The world's sleekest square of silk, sold every 25 seconds
In the fashion world there are scarves, and then there is the
scarf. Queen Elizabeth II wore one for her postage-stamp portrait.
Jackie Kennedy kept the Nantucket rain off her hair with hers. And when
Grace Kelly broke her arm in 1956, she memorably knotted her scarf into a sling. With some squares priced
over $2000, this is one of the costliest pieces of silk one can buy—a
fact that does not keep the things from floating off the shelf at a rate
of two per minute. If you can’t guess what this accessory is by now,
you’ll probably never own one. After all, Hermès—France’s most storied
luxury brand—doesn’t advertise much, and it hardly needs to advertise
its scarves at all.
Photo: Nick Ferrari
"The key point to understanding the cachet of Hermès scarves has a lot
to do with how women perceive their images," explained fashion
historian, author and Hermès devotee Polly Guerin. "A woman of privilege wants to be set apart from the crowd and say, 'I’m special,' and 'I can afford this.'"
Of course, such logic works with most any luxury brand. What makes the
Hermès scarf unique is the carefully orchestrated rarity of the product.
Hermès works with a small coterie of artists to create about 20 new
designs a year. A single pattern may take 18 months to reach stores,
including the 750 hours required to engrave up to 43 silkscreens—one per
color—all applied by hand. What’s more, unlike many brands that license
their accessory lines to producers in China, Hermès is proudly,
stubbornly French. Its team of seamstresses and silk printers in Lyon is told to take its time and do its best work. There are no production quotas.
The result is a fashion accessory that comes with the one thing better
than a head-turning price: a genuine mystique. It helps that the house
of Hermès originally made saddles and harnesses for the likes of Napoleon III.
Silk produced for jockey’s riding jackets gave rise to the idea for
scarves, which first appeared in 1937. The colorful prints drew stars
including Audrey Hepburn and Catherine Deneuve, whose own mystique has
helped lure their younger counterparts: Oprah, Mariah (Carey) and Sarah
(Jessica Parker) to name just three.
In the process, Guerin said, Hermès scarves have become a kind of
fashion currency: "It’s not unusual for a woman to own a collection of
Hermès scarves and in the end bequeath them to other women, as the scarf
has hereditary value."
It has cultural value, too. Retired New York PR man Dirk van den Heuvel, a regular at Studio 54
back in the day, remembers that society ladies weren't the only fans of
Hermès scarves. "Every drag queen in the world has to own one or two,"
he said, "and most fashionable gay men would want to include a few in
their wardrobe."
I can’t believe I’m doing this.
Head Butler is about authenticity. Great art forged by hard work.
Artisanal craft. Creativity. Value. Beauty that will outlast you.
And here I am hawking Birkin bags.
Have I field-tested these? Of course not. Because, new, they can easily cost $155,000.
And trust me on this, women who’d like a Birkin bag would very much
prefer a new one. Oh, you can try the bargain route: “I wasn’t
profligate, I bought it used, on consignment.” And she’d look it up —
like this one for $12,000 — and try to adjust to discounted happiness.
I’m offering you fakes — for around $100.
As my forefathers used to say in the shops on the Lower East Side, “You want a blue suit? Hymie, turn on the blue light!”
Ok. I’ve combed the Amazon possibilities, read the reader reviews, culled the herd. Caveat emptor.
The favorite: Genuine Leather Shoulder Strap Tote Bag.
“List price” was $306. It can be yours for a mere $106. Free shipping,
even. The merchant says: “It is bag worth hundreds dollors.” But it was
the best reader review that convinced me: So if I could afford a multi-thousand dollar hand-made French
designer handbag, I for sure wouldn’t be typing my own Amazon reviews.
I’m not even sure I could bring myself to spend that kind of money on a
bag anyway. But, I love the look of that iconic bag and I wanted to buy
one that resembled it, but wasn’t a blatant forgery. I was leery of
buying a Chinese no-name bag, because sometimes the quality is so bad,
but I had trouble finding a leather bag that wasn’t a counterfeit. I was
very pleasantly surprised by this bag. I am glad there is no branding,
stamping or engraving that misrepresents who makes this…. If this
merchant makes a Kelly inspired bag, I would happily buy that too.
