He had no idea what that was, but once he found out, he was a bag-seeking missile. Inevitably, one of his customers - who just happened to be songwriter Carole Bayer Sager - asked if he could get her a Birkin. 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.Īll because he saw a niche in the market.Īll because Hermès didn't yet have a web site. He went to Hermès in Barcelona, bought two dozen and sold them for a "sizable" profit. He saw the excitement on an eBay board for Hermès scarves, so he sold one of his for a $400 profit.Īnd then a curious thing happened - people who didn't get to buy his scarf wrote to ask him if he had more. He sold a Truman Capote first edition for $1,000. He took one of his scarves - purchased years earlier for $99 at Ralph Lauren - and sold it on eBay for $430. 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. (To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. 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. It was only a matter of time - and technology - before Michael Tonello came along. It's a venerable truth: Deny the rich what they want, and they'll pay anything to get it. Which only made the Birkin more desirable. Very scarce - at one point, Hermès announced there was a two-year waiting list. Create a luxury item so special it doesn't need a logo. You know: "This isn't a bag, it's a work of art." Why? Oh, because each bag required 48 hours of craftsmanship. Not only was it expensive, you couldn't get one. The Birkin bag, however, was in another league. The datebook Jane Birkin used? It now costs $1,025. Then he named it after her.Įverything at Hermès is expensive. He had his designers make a bag with pockets, and he sent one to Birkin. Her seatmate just happened to the chairman of Hermès.
"I'd love a bag with pockets," the English singer/actress told her seatmate. Jane Birkin was flying from London to Paris in 1981 when she reached into her bag for her datebook and everything fell out. 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. A spy reports, "Jay was in a private room of Hermes doing last-minute shopping. Her husband, Jay-Z, was spotted shopping at Hermes' plush Madison Avenue boutique on Christmas Eve.
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