Bill Clinton Gets in Some Retail Therapy at Hermès in Paris

Bill Clinton

When in Paris, even former President Bill Clinton can apparently spare a little time for shopping – at Hermès.

A five-car convoy carrying the former president and a security detachment arrived out front of the luxury brand's landmark boutique on Monday at noon.

"There were about a dozen security men – American and French – with him and they went inside," an observer tells PEOPLE.

Hermès on Faubourg St Honoré is a shopper's mecca known for scarves, leather goods and luxury items. A spokesperson for the shop tells PEOPLE, it "never discloses details about its clientele."

Clinton, 68, spent more than an hour on the shop's third floor section, where windows were closed after his arrival. The observer speculated: "He's up there, probably buying the store."

He reportedly left with several shopping bags though they're hard to spot in the video below. We can't help but wonder what he purchased and whether Clinton was shopping for himself or his wife and U.S. presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton. The luxury store sells ties for about $225; a leather belt can set you back nearly $1,000.

It certainly seems like the former president would be able to afford the luxe shopping trip – as the New York Times reported June 17, the Clintons' net worth is somewhere between $11.3 million and $52.7 million, according to public disclosure statements filed earlier this year, among other assets and earnings under the Former Presidents Act of 1958.

Messages left with the Clinton Foundation have not yet been returned.

Author claims infamous Birkin bag ‘waiting list’ doesn’t exist

In “Primates of Park Avenue,” Dr. Wednesday Martin writes about a supposed epic “waiting list” that upscale ladies clamor to get on to procure Birkin bags from fashion house Hermès.
But “Bringing Home the Birkin” author Michael ­Tonello has said the “list” no long­er exists — if it ever did.
“They no longer use the term ‘waiting list,’ ” he said. Instead, “They encourage people to ‘establish a relationship’ with a salesperson who will help them try to get a Birkin.”
Tonello was at consignment shop 2nd Time Around on Wednesday, and certified that all its Birkins were legit as he signed copies of his book, which chronicles his life as a specialist traveling the world to nab Hermès bags for clients.

http://pagesix.com/2015/06/27/author-claims-infamous-birkin-bag-waiting-list-doesnt-exist/

An Open Invitation to My Friends and Readers

Clean Out Your Closets - There's LOTS of $$$ in Luxury Resale!

A Re-branded 2nd Time Around to Expand

Second Time Around, which operates 40 stores across the U.S., wants to capture a bigger piece of the $14 billion to $16 billion resale market.

The retailer, whose tag line is “Resale Goes Upscale,” plans to more than double its store count by 2017. It’s also re-branding itself as 2nd Time Around and launching e-commerce in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

Kristin Burrows, president and chief executive officer, envisions six to eight new stores in Manhattan, which has 10 existing units. “We haven’t touched Brooklyn yet,” she said. And with stores clustered along the Eastern Seaboard, Chicago and Miami are priorities, along with heading West.

Top stores in the chain do $1.5 million to $1.8 million in annual sales, Burrows said. The stores average 1,250 to 1,500 square feet in size.

A new 2nd Time Around logo is visible on stores’ exterior and interior signage and the Web site has been redesigned with bigger images and a modern, less cluttered layout. “The logo and creative identity were inconsistent and looked very thrifty,” Burrows said. “We wanted to create something that was fresh.”

Top-selling brands include Theory, Helmut Lang, J. Crew Black Label, Diane von Furstenberg, Alexander Wang, T Alexander Wang, Missoni, M Missoni, Vince, Chanel, Burberry and Givenchy.

“It’s a very fragmented market,” Burrows said of resale. “It’s gone through different ebbs and flows.”

According to Burrows, 2nd Time Around competes with mom-and-pop consignment shops and new online players such as The Real Real and Vaunt.

“We have an opportunity to own the contemporary market on up through designer,” she said. “We have the largest base of brick-and-mortar stores and we use them as an asset.”

The two groups of constituents, shoppers and consignors, make the business unique. Burrows wants to make consigning easier, so 2nd Time Around will offer a pick-up service. The company provides online accounts for consignors to track their sales in real time.

Items are put on the sales floor within 48 hours and sell within three weeks on average, she said. Each store has two racks at the front designated “Style Editor Picks,” where looks are merchandised by outfit.

The company has “call-to-purchase” options on its social channels. “We do 10 percent to 12 percent of our sales on social media, especially Instagram,” Burrows said. When e-commerce launches, it will be mobile first and desktop second. “We’ll be adding a CRM database.”

Sales associates are trained to “style like Intermix,” Burrows said. “It’s all about wardrobing.

“We want women to leave feeling beautiful and smart,” Burrows said, noting that prices are generally one-third of retail. Consignors receive 40 percent of apparel sales and 70 percent of sales of trophy handbags such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermès.

“We just got two Birkin bags in,” Burrows said, standing in the Chelsea store. “People are looking for unique pieces.”

