our
research shows that about 53 percent of those who register to bid
online are under the age of 45. As for the most popular categories of
our online auctions, they are postwar and contemporary art, fashion and
photographs, followed by wine and jewelry.
How do you get the material for the online sales?
Everything
is sourced through our specialist departments. So if you think about
it, Christie’s as a company has three channels: live auctions, private
sales and e-commerce. The sourcing for all three is the same. The
specialists work with their clients to figure out where they will get
the best results.
What makes a work of art or an object better for an online sale rather than a live auction or private sale?
Private
sales have a value threshold, depending on the department. Live
auctions have a more broad value as does e-commerce. If someone calls
and says, ‘I have X to sell,’ it might be months before the next live
auction, whereas online sales occur more often. The properties that make
up our online auctions are authenticated and cataloged by our experts,
just as if they were going to be sold in a live auction. There are also
condition reports. Everything remains the same except the timelines,
which are different. There are works of art that we can give greater
exposure to online, which can also be to a seller’s advantage.
What
happens if you buy something online and don’t like it because, for
example, the green doesn’t go with my sofa, or it didn’t look that color
online?
The
policies are the same online as they are for live auctions. We do
everything we can to assist clients in making a decision. We’ll have
multiple photos; a very detailed zoom feature on the site. For flat art
we’ll show it on a wall so you can get a sense of the relative size. In
our watch shop we have two heads of our department doing a 45-second
video about each watch, giving it context, so in a sense it’s virtual
contact with a specialist, and the specialists are available to clients
in person in much the same way they are for live auctions.
There
are common forms of digital marketing. It’s about driving traffic to
our site. If someone has bought something like this before or viewed
similar kinds of property, then we can alert them about the sale.
Just how worldwide are these sales? How many languages are available on the site?
All
our sales are available online around the world and in multiple
languages. Our First Open sales, auctions of postwar and contemporary
art that are live sales taking place in London, New York and Hong Kong,
also have an online-only component, too. Obviously, New York and London
are in English. Hong Kong is in Chinese. The site itself is translated
into five languages. Since there are so many Chinese artists, we
translated the whole site into simplified and traditional Chinese. In
emerging markets like the Middle East, we do a Dubai online sale every
year, meaning it is made up of property sourced from the region. So far
it’s in English, but we’re debating having it in Arabic, too. Also don’t
forget every sale has multiple currencies, so it’s a very flexible
platform and is a way to engage people who might not have otherwise
bought online.
Christie’s
is about to reintroduce its website at the end of the month so that it
is more geared to lifestyle. What is that about?
Content
will be a very big part of the relaunch. Jeremy Langmead from Mr Porter
has joined Christie’s and he really knows how to put something in
context. For example, we did an Asian porcelain sale that traditionally
is marketed to collectors of Asia porcelain, but this time we showed it
in situ, meaning in a domestic environment. And we had a whole variety
of people who became interested in it, and most of the top lots were
bought by new collectors. Over time we will be showing more things in
context. The new updated home page will have a dedicated area for online
shopping — and again this is all part of that lifestyle positioning.
Besides
the online sales, Christie’s last year introduced its buy-it-now part
of the site, which sells watches. What’s the thinking behind that?
When
it comes to watches, we have both online-only auctions and a buy-it-now
portion on our website. Since we launched buy-it-now, it has become our
most visited online sale. Seventy-two percent of Watch Shop registrants
are new to the e-commerce channel and they’re buying watches in a wide
price point: from $1,500 to $195,000. We started this because we
realized that people are used to buying when they want something. And a
watch or handbag or piece of jewelry are things that people want because
they need to buy a gift for someone, or it might be a purely impulse
buy.
Sometimes
social media can have surprising results. Someone who saw the $195,000
watch, a yellow gold Patek Philippe from 2000, posted an image of it on
his Instagram site, and a buyer who was new to Christie’s came to us
through that Instagram photo.
What about Sotheby’s and eBay? Why hasn’t Christie’s teamed up with a company like eBay or Amazon yet?
I
can’t speak to what Sotheby’s is doing. But we have decided to grow
this organically and are doing it in a way that is on-brand and
understood by our customers. Two-thirds of the people looking at this
site are new and one-third of our customers are new to Christie’s. This
is not a volume business. These are hand-chosen works selected by
Christie’s specialists.
