on the subject of Craftpersons, my DH dropped my very battered 1977 trim into the Paris store (AKA Mothership) yesterday to get a repolish and try and get the gold lettering re-done as it had all worn away. he said the very nice Japanese SA took a look at it and tutted and said thay will do their best but can't guarantee what it will turn out like. my DH said it was a family heirloom (!!) , at which point she looked very worried! what he didn't say because it was too embarassing was that i got the bag really cheap anyway so anything would be better than the condition i got it in. DH rang me back and said it would take 8 weeks and he has to go back to collect it, apparently Hermes have to track down the son of the original craftsperson to work on it (ok maybe he made that bit up???). anyway it was nice that hermes could help and really weren't too stuffy about the condition of the bag. can they re-do gold lettering as the SA wasn't sure??