The firm is introducing a formal loyalty program. About 80 percent of the retailer’s business is generated by 30 percent of its customers.

By Sharon Edelson 

WWD

http://wwd.com/retail-news/mass-off-price/2nd-second-time-around-expands-10155331/print-preview/

 

 

The rise and rise of Pixie Rose Curtis, 3, the Princess of Instagram

CLAD in a red Dolce & Gabbana dress, with her trademark bows in her hair, Pixie swings her mini-Birkin in the air and shrieks with laughter. She gives the strap of the $12,000 Hermès bag a hearty nibble then wails in frustration when her little fingers can’t open the clasp to reach the chocolates inside.
Draped in more designer items than most adults would wear in their lifetime, it’s all in a day’s work for kid-trepreneur Pixie Curtis, who, apart from screaming in terror at the sight of a sausage dog, doesn’t seem fazed by the team of stylists, photographers and assistants around her at the Sunday Style photoshoot.
Which is all the more remarkable, as she’s only three years old.
But then, everything about Pixie’s life is remarkable – she’s just not aware of it yet.

Thanks to the assiduous skills of her mum, Sydney publicist Roxy Jacenko, Pixie has become one of the most famous – and wealthiest – little girls in social media.
In the alternative universe of Instagram, Pixie is a very big deal indeed.
She’s racked up 107,400 followers and, represented by Jacenko’s management arm, Ministry of Talent, charges clients $500-plus per product placement on her feed.
She’s up there with some of the world’s biggest child stars – such as 15-month-old Millie-Belle Diamond from Sydney, who boasts 133,000 followers; LA’s Mini Style Hacker, Ryker Wixom, five, with 259,000 fans; and five-year-old American Gavin Duh, 173,000 fans.
But they can all only aspire to reach the dizzy heights of five-year-old South Korean-born Breanna Youn, who delights 1.3 million followers with her daily fashion updates.
But where Pixie leaves her rivals in the dust is with her business, Pixies Bows – a range of hair bows and accessories with a multimillion-dollar turnover.
“I look at this whole thing from afar and think, ‘This is not normal,’” concedes Jacenko, 35.
“The Instagram following is not normal, Pixies Bows is not normal.
“I didn’t think you could do so well out of a hair-bow business, but if you see an opportunity, if you’re savvy you maximise it.
“People were asking where she got her hair bows,” she recalls.
“I thought, ‘Bugger telling people where to get them, I’m going to make them.’”

Pixie Rose Curtis is already a seasoned traveller and has a huge Instagram following.

 

She began manufacturing them in China and now they’re stocked all over the globe and have been worn by celebrity offspring including Suri Cruise, Haven Warren (Jessica Alba’s daughter), and Sarah Jessica Parker’s twin daughters, Marion and Tabitha.
All profits go into Pixie’s savings, and although her mum is coy about figures, sources suggest Pixie has enough that she’d never need to work.
Pixie’s jet-set life is the stuff of fantasy – and what earned her an enormous following to begin with.
Just before this cover shoot, she’d been on a five-star trip to Dubai to launch her bows in the UAE, staying at the luxe Atlantis, The Palm hotel.
Before that, she’d been to the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia.
She’s pictured having a pedi at The Langham Sydney, parking her mini Merc next to Mummy’s Bentley and holding her Birkin outside Cecconi’s on a trip to LA.
The latter sent her global fans into a frenzy.

“She’s not on the internet doing the wrong thing; she’s on the internet being a kid. She’s doing things in a very fortunate capacity, but they’re not detrimental. It’s my job as her mother to protect her.”

Jacenko says it all began after a photo of Pixie on a family holiday in Italy.
“It really took off when we travelled to Europe and I gave her a plastic wine glass as she sat by the pool,” she says.
The holiday snaps – which included Pixie boarding a private jet, riding a helicopter and playing with Louis Vuitton luggage – led to BuzzFeed calling her “the Princess of Instagram”.
Overnight, her Instagram profile – which Jacenko says she started like any mum, “as a bit of fun”– went to 60,000 followers in two days.
It’s now almost double the size of Jacenko’s own.
And while it may not have been started commercially, Jacenko, as owner of Sweaty Betty PR, was quick to see the potential.
“People were sending her gifts. I don’t really have time to write thank-you notes, so the quickest way was to post a picture on Instagram,” she says.
“Then people offered to send her garments or toys and pay to post them, and you know what? It never really crossed my mind if it was right or wrong.”

Pixie wearing a Dolce & Gabbana dress, one of her own Pixie Bows and Armani Junior shoes.