Who are the biggest online buyers?
Right
now we are seeing the biggest buyers in the U.S. and the U.K. But it
depends on the category. Hong Kong for wine has dramatically increased
over the past few months. It’s on a category-by-category basis. We have
people shopping from all over the world. When it comes to Birkin bags
right now, I’d say the majority is Europe, but other strong regions
include Asia and the U.S.
Is there crossover between the person who bids in a traditional auction and those who buy online?
There
is a crossover. We’ve seen a number of people who start with us in the
online-only world and then move into the live auctions. These are
customers who shop in multiple categories and price points and they tend
to spend significantly higher sums in live auctions than ones online.
If you look at the timing of this, it’s very rapid. You can see somebody
buying online and then two months later they’re in our salesroom
bidding at a live auction. So they’ve caught the bug. The average
online-only Christie’s shopper has bought three lots this year. They
come back over and over again and are highly engaged.
Why
do you think it is that it has taken consumers longer to warm up to the
idea of buying art and collectibles online when the fashion industry
has been doing it successfully for over a decade now?
The
world has changed. There’s now reduced resistance to buying online. In
addition, technology has also improved so much that it is now possible
to send clients clear, high-resolution images and videos. Collectors
have also become more comfortable buying something from a digital file,
so it’s all coming together, making buying online of the moment.
Hermès is in the business of
creating icons. The Birkin bag, the double-banded Cape Cod watch, even
those whimsical patterned ties: each is an inescapable totem of the
177-year-old fashion house's rock-solid brand.
Yet
looking at their new line of pens, it would appear that after two
centuries of brand cohesion, someone at the company was itching to try
something new.
That someone, it turns out, is
Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Hermès' artistic director and great-great-great
grandson of the company's founder. "I wanted to do an object that's
unlike anything you've seen before," said Dumas during last night's
launch event at their New York flagship on Madison Avenue. "This is the
way we should design at Hermès. We should not be superfluous. We should
be essential."
And so we have
the Nautilus line of cap-less, retractable pens, designed by the
Australian industrial designer Marc Newson. There's no enamel, no
precious metals, nothing that would imply glittering luxury. Instead,
the brushed aluminum and stainless steel pens are matte, solid, and
uncharacteristically understated, priced at $1,350 (for the ballpoint)
and $1,650 (for the fountain). They come in dark blue, burgundy, and
black -- with nary a spot of that signature Hermès orange to be found.
"I've been heading the
collections for about 10 years," said Dumas. "The exercise, every
season, is to give a contemporary expression to an age-old company. It's
a paradox, but it leaves space for creativity."
Of
course, at a time when most people use smartphones for correspondence
and pens to sign receipts and not much else, there's a certain irony to
creating a ‘modern,' pen, but Dumas explained that's missing the point.
"Using a pen is an interesting act of resistance," he said. "I don't
write the same way with a computer -- I'm more inspired when I'm writing
with a pen. It's a different, more personal thought process."
In conjunction with the pens,
Hermès has launched an entire ecosystem of distinctly traditional
leather accessories. (No one said anything about them abandoning their
billion-dollar business model entirely.) There's a leather ink-cartridge
holder ($500), leather pen cases ($360), a stationary set, with
notepads and notebooks ranging from $35 to $65, a leather writing set
(medium size: $2,000), and notebooks ($115) bound in Hermès' signature
colorful silk patterns.
At
the launch event, guests were invited to try out the pens at different
tables. At one, a graphologist analyzed visitors' handwriting. ("Bold
leader" here, in case you're wondering.) People could also write letters
on Hermès stationary, which the company then mailed, or listen to
leather-covered headphones and practice "automatic writing," letting
their hands move to the beat of the music.
The stationary, which is made in
France, is thick, lustrous, and tactile -- you don't write on the
notepad paper as much as carve into it. The pens feel balanced and
almost uncannily solid when held.
"We
spent a long time trying to get the right shape, so that it fits well
in your hand," said Dumas. "I find the object very sensual."
The
glossy blue leather writing set is the least practical piece in the
product launch. It's lovely to be sure, but fairly bulky -- even if
you've got a capacious briefcase or purse, only the most dedicated
traveling scribes will want to lug it around.
