I completely baby my Hermes Birkin. I only own one and it is my holy grail. I specifically remember learning about the infamous Birkin Bag first my sophomore year in high school. A “wait list” I asked? What kind of price tag? It seemed shocking, but my friend and I made a pact to own a Birkin at some point in our lives. I made a point to call her when I got mine two years ago.

The one piece of advice I would give anyone waiting for a Birkin:

Wait until you can get the exact bag of your dreams. Want a specific color, hardware, size, leather: Wait for it. When spending that much on a handbag, you should get the exact bag you wished for. I got mine, a 30 cm Blue Jean Birkin in Togo leather with Palladium hardware.

Yesterday we took her out for a photo shoot. The sky was perfectly blue and the sun was radiating, though it was so unbearably hot that I flooded my body with bottles of water until I felt the urge to fall off that bridge and float away. The Blue Jean color from Hermes is widely recognized and widely sought after. I love the splash of color, which works for every season and every color palette. And the bag itself, a work of art.

The economy may be hurting world wide, but those that love Hermes are still buying. In fact, Hermes has resorted to breeding its own crocodiles on farms in Australia to meet the demand for its exotic bags. It is reported that Hermes makes around 3,000 crocodile bags every year and demand continues to grow while the crocodiles are not readily available to fill orders. It can take three to four crocodiles to make one Hermes bag, so the move to use their own farms makes sense.

While other brands are hurting, Hermes continues to churn sales increases. Along with their own crocodile farms in Australia, Hermes is also hiring an additional 50-100 leather workers to join the staff of 2,000 in Paris. What does this mean for us? An easier change to purchase a Hermes crocodile bag, if we have the funds to do so.

[Story via Reuters]

PARIS (Reuters) - French luxury goods group Hermes has resorted to breeding its own crocodiles on farms in Australia to try to meet demand for its leather bags, its chief executive said on Monday.

Customers sometimes have to wait several years for certain exotic-skin bags, which can fetch over 35,000 euros ($48,410).

“It can take three to four crocodiles to make one of our bags so we are now breeding our own crocodiles on our own farms, mainly in Australia,” Patrick Thomas told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in Paris.

Hermes already faces a major challenge producing 3,000 crocodile bags a year, Thomas said, adding: “The world is not full of crocodiles, except the stock exchange!”

Crocodile farming can be expensive, with the reptiles having to be kept apart in separate rooms to protect their skins from bites, but even so allowances have to be made for natural losses that can amount to around a third of bred crocodiles.

Hermes’ leather goods, which account for 40 percent of its business, have been the most robust in the current downturn with the group taking on 50-100 leather workers this year to add to the 2,000 craftsmen it already employs at French sites.

Thomas admits the group has been pushing other areas of the business, such as fashion and textiles, so it is not so reliant on leather bags, but says this area continues to be its fastest-growing product line.

“We cannot face demand. We have massive over-demand. We are limited by our ability to train new craftsmen,” he added.

Well, the sales increase isn’t worldwide. Sales fell modestly in Europe and experienced a double-digit decline in luxury-goods-obsessed Japan, but the brand saw increases large enough in non-Japanese Asia to more than make up for decreases elsewhere. The increases were seen mostly in South Korea and China, which many industry watchers regard as somewhat of a Last Frontier of luxury retail.

So what does this tell us? First of all, we should all remember that signs of strength in the global economy probably mean good things for those of us in America. Our economy is incredibly interconnected with those of other nations, particularly China, and we can’t start to make a significant recovery without signs that are trading partners are also ready to move forward economically. Sales increases of luxury goods mean that consumers in other countries feel confident in the direction in which the economy is headed, and maybe a little bit of that consumer confidence will rub off on other markets. Lastly, it’s a good reminder to all businesses that there are still markets out there that are spending money. Finding them may be a challenge, but it can and will be done. So congratulations, Hermes, on a game well played.

Article via Forbes.com

Click to watch the ABC Video clip

There has been an interesting discussion taking part on Purse Forum on a news clip. ABC popped into Hermes on Madison Avenue in NYC and spoke with the Hermes-god-placed-on-Earth himself, Claude Gandrille. I was shocked to see Claude on ABC speaking about Hermes, as the brand is so secretive and keeps mum about their happenings. Furthermore Claude is rather quiet himself, typically found diligently working in his back right corner of the shop. But they got an interview with Claude. Somehow a slew of video cameras came into Hermes as well, when a simple movement of your camera phone on any other day will send the security upon you in less than 10 seconds.

Next ABC decided to enlist Michelle, a do it yourself artisan, to create a Hermes Kelly for $35. She did so by using the Hermes Kelly pattern found on the Hermes website (we created our own Hermes a while back). Michelle spent two days creating a Hermes Kelly that was made to resemble a classic Kelly and a Crocodile Kelly. Afterward she hit the streets to see if people could spot the real bag. They could. Better yet, she went to Hermes to see what the sale associates and Claude thought. Are you kidding me - I nearly fell off my chair at this point trying to hold in my anticipation of their reactions. The sale associates laughed and tried to tell her it was good. Claude was dying on the inside, though on the outside he held it together and told her “This is wonderful”. Claude was lying, I know it.

What gets me is after this piece, the ABC anchor goes on to say you can get that ‘blueprint’ on Hermes and try it yourself. So let’s make more wannabes and give more counterfeiters the idea. Not that the design would have stumped anyone who knew handbags. Obviously the quality was about a millionth of what a true Hermes bag is. And that cracked, dry tree-bark pattern on the ‘crocodile’ Kelly Michelle made was heinous. Either way we enjoyed the video because we got to see Claude; Vlad and I love Claude! And we did not take it too seriously, it was just for fun anyhow. [video HERE]

What do you think?

In “Steel Magnolias,” the wedding colors of Julia Roberts‘ character were “blush and bashful.” But in real life, she’s a much bigger fan of…blush and…jack-o-lantern? True, orange is the signature Hermes color, but there’s a difference between admiring that classic orange box and pairing a Sunny D-hued Birkin with not just a pink cardy but a floral peasant skirt to boot. (Somewhere an assistant is waving smelling salts under Victoria Beckham’s nostrils.) Posh it’s not, but I suppose Julia has better things to do than worry about clashing colors and structured purses with unstructured outfits. Me, I would have saved the orange-you-glad-it’s-Hermes bag for some high-class Halloween trick or treating.

Photo from PopSugar.com.

Well, if this CraigsList ad for temporary sales associates is to be believed, anyway. Women’s Wear Daily seems to confirm it, although I’m cheap and don’t have a subscription, so I can’t see the entire article.

What does this tell us? Well, it tells us that the Hamptons are still a little annoying, in a Real Housewives of New York, fabulously awful way. It also tells us that there’s hope for our economy yet - keep spending, obscenely rich people! And keep going on vacation! Hermes wants to give you a way to do both, simultaneously, and if that isn’t the American way, then I don’t know what is.

I would never be caught dead carrying a fake and even designer inspired handbags are a big NO in my book. Clearly, the infamous Birkin inspired Slow and Steady’s version. It’s no surprise how a Hermes Birkin can cost the average person a kidney and their first born, surprisingly, the Slow & Steady’s Birken doesn’t run cheap as it carries a steep price tag of $1,100! Personally, I’d rather save my pennies for years to buy the original Hermes Birkin!

Ladies what’s your input on this bag? Do you feel like this is a designer inspired piece or a major coincidence instead? Only available in brown at the moment, shop Slow & Steady Wins The Race at: Revolve Clothing

The Chat: Slow & Steady Wins The Race

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