 

Now Pixie has become a brand, touted as “the voice of her generation” according to Jacenko’s PR blurb.
Her bio lists “relationships” with Seed Heritage, Crocs, Best & Less and Pottery Barn.
Pixie clearly enjoys herself – she’s a funny, charming and sweet little girl who seems unaware that her lifestyle is anything out of the ordinary.
Despite the fact she came in a Burberry trench and Stella McCartney sandals, she’s holding Mum to the promise they’ll go and buy a 100 per cent polyester Elsa Frozen frock as a treat.
Jacenko says Pixie’s life is simply her life.
“She goes to preschool like every other kid, but when there’s free time, I try to expose her to as much as I can – whether it be travel or a fashion show,” she says.
“I suppose it’s not normal for a three-year-old, but if I’m doing it, she has to come with me.”
Doesn’t she worry she’s commercialised her daughter? No, she says definitively.
“As long as the child is having fun and is not in danger, it doesn’t cross my mind it’s wrong. When she’s not having fun, we’ll stop.”

“For now she is having fun, there are opportunities – she’s in a position where she’s making money. Is the child in danger? No. Is she having fun? Yes. Is she being given opportunities to be a well-rounded person? Yes.”

On cue, a not-having-fun-any more Pixie wails, “Mum, can we gooo?”
Jacenko seamlessly assures her they’re waiting for “the man to bring the car”, even though she drove herself.
“I live for the now, and as long as there are opportunities, it’s OK,” Jacenko adds.
“If, in a year or six months, she doesn’t want to do it, I’ll stop.
“But she’s not doing anything unusual – it’s not dissimilar to a child modelling.”
And yet it is unusual that a three-year-old has her own business, social-media profile and blog.
It is unusual that she carries a handbag that costs the same as a small car.
“No, it’s not really her bag. It’s mine,” Jacenko explains.
“Shame on me if I did buy her that bag. She doesn’t have extravagant things like that. I’m not an idiot.
“If she had $12,000, that should go in the bank to put towards a deposit when she’s old enough to buy property.”
And what does she say to critics who suggest she’s pre-determining her future? What if Pixie wanted to be a criminal lawyer, say, or Prime Minister?
“From a long-term perspective, I haven’t even really thought about it,” she says.
“For now she is having fun, there are opportunities – she’s in a position where she’s making money.
“Is the child in danger? No. Is she having fun? Yes. Is she being given opportunities to be a well-rounded person? Yes.
“She had to go to bed early last night because she had to come to a job today.
At the end of the job she can go and do something fun.
“I don’t care what other people think, I’ve been judged since I started my own business at 24. I’m used to criticism.”

Pixie wearing one of her own bow creations from Pixie Bows.

 

Pixie is an Instagram star thanks to her mum.

 

Jacenko dismisses the concern that a childhood littered over the internet could affect that child’s future.
“I don’t see that any of the pictures would be to her detriment in the future. She’s not exposed in a Miley Cyrus way,” she says.
“She’s not on the internet doing the wrong thing; she’s on the internet being a kid.
“She’s doing things in a very fortunate capacity, but they’re not detrimental.
“It’s my job as her mother to protect her,” she continues.
“I have to make sure I do the right thing for my family, provide for my family, give my children the best possible upbringing I can and an understanding that you have to conduct yourself in an appropriate fashion in all walks of life.”
“Responsibility” is a word that reoccurs regularly in Jacenko’s vocabulary.
Jacenko is married to investment banker Oliver Curtis, son of mining magnate Nick Curtis, with whom she has Pixie and a son, Hunter, born last year.

One of the Instagram posts of Pixie.

 

Roxy and her daughter Pixie.

 

Curtis is currently awaiting trial over conspiracy to commit insider trading, to which he’s pleaded not guilty.
Does she feel an added sense of responsibility because of her husband’s legal problems?
“I have a responsibility to the family irrespective of that court case,” she says.
“I think it’s because I watched my parents work so hard that I have this in-built in me.
“I have a responsibility, not only to Ollie but also the children.
“It’s an obsession of mine to make my mother proud. That’s more than anything.
“I want my mum to think I did my very best.”
Jacenko says her childhood has shaped her parenting style.
Although born into money, she was taught to work for what she wanted.
“My parents gave me a strong work ethic.
“Yes, I came from a very comfortable family, had private schooling and was given every opportunity.
“But from the age of 14 I worked every evening, and in my early twenties I worked a weekend job – because I wanted to create something for my future.
“I’d like to see Pixie do what I did and buy an apartment on her own, not to be someone who has their hand out.
“I have the ability to give her everything, but you know what? I don’t want to do that.
“I often hear, ‘Oh, her parents are very wealthy; they bought her her business,’” she says, adding, “I laugh and say, ‘Come be a fly on the wall in my business’ – I have more aggravation in my life than anyone would care to take note of.”
Some of that aggravation is with her family – she’s estranged from her fashion manufacturer father, Nick Jacenko, and doesn’t speak to her younger sister, Ruby, after she took out an AVO against her following a fight in a club in 2008.

Pixie graces the cover of Sunday Style magazine.