Still,
this is Hermès; items will move. As Dumas stood in the thick of it all,
smiling and greeting visitors, Glenda Bailey, editor-in-chief of
Harper's Bazaar, rushed up to him brandishing a giant shopping bag. "I
bought a brown and a navy," she exclaimed about her new pens. "I just
love them, they're fantastic."
Dumas beamed. "Good!" he said. "You're not leaving empty handed."
The news of a bad batch of Birkin bags has created a minor le stink for the French fashion house Hermes.
A
small number of the leather handbags sold within the last year have
revealed a not so odor-able problem: a pungent stench similar to skunk
or marijuana. The opulent bags sell for $20,000 or more.
“In the back of a car, or in the sun, or in a
closed Hermes box, the smell becomes more concentrated,” said writer and
Birkin expert Michael Tonello.
The
Massachusetts native who authored “Bringing Home the Birkin” in 2008
about his years reselling the sought-after luxury bags, has heard from
three Hermes devotees who have experienced the problem, which was
reported earlier last week in the New York Post’s Page Six column.
“It’s
either the togo leather, which is grainy, very pebbly looking, or the
other leather is taurillon clemence. It’s also grainy with a pebbly
finish, but a larger grain,” said Tonello, in a telephone interview from
St. Helena Island in South Carolina, where he is writing the screenplay
of his book. “Both are soft. They’re classic Birkins.”
Hermes has yet to comment on the
scent-sational situation, which, Tonello said, is the way the
Paris-based company likes to do business.
“I guess it’s part of their allure. They like to keep these stories, myths, urban legends perpetuated,” he said.
Tonello
estimates that only a tiny fraction of Birkins — fewer than 100 — have
odor issues. And while the problem may seem “a little silly,” he noted
that a Birkin isn’t easy to replace.
“Some
people save up for a long time and it’s a big purchase,” he said. “These
bags are done as part of a season or collection. When those bags all
ship out, they’re gone.”
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (MC)
laid out how it will distribute its 23 percent stake in Hermes
International SCA to shareholders after agreeing last month to
relinquish its stake in the Birkin bag maker.
LVMH shareholders will get two Hermes shares for every 41
LVMH shares they own, according to a regulatory filing today.
LVMH will communicate the distribution at least four
business days before it takes place, the world’s largest luxury-goods maker said. The Hermes shares will be valued at the
opening trading price on the day of the payment, not exceeding
235.2 euros a share, valuing the stake at as much as 5.8 billion
euros ($7.4 billion), LVMH said.
LVMH, based in Paris, is distributing its Hermes stake to
shareholders almost four years after it started building the
holding without Hermes’s knowledge. The payment, due to be
completed by Dec. 20, will leave Groupe Arnault, the family
holding company of LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault, with an 8.5
percent interest in Hermes, LVMH has said.
A Hermes crocodile Birkin Bag: It is not believed the
problem affects the crocodile skin bags. Photo: Getty Images
Hermès’ iconic bag, the Birkin, has a pungent problem —
customers are returning some recent orders of the wildly expensive bags
to the boutiques, complaining they smell of marijuana.
Customers — some of whom have paid about $20,000 or more for the
exclusive bags — have been told by staff at the luxury goods store that
there was a problem with a “badly tanned” batch of leather from a
supplier to Hermès.
They claim the tanning process somehow makes the leather smell like
marijuana whenever it heats up in warm temperatures, such as in direct
sunlight or in a hot car.
A source tells us:
‘“Owners are returning the
Hermès bags back to boutiques across the US, including the Madison
Avenue store, saying they smell of skunk. The bags are being sent back
to Paris as nobody knows quite how to deal with this embarrassing
situation.”’
Apparently, this is a worldwide problem as Hermès bags are
distributed to boutiques in limited quantities and are often on back or
special order.
While the problem does not affect all Hermès leather products, we are
told this does affect multiple bags in varying colors, ranging in
designs such as the Birkin, the Kelly and the Elan clutch, which retail
from $5,000 to more than $20,000, all of which had been purchased in
2013 and 2014. It is not believed the problem affects the Hermès
crocodile skin bags, which can sell for more than $60,000. Customers are
reporting that Hermès staff are saying the bags have to go back to
Paris, have the bad-smelling leather panels removed and the entire bag
rebuilt.
While a New York-based Hermès rep didn’t respond to requests for
comment, the so-called “skunk stinky syndrome” has become a subject of
discussion on Web forums devoted to luxury goods.
