This thread is the Podium Master Thread for you to discuss intel on product offerings at the Podium event.
For reference, here's a brief primer on Podium Order (PO) vs Special Order (SO):
Podium Order
Special Order
Here's an explanation of Podium vs Rack.
For reference, here's a brief primer on Podium Order (PO) vs Special Order (SO):
Podium Order
i thought pos aren't really an "order" yet, until it is approved by paris, hence they can only "cancel" it after the order has been placed by the sm (not the client).
According to my sas, whom have explained the whole podium process with me quite clearly. (things can differ a little from country to country, but i think the general picture is the same)
1) regular clients submit/express their "wishlist" to the sms before they go off to paris at each podium. But you don't have to do it in jan/jun, you can tell them i really want x anytime, say in march (just after the feb podium), and the sm will just have to note it down, and then order it at the next podium (july), so the wait to see whether this order has been approved is, of course, a lot longer than say, if you have told the sm in jan. At this point, this is still a "wishlist", not an "order". I know people like to say that "i am going to order this and that", but bare in mind, nothing is an "order" until paris has approved it, before then, it is still your "wishlist".
2)the sms take this wishlist to the podium with them, and see what's availabld to order, then match this with the wishlist and submit their orders for the next season. (feb for aw, july for ss)
3) once these orders have been approved by paris, they will become an "ordered book/list", which are all the items that the store will/should receive for the entire coming season. Hence, everything on this list is "approved", so if your item appears on this list, then it is now an order. So your sm will be able to tell you whether the item you have asked for has been approved or not at this stage.
4)as you can see, this order list is for next season, so there is at least a 6month wait for whatever you've ordered. Some people said they've only waited a month after they have submitted their "order", but to my understanding, it is not the item that the sm has ordered for this client at this particular podium, it is merely an item from the current or past season, which hasn't been spoken for, and has just arrived and happened to match the client's "wishlist", hence, was offered to this client, so she didn't have to wait for the one which the sm has ordered for next season to arrive.
5)sometimes, things that the sms have ordered just never arrive at the store for no reason, some are actively canceled by paris, some are delayed for more than 2 seasons.(aka pending orders from previous seasons) so i guess, you can call all these scenarios as an order being canceled by paris.
6) clients are generally told that pos take 6months ~2 years to arrive, because the order can be delayed for many seasons, but most of the stock should arrive within the next season
7) special order is a totaly different route, and hence whatever i have written does not apply to sos.
8) every country has a different policy for their "waitinglist" or "list" (however you want to call it)
a) some store let a very small amount of client to choose from their ordered stock list for the coming season, (but you can only choose from certain colours/leather/size/hw) so the chance of getting what you have chosen is very high.
B)some stores from time to time ask their clients what they want, and keeps a list of client name with their "wishes", and may use this as their guide at each podium, but you can submit your wishlist in ss11, but sm might not have ordered it till ss12, so you dont' know how long you'll wait for this item. Not everyone can go on this list.
C)some stores (like taiwan) let everyone put their wishlist down, you don't have to be a regular client to submit your wishlist. It is a merely a record of clients who wants b/ks. They don't use it to make orders at the podium, it is not an order list, not a waitinglist, it does not mean you will get this item for sure, it is just a client list, just in case one day a vip turns down a bag that the sm has ordered for her, the sas will then go to this list, and call those who also wanted the same bag.
9) can you change your order once it has been placed at the podium? I am not 100% sure about this, but my guess is no, once it is ordered by the sm and once the sm has left paris, it can't be changed. But if you are lucky, if there's something else that matches your criteria in the same poidum ordered list, and hasn't been spoken for, then the sm might offer that bag to you, or if you are a vip, they will re-order it for you at the next podium.
Ok, keep in mind, this might not apply to all stores and even whatever the sm has ordered, might be altered by paris without prior notice. (ie changing the hw, or the size or the leather etc)
Special Order
I have explianed previously how POs worked; Now I will explain how the current SO works in my country:
SMs are informed the number of b/k they are allocated for next season at each podium. Say a store has 50 b/k, it is up to the SM how many b/k she/he wants to order at the podium. For example 40 was ordered, then the store has 10 quota available for SOs. Which is why SOs are usually ordered after the SMs have returned from Paris. They are also not allowed to order anything "regular" through SOs now, ie if it was available to order at the podium, then such bag should only be ordered at the podium and not hogging up another SO quota. Appeareantly this rule is quite recent.
As we all know, since last year, Hermes introduced this SO online system, which allows SA to submit their applications online and it also tells us what can be ordered. (ie, if it was not an option on that system, then it is not available to order) This system puts a limit on many criterias, so we are not as free as we were in the past to order whatever we want. If you want to order something even more special, then it is customised order, which is so rare that each store only gets 1 quota per season or year (can't remember sorry)
Unlike in the past, you can have many options to play around with the bag in different colours. Now you only have 5 options.
1) single colour in a SO only colour/leather
2)Bi-colour:
a) Exterior in one colour, and lining/piping in another colour (if contrast piping is requested, it has to go with the lining colour. No contrast in piping is accepted)
b) Exterior in one colour, and lining, straps, handles, piping in another colour
c) Exterior in two colours (3 sides/ colour) and lining, straps, handels, piping is the same as the sides.
3)tri-colour:
Exterior in three colours, (2 sides/colour) and lining, straps, handels, piping is the same as the sides.
So, we can no longer get a tri colour in exterior in one colour, straps handles in one and lining in another.
You can still choose the hardwares and the stitching. But again they have a list of available colours for stitching should you want to choose another colour other than the default stitching.
They also removed the option of exotics from SO (as of late 2011). So we will see less and less of tri and bi colours exotics now (I am not sure how these can be ordered now, I didn't ask)
Box was also not on that list (as of late 2011), so box can only be ordered at the podium.
Chevre is only available up to size 30 for Birkin.
The SAs have a list of available colours/leathers, so you can only pick from that list, anything that's not on the list can't be ordered.
You can mix and match any colour as long as they are on the list.
The system will give you an instant approval and also give you a not so accurate ETA date.
However Paris can still cancel it BUT they don't generally do so. So once you are on the sytem, you are quite safe.
What I have just typed doesn't apply to anything that was not ordered through that SO system.
(As of late 2011) The wait is also much much shorter than the past, both of my SOs which were ordered through this sytem, arrived within a year, one of them only took less than 7 months.
Here's an explanation of Podium vs Rack.