 

But none of this can stop the whirlwind that is Roxy and Pixie Inc.
“I work seven days a week to have the life I have. But I have a responsibility to support my family and to give them the best upbringing, and that comes from work,” she says.
“I am obsessive over it.
“But I was brought up to know that nothing comes from nothing.”
So what’s next?
Hunter just celebrated his first birthday – the party featured on his sister’s Instagram feed, and he has his own profile, of course.
So can we expect Brand Hunter?
“I have no plans for that,” Jacenko says.
“If you try to manufacture something, it won’t work.”
But after a pause she adds, “Although, if something came up and it was suitable, well then, maybe.”
Originally published as There’s something about Pixie

Why Is The Birkin Bag So Popular? The Mystique Comes Down To 5 Things

Oh, the Birkin! No other “It” bag in history has the legacy, history, or prestige of this luxe handbag — to call it an accessory really is an understatement. The iconic Hermes Birkin bag is surrounded by mystique and mythos, due to the price, the craftsmanship that goes into creating one, the waiting list, the celeb status, and a variety of other things. The Business of Fashion sought to debunk some of the mystery that shrouds the Birkin and it’s honestly psychologically fascinating.
You know the history. Hermes created the bag for Jane Birkin after the contents of her bag spilled out on an airplane, proving she needed something of proper size (and chicness) to tote all of her stuff.
But why, exactly, have Birkins maintained their unparalleled and unshaken air of mystery, beyond their obvious elegance? Why has their prestige status remained unrivaled?
It’s a variety of factors, from the secrecy regarding how many are made and sold per year, the fact that we don’t know how much the bag effects the Hermes bottom line, and of course, the all-important element of perception.
The piece explains how Hermes boutiques operate in somewhat independent fashion, but that’s not what intrigues me most. It’s the way that the Birkin continues to thrill and inspire lust.
Here are some key points about how the Birkin maintains its mystique, besides the fact that it remains a fabulous status symbol sans any loud and proud logos. Women want to carry a Birkin since it’s not ostentatious.

1. The Quality

In case you didn’t know, the bag really is the gold standard in craftsmanship and timelessness. It is a classic shape. One person, who is highly trained and highly skilled, makes the bag and it takes nearly 20 hours to complete, from stem to stern; that person selects the leather or the skin to be used and puts the bag through quality control tests, according to BoF.

2. Secrets!

Hermes does not reveal how many Birkin bags it sells each year nor does it reveal the percentages, so we don’t know how, exactly, production of the bag effects the bottom line. We don’t know how many bags they make and the market isn’t flooded with Birkins, so that secrecy further ups the ante of exclusivity, and it’s yet another thing we don’t know about the bags. So the mystique is maintained.

3. Fashion Darwinism

Marketing in print or online? Social media? Pft! Hermes does not make use of those channels to promote Birkins. As if! Instead, the bag’s success hinges on the perception of its prestige. A Birkin is hard to get and therefore highly coveted, and that’s all the brand needs to pack those waiting lists. It’s like fashion’s version of Darwinism. We usually always want what we can’t have so we’ll do whatever we can to get it.

4. Walk Ins Aren’t Welcome!

You don’t walk into a Hermes boutique, ask for a Birkin, inspect it, slap down a gold card, and walk out with one. No way, no how. The BoF story indicates that you have to have a purchase history or a relationship with an associate to get on that wait list. It’s all about relationships.

5. Going Through Customs

There is a way to get a Birkin with less of a wait time. If color or material is not of much importance, and you are simply all about having one, then your wait time will be slashed. Customized Birkins are also part of the appeal for those with the means to own one.
Essentially, the Hermes brand has cornered the market on supreme prestige bags and while there could be another brand to come down the pike to try and knock the Birkin off its perch, you can’t mess with history and legacy when it’s paired with some secrecy and perception. That’s quite a cocktail for success.

http://www.bustle.com/articles/89582-why-is-the-birkin-bag-so-popular-the-mystique-comes-down-to-5-things 

How the Legendary Birkin Bag Remains Dominant

More than 30 years after it was introduced, the Hermès Birkin is still the most exclusive handbag in the world

When Hermès opens its new Miami Design District flagship on Nov. 6, local clients will find a selection of leather goods, fashion, and accessories chosen specifically for them. Every Hermès outpost is run like an independent boutique, with a store director who visits Paris each year to buy pieces he or she believes will appeal to the location’s particular flavor.

The Birkin Sellier 40, the latest version of what a casual observer might call the original It Bag.

Source: Vicente Sahuc/Hermès via Bloomberg

But certain items resonate, no matter where in the world they land. Consider the Birkin Sellier 40, the latest version of what a casual observer might call the original It Bag. Crafted out of what is called Hunter cowhide—which holds its shape without much manipulation—the 40-centimeter-long style is unlined, with raw-edge straps, palladium hardware, and a retail price of $14,900.
The Sellier 40 will be available in Miami, although “available” is a relative term. Birkins of all shapes, sizes, and styles still sell out instantly, with wait lists typical of 10 or 15 years ago. The Birkin really holds up, says Robert Chavez, Hermès’s chief executive officer in the U.S. “Customers appreciate the quality, craftsmanship and timeless style.” ‘