One Kelly bag owner posted on PurseBlog:
‘“After riding in the car
with her for about 30 minutes, I smelled what I thought was a dead
skunk. Another 30 minutes later I could still smell the dead skunk, and I
thought it was odd, but never imagined it could be my bag. I keep (it)
in an armoire . . . When I opened the cabinet door this morning, the
smell hit me, and I immediately knew it was the bag.”’
I have an actuary acquaintance who paid a small fortune for a
Louis Vuitton handbag, much to the irritation of her actuary husband.
She argues that she derives much pleasure out of using her designer bag
daily, while her husband only gets to use his equally expensive set of
golf clubs occasionally. She has more reason to brag than ever
about her decadent purchase, as luxury handbags are increasingly
becoming considered assets in the true sense of the word. Big money has
been changing hands between collectors of vintage designer brands, and
some lenders happily accept luxury bags as security against loans. A personal
asset lender says it has handed out the equivalent of about R4m to
cash-strapped handbag owners who need money for private school fees or
to fund a business venture. It could be easier for you to borrow against
a luxury handbag than against a portfolio of investments like shares.
Make sure you ask for a Hermes or vintage Chanel for Christmas, as some
brands are more valuable than others. And, beware: there are lots of
very good-looking fakes out there. – JC
On the day of the Hermes fashion show at Paris Fashion Week, Borro,
the UK personal asset lender, reveals a number of their clients are
using luxury bags from the designer as collateral for loans. In response
to popular demand, we launched a service offering loans against
handbags from the classic French fashion house Hermes in December 2013
and since then, business has blossomed.
Just last week, a client in London brought in a Hermes blue crocodile
skin Birkin bag, with a value of £40,000 new (more than R700 000), and
secured a £16,500 loan (R300 000).
In the US, Borro worked with one client to lend $30,000 (R35 000)
against another Hermes crocodile Birkin bag. These types of loans are
not unusual. We have seen other clients borrow £12,500 for school fees
against a burgundy crocodile Hermes Birkin bag, and another who borrowed
£10,500 against a slate grey crocodile Birkin.
Since launching this proposition in December last year, the lender
has issued £210,000 against designer bags, with an average loan value of
£9,000 (about R160 000). Using both its in-house valuation experts, as
well as external third party valuers, we authenticate and value the
handbags, and offer clients up to 60 per cent of the market value of the
bag based on its condition and age, as well as market desirability.
The classic designer bag is very collectable, especially to the
fashionista. The Hermes Birkin bag in particular is exceptionally sought
after, but buyer beware – there are myriad fakes and replicas flooding
the market, from the primitive to the exquisite.Provenance is imperative
when purchasing so always buy from authentic dealers and respected
auction houses.
The luxury handbag market is not only high growth, but a global
market that is synonymous with our wealthy clientele. We decided to add
high end handbags to our asset classes to match demand for loans against
these assets, and have seen clients capitalise on the service ever
since.
One came to us with a vintage Chanel 2.55 handbag which she used to
secure funds for launching her own online business. All the handbags we
lend against are checked and authenticated by an internal and external
authority to make sure they are the genuine article, and if possible we
ask for proof of purchase too.”
The designer’s last take was a beautiful representation of his four years designing womenswear for the house.
Designer Christophe Lemaire
is leaving Hermès to focus on his own label, which means that his
spring 2015 collection for the house was his last. (It also happened to
be the final show of Paris Fashion Week.)
Sand covered the runway, but there was no hokey safari theme here.
Instead, Lemaire focussed on silhouette, draping suede dresses and wool
blouses in the most elegant, nonchalant ways. A suede robe coat made an
impression, as did a navy leather collared shirt. A neutral palette gave
way to a few looks made out of Hermès scarf fabric, a nice homage to
his former employers. Lemaire, both with Hermès and his own collection,
is one of a consortium of designers truly capturing how we want to dress
now: luxe utilitarianism, with few flourishes. Really, who doesn’t want
a navy leather anorak in their closet?
What
a shame, some might say, given that his wares seem to embody the quiet
elegance Hermès puts forward. But unlike some departures, there was
little sadness today. After all, we’re not losing Lemaire. He’s simply
moving on. And so has Hermès. Next season, new womenswear designer Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski will begin again. And we’ll be watching.