Perhaps milady would like a Gator Italian Leather Hobo Tote Handbag. “List price” was $575. Yours for $130.
Why sell these at all? Because….
——- Beyonce got some sweet gifts yesterday. Her husband, Jay-Z, was
spotted shopping at Hermes’ plush Madison Avenue boutique on Christmas
Eve. A spy reports, "Jay was in a private room of Hermes doing
last-minute shopping. He had a guard standing watch outside. He spent
$350,000 on Birkin bags, among other things." The buying binge took so
long, Jay-Z missed his scheduled lunch at Nello, prompting the
restaurateur to deliver his food to the store.
—New York Post, 12/26/10
Jane Birkin was flying from London to Paris in 1981 when she reached
into her bag for her datebook and everything fell out. “I’d love a bag
with pockets,” the English singer/actress told her seatmate.
Her seatmate just happened to the chairman of Hermès. He was a good
listener. He had his designers make a bag with pockets, and he sent one
to Birkin. Then he named it after her.
And then the fun began.
Everything at Hermès is expensive. Like: a scarf at $725. Or a
leather shoulder bag at $6,500. The datebook Jane Birkin used? It now
costs $1,025.
The Birkin bag, however, was in another league. Not only was it
expensive, you couldn’t get one. Why? Oh, because each bag required 48
hours of craftsmanship. You know: "This isn’t a bag, it’s a work of
art."
Demand soon outstripped supply.
Well, not really. But that was the marketing line. And a genius one
at that. Create a luxury item so special it doesn’t need a logo. Then
make it scarce. Very scarce — at one point, Hermès announced there was a two-year waiting list. Which only made the Birkin more desirable.
It’s a venerable truth: Deny the rich what they want, and they’ll pay anything to get it.
It was only a matter of time — and technology — before Michael Tonello came along.
Our good fortune: Michael Tonello is a delightful writer, and “Bringing
Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World’s Most Coveted
Handbag” is one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in years. (To buy
the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.)
Tonello’s outrageous story as a Birkin buyer — and reseller, or, as
he liked to think of himself, “leather liason” — began with him living
on Cape Cod and jetting off to exotic destinations for fashion shoots
“with a can of hairspray and a powder puff.” He gets an assignment in
Barcelona. He falls in love with the city. And moves there.
Money, how to make it. He took one of his scarves — purchased years
earlier for $99 at Ralph Lauren — and sold it on eBay for $430. He sold a
Truman Capote first edition for $1,000. He saw the excitement on an
eBay board for Hermès scarves, so he sold one of his for a $400 profit.
And then a curious thing happened — people who didn’t get to buy his
scarf wrote to ask him if he had more. He went to Hermès in Barcelona,
bought two dozen and sold them for a “sizable” profit. He discovered
that these scarves cost $30 less at the Hermès store in Andorra, so he
made the two-hour drive and bought the first of a thousand scarves he’d
purchase there.
Soon he was selling 30 scarves a week.
All because he saw a niche in the market.
All because Hermès didn’t yet have a web site.
Inevitably, one of his customers — who just happened to be songwriter
Carole Bayer Sager — asked if he could get her a Birkin. He had no idea
what that was, but once he found out, he was a bag-seeking missile.
How Michael Tonello cracked the code and was able to buy Birkins from
Hermès is the centerpiece of the book. It is hilarious – if, that is,
you are amused by the foibles of the rich and those who cater to
them. It is tender — if, that is, you can be touched by Tonello’s
burgeoning friendships with the women who became his best customers. It
is even thrilling — if, that is, your heart rate jumps when a French
colleague tries to rip Tonello off and Tonello must Take Steps.
“Bring Home the Birkin” is so much fun you will wonder: where’s the movie? [Suggested title: “The Hero Sold Hermès.”]
Bonus Video: Michael Tonello shares his "secret"
Rita Braver
at CBS News can't get her facts straight. She states in this video, on CBS Sunday Morning, that Hermes bags "every stitch is hand sewn". This is not correct.
While some bags do utilize hand stitching ("saddle stitching") the
vast majority of Hermes bags use mostly machine stitching.