Elite Sales

Yes, clients are suckers for a solid product that takes 18 to 20 hours to make from start to finish, all done by one craftsperson (who starts by selecting just the right piece of leather or exotic skin for the bag and ends with a series of painstaking quality control tests). But they are also suckers for careful, shadow marketing, high prices, limited supply, and a permanent air of exclusivity. It’s probaby the latter, more than the former, that has kept the Birkin the most elite handbag in the world.
In Hermès’s 2014 fiscal year, sales of leather goods and saddlery reached €1.8 billion ($2 billion), up nearly 13 percent from €1.6 billion in 2013. And in the first quarter of 2015, category sales reached €511 million, a jump of nearly 25 percent from last year’s €410 million. That’s at a time when most luxury brands are struggling globally in the face of changing Chinese and Russian markets and when major currency imbalances between regions has chilled shopping on the higher end.
The 178-year-old company does not report how many Birkins are sold every year, or what percentage of that leather sales figure is attributable to the line. Secrecy and success are intertwined.

Craftspersons are trained for a minimum of five years—longer if they are to work with exotic skins.

Source: Lucie & Simon/Hermès via Bloomberg

Shadow Marketing

Hermès does not market the Birkin through traditional print, online, or television advertising. Instead, the company relies on the bag’s perceived exclusivity and prestige. If the world knew how many bags were churned out every year, the luster would likely dim. The only thing Hermès wants you know about the bag’s availability is that you probably can’t get one.
“Hermès was very smart in not flooding the market with Birkins,” says Mario Ortelli, a luxury goods analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.
Indeed, an entire chapter in the buzzy new memoir Primates of Park Avenue is dedicated to author Wednesday Martin’s obsession with owning one of these elusive satchels. Those who try often face a months-long waiting list.

Birkins out and about with (from left) Jennifer Lopez in 2008, Miranda Kerr in 2014, and Kate Moss in 2003.

Photographer: (from left) Venturelli/WireImage; Alessio Botticelli/GC Images; Aura/Getty Images

How to Get a Birkin

“No one can walk in and buy a Birkin ‘from the back,’” says Michelle Goad, CEO of P.S. Dept., a personal shopping app that services 20,000 luxury customers globally. "The key to getting one is to find someone who has a relationship with one of their associates, [which means they’ve] bought one in the past."
If this sounds a bit like a Catch-22, that's because it is: To be sold a Birkin, you have to have bought one already. Unless you get lucky.
Very occasionally customers can waltz into an Hermès shop and scoop up a surprisingly available version—the 2009 memoir, Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag, detailed personal shopper Michael Tonello’s experience in doing that very thing—but that’s far from the norm. Instead, you need to snag a spot on an unofficial waitlist. And then wait.
“Think of it like almost being interviewed,” says Goad. “You have to have a purchase history at the store to just get started, then they meet with you, assess how serious you are about spending, and then you go on their list.
“They get deliveries of these bags sporadically every week—we're talking two units at a time, not full deliveries, so there aren't any just sitting on shelves. Associates first prioritize the customers with ‘relationships,’ then whatever inventory is left will be open to their wait list.”

From left: the Fall/Winter 2015 Birkin Contour and the Birkin Ghillies.

Photo illustration: Jeremy Allen/Bloomberg Business; bags: (from left) Studio des Fleurs/Hermès via Bloomberg; Quentin Bertoux/Hermès via Bloomberg

P.S. Dept. was recently able to secure a Birkin for a client within one month of her request, which Goad readily admits was a lot of "right time, right place," noting three- to six-month waits as the norm. Flexibility helped, too. “This client was very open to sizes and color—she just wanted one of the bags—which made it much easier to get her one.”
Hermès's Chavez echoes the sentiment on being flexible, although he denies that there is any "specific waitlist."
“When something comes available, we will call them and invite them to come in and see the bag we have,” he explains. “Sometimes they are willing to be flexible in size or hardware, if they want to accept the bag we are offering. If a client wants to stay specifically with every detail they requested, it will take a bit longer, but they are willing to wait.”

The Birkin in its various stages of production.

Source: Alfredo Piola/Hermés via Bloomberg

Steady Market Share

So it’s also safe to say that if you want to buy a Birkin, and you can afford one, it will eventually be yours. In the meantime, the exclusivity—both perceived and real (from price and specific design details)—generates plenty of cultural cachet and continues the cycle of sales. Along with the dozens of written accounts, a legendary episode of Sex and the City centers on Samantha’s quest to procure the unicorn of handbags.
This sort of free publicity is the best kind available: money-can’t-buy word-of-mouth that puffs up the tightly controlled distribution system.
Meanwhile, the handbag market is constantly changing. Brands at all levels are raising their prices, from Louis Vuitton’s $5,600 Capucines to Céline’s $6,200 lizard box bag. The number of choices has increased, too. Today, Hermès’s competition includes not only Chanel and Dior but also Moynat, Mark Cross, the Row, and so on. While Hermès’s share of the luxury leather goods market has remained steady over the past decade or so—6 percent in both 2004 and 2013—research by Exane BNP Paribas suggests that the number of “other” brands competing has increased to 41 percent of total market share in 2013 from 38 percent in 2004. (Louis Vuitton’s market share has decreased to 18 percent in 2013, from 23 percent in 2004.)

Maintaining the Crown

So what’s a category leader like Hermès to do? Offering newness is one strategy, and the horsey leather goods house does tend to introduce a new bag on the runway every other season or so. For Fall 2014, it was the Hazlan, a shoulder bag that can be seamlessly converted into a crossbody, tote, or clutch. At her Fall 2015 debut, the company's newly appointed women’s creative director, Nadege Vanshee-Cybulski, introduced the Octogone bag, which looks exactly as it sounds. (It’s an octagon.)

A version featuring diamond-and-gold hardware recently fetched $223,000 at auction in Hong Kong.

Source: Christie's Images Ltd. Via Bloomberg

But it is the Birkin that remains the crown jewel. Indeed, a version featuring diamond-and-gold hardware recently fetched $223,000 at auction in Hong Kong. So the brand is focusing on offering more and rarer specialized options, all while keeping the quality top-notch. There is the Birkin Shadow, the Birkin Ghillies, the Birkin So-Black, as well as hundreds of color and skin combinations in four standard sizes: 25cm, 30cm, 35cm, and 40cm styles (Store directors are tasked with selecting unique options that will appeal to the store's local clientele, although Hermès won’t reveal what styles appeal where.)
For the most devoted customers—and by that we mean the biggest spenders—the company offers customization. Sales associates are schooled on the hundreds of available combinations so that serious collectors can easily purchase their dream Birkin. “We do take special orders, but in a small way,” Chavez says. “If we can meet a client’s expectations, we will consider a special order.”

The Birkin was introduced in 1984, named after fashion icon Jane Birkin (seen here at he Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2005 fashion show).

Photographer: Michel Dufour/WireImage

Personalized Core

In many ways, customization has always been at the core of the Birkin. The bag, after all, was first made to the specifics of its namesake, actress and singer Jane Birkin, who needed a carryall to handle her Hermès diary. But personalization is just another way to reel in the forever client. If she wants something truly unlike anything anyone else has in the world, she can have it.
In a sense, the company is doubling down on the bag—committing to training 200 new craftspeople across categories each year and continuing to increase production. Hermès points to two new workshops in the Rhône Alpes and Poitou Charentes regions of France as a source for its success in 2014. (Two more new workshops in the Franche-Comté region will open in 2016.) Craftsmen are trained for a minimum of five years and will receive additional training if they are to work with exotic skins.
“Even as it has become more mass, it's distributed around the world and not very exposed,” says the luxury analyst Ortelli. “You don’t find it in the store. The unofficial waiting list keeps it under control.”

Quiet Luxury

As Hermès has increased production, demand has also amazingly increased, thanks to a mix of factors. One is that Asia’s wealthy are less and less interested in logos (a demure Hermès label only appears hidden under the top flap of the Birkin). That goes hand in hand with the global rise of quiet luxury—the idea that refined, minimalist goods speak volumes more without saying as much. For the modern high-net-worth consumer, Hermès is the brand: It’s both pricey and subtle.
The classic 25cm Birkin starts at $9,400, more than double what it was in 2000. Many exotic-skin styles reach well into five figures. (The new 40cm in crocodile is priced at $68,000.) And while other “quiet luxury” labels have emerged as competitors to Hermès, no one else—not even Chanel—is able to justify those sorts of figures for its goods. “The real fortune of the Birkin is that no other brand has built an iconic bag in that price range [yet],” Ortelli says.
Still, the company will continue to have to innovate. “Sooner or later, there will be another iconic product from another iconic brand,” he continues.
What Hermès must instead rely on, now and in the future, is the unmatched trust consumers have in its name.
“No other brand has such a believable heritage,” Ortelli adds. “To trade up from a Birkin, Victoria Beckham had to open her own fashion brand.” It should take her only a couple hundred years to catch up.

“To trade up from a Birkin, Victoria Beckham (pictured here in 2007) had to open her own fashion brand,” says Mario Ortelli, a luxury goods analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.

 

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-10/how-the-legendary-birkin-bag-remains-dominant

Handbags at Dawn: Why Auction Houses Are Targeting Luxury Fashion

The world’s biggest auction houses are targeting luxury fashion. The result? Record-breaking Birkins, auctions during fashion week and a $60 million lawsuit.

A Christie's luxury accessories auction | Source: Christie's 

 

LONDON, United Kingdom — On Monday, a handbag shattered a world record. The bag in question, a fuchsia pink crocodile skin Hermès Birkin with 18 karat gold and diamond hardware, sold for HK$1.72 million ($223,000) at an auction held by Christie’s in Hong Kong. The winning bid, from an unidentified buyer, smashed the previous record for a handbag sold at auction, set at Christie’s New York in 2011, when a purse once owned by Elizabeth Taylor went for $218,500.

The market for second-hand luxury fashion has attracted a flurry of digital upstarts, such as The Real Real and Vestiaire Collective. But now, the world’s biggest auction houses are targeting the opportunity.

At the end of last year, Christie’s launched a live auction calendar dedicated to handbags and accessories, off the back of the success of its inaugural live handbag sale last March, which realised €2.5 million (about $2.7 million) in sales. Next month in Paris, Sotheby’s — Christie’s biggest competitor — will host its first auction of haute couture fashion.

“Sotheby’s and Christie’s are working to expand their brand,” said Jeff Rabin, principal and co-founder of art advisory firm Artvest Partners LLC. “Luxury fashion seems to be a natural extension of art, which is the ultimate luxury item.”

Meanwhile, Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, America’s largest collectibles auctioneer, launched its luxury accessories business back in 2010, which has since grown by more than 50 percent a year. “It’s expanded at such an incredible rate,” said Max Brownawell, consignment director and specialist for luxury accessories at Heritage Auctions’ New York office.

The auctioning of fashion accessories first kicked off in a big way around 2000, when seasonal ‘it-bags’ took off and collections such as Louis Vuitton’s 2001 ‘Original Graffiti’ bags sold out, sparking interest from second-hand buyers. The global financial crisis somewhat dampened the category, as clients fell back on classic, safe styles that held their value. But, post-recession, bag collectors are back. “They're after the rarities,” explained Matt Rubinger, international head of the handbags and accessories department at Christie’s. “They've already purchased the classic piece and they're ready for something a little more exciting.”

“It's gotten to a point where people are just starting to shift from shoppers to collectors,” said Rubinger, who compares the emerging market for luxury handbags to “where the secondary market for watches was thirty years ago.”

At auction, handbags dominate the luxury accessories category. And the handbag category is dominated, overwhelmingly, by one brand: Hermès. At Heritage Auctions’ biggest ever auction, held in May, of the 950 total lots, over 600 were Hermès items. Of those 600 items, 400 were Hermès handbags. Hermès makes up about 90 percent of Heritage's luxury accessory category’s business, according to Brownawell. Noteworthy lots sold by the auctioneer have included a black Kelly bag that went for $125,000 in December and a brilliant red crocodile Birkin that went for a record $203,500 in 2011.

“If you asked me what the top five purse brands are, I would tell you that Hermès is number one, number two and number three,” said Greg Rohan, president of Heritage Auctions. “It’s about the craftsmanship of the product, the desirability of the product and the scarcity of the product.”

Hermès is a hit on the resale market for three reasons. Firstly, there is far more demand for Hermès purses than there is supply. Secondly, the bags are hard to get hold of. The waiting lists to buy are years-long and the most exclusive styles are only offered to VIP clients, which drives up the resale value far beyond Hermès’ asking price. Thirdly, they are widely imitated — if you’re spending that much on an item, you want to be sure it’s not a fake. An established auction house offers that guarantee.

Other auction favourites include Louis Vuitton and Chanel, though according to Brownawell, Chanel bags “lose 40 percent of their value” as soon as they’re out of the shop door. Phoebe Philo’s designs at Céline hold their worth on the second-hand market, in part, because Céline has no online distribution network, which makes its products relatively hard to come by.

But where do auctioneers source their handbags?

Many come from collectors who are curating their collections, but others are from Hermès’ clients, who resell the bags they don’t want — and keep buying from Hermès until they get the one they do. “If you're offered one of the bags that’s only available to VIP clients and you turn it down, you probably won't be offered any others,” explained Brownawell.

With a strong supply of auction-worthy product flowing in, and sale prices way above estimates, luxury fashion may seem a straightforward business boost for auctioneers. But behind the Birkins, there’s a war going on.

On a Monday morning in May of last year, Greg Rohan received a call from Matt Rubinger, who at the time was 26 and working under Rohan at Heritage Auctions. Rohan had plucked Rubinger straight out of Vanderbilt University (where he had set up a business buying and selling Birkins out of his student room) to launch Heritage’s luxury accessories category, the first time that an auction house had made it a standalone category. According to Reuters, Rubringer was earning $340,000 in salary and bonuses at Heritage.

Over the phone that morning, Rubinger told Rohan that he was leaving the company for Christie’s, where, it later emerged, he was to head up a new luxury accessories department in Hong Kong. Within an hour, Rachel Koffsky and Caitlin Donovan, who, along with Rubinger, comprised Heritage’s entire luxury accessories management team, had also resigned to decamp to Christie’s. It was the Hong Kong-based department helmed by this trio of twenty-somethings that broke the world record for a handbag sold at auction earlier this week.

Heritage is now seeking over $60 million in damages from Christie’s and the three former employees, who it alleges breached their “duty of loyalty” to Heritage and stole trade secrets. The suit also seeks all profits from Christie’s luxury accessories division through 2016.

As the talent wars prove, the world’s biggest auctioneers see luxury accessories as a big business opportunity. But, when compared to categories like art or watches, how big could the fashion business be?

A $223,000 Birkin bag is a drop in the ocean compared to the top prices reached at art auctions. Last month, Christie’s sold over $1 billion of postwar and contemporary art at auction in a single week, the trophy sale being a Picasso painting that went for $179 million. Jewellery, too, far outshines handbag sales. Sales at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels Geneva auction, also in May, hit $160.9 million.

According to Jeff Rabin of Artvest (which advised on Citibank’s coverage of Sotheby’s stock) these phenomenal sale prices for art pieces, while headline-grabbing, are “not necessarily so profitable.” The reason being, to gain the prestige of selling these trophy lots, the auctioneers take on the major expenses of carrying the works — hosting private showings, travel costs, additional security — and cut deals that may not be profitable. “Without question, the auction houses are not charging the seller anything to sell these magnificent works of art,” said Rabin.

Luxury fashion, on the other hand, is a steadier bet. Handbags come under what Rabin terms “lower-end property,” which caps at a few hundred thousand dollars. “That is very valuable property from a business perspective, because they are earning full commission on both the buy side and the sell side,” he said. “That’s their bread and butter business. So going into another category where they can do sale after sale of property in this price range is simply good business.”

At Heritage, where the luxury accessories department brings in about $15 million of the company’s $900 million in annual sales, “our watch department does a little bit less [than luxury accessories] and our jewellery department does a little bit more,” according to Brownawell. “In the next five years we're hoping to grow [luxury accessories] substantially. Where we're really hoping to grow is in our private sales business. That's a business where we do a couple million a year.”

Fashion items are also a strategic tool for engaging top clients across different categories. At Christie’s first luxury accessories auction in Hong Kong last year, the largest crossover category from existing clients was with Asian contemporary art.

“You can't always pick up the phone and call a client you haven't spoken to in 15 years and offer them a $30 million painting, but you can with handbags,” said Rubinger. “It's quite small next to something like post-war, which does almost half of the business for Christie's, but it's a good and important strategic tool. And on top of that, it's profitable.”

“Someone who has the resources to buy $100,000 dollar purses, they are generally also collecting jewellery, collecting watches, the husband may be collecting wine, art,” said Rohan. “The purse collector is one of the best demographics there is.”

Though, according to Rubinger, “there's nothing quite like the excitement of a live Christie's sale,” much of the handbag auction business is conducted online. At Heritage Auctions, online makes up the majority of the category’s sales.

Christie’s — where Net-a-Porter’s Jeremy Langmead spent a year as chief content officer — launched luxury handbags as an online-only sales department in 2012 and has recently made a big push into digital, investing $50 million over three years into developing its digital  auction platform.

Going forward, auction houses are looking to further cement the links between the worlds of art and luxury fashion.

“I and a lot of other people consider the beautifully handmade Hermes purses to be works of art,” said Rohan. “When you have something that takes so long to make, that is made by artisan craftsmen, each one lovingly assembled and many of them have in production for many years — I think that they are works of art.”

Christie’s is owned by French art collector François Pinault, who is also the majority shareholder of the luxury conglomerate Kering. In May, the auctioneer’s luxury accessories department relocated to Paris, where it will sync its biannual sales to the fashion week, a move the company said would bring it closer to the “epicentre of the market for fashion.”

Also in Paris, in July, Sotheby’s will host its first haute couture auction, comprising 150 items selected by Parisian collector and boutique owner Didier Ludot.

“I make a huge differentiation between handbags and second-hand vintage accessories — and haute couture, which represents French heritage and the skills of France’s haute couture craftsmen,” said Ludot. Nonetheless, some of the same winds are blowing across the markets for vintage clothing and accessories — for one, the increased resale value of new items at auction. “The biggest change is that, before, people bought and collected very “antique” pieces from 1900 to 1970. Now, every season the best pieces are spotted,” he said.

Bringing Home the Birkin Now Published in 13 Languages

a small sampling of various covers

Hermes Birkin Smashes World Auction Record for Handbags, Fetching $222,000 in Hong Kong

HONG KONG — Christie's said Monday that a Hermes designer handbag smashed a world auction record in Hong Kong.

The auction house did not identify the buyer of the crocodile skin Birkin Bag in fuschia with 18 karat gold and diamond hardware. It sold for 1.72 million Hong Kong dollars ($222,219).

The previous record was set at a U.S. auction in 2011 for another Birkin Bag, in red crocodile skin, that sold for $203,150.

The Birkin Bag was designed for and named after British actress Jane Birkin. It's famous for having a price tag in the thousands of dollars and a years-long waiting list.

The bag was one of more than 300 that Christie's put on the block in Hong Kong, which has emerged as a global auction center thanks to wealthy mainland Chinese.

A similar black Birkin Bag was offered for auction but didn't sell after failing to attract the minimum bid of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($130,000).