I’ve noticed the Kelly strap rings in the handle being lopsided where you can’t even attach the strap to one side if the bag because the ring was practically flat against the bag inside of sitting like a V. The SM and SA were standing there shaking their heads. luckily it was a bag being offered to someone else. Needless to say she didn’t take it.I think it's probably subtle enough and you can still match your Two- tone Rolex to it! But jokes aside, it got past QC didn't it. Sigh.
Do you know how a Birkin is made?
- Thread starter Hermezzy
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There seems to be problems nowadays with QC standards falling. Personal experience seeing these pieces in real life. One glaring example was mismatched gold and PH hardware on the same bag, recently delivered stock, straight out of clingfilmed box. My SA and I went straight to show it to the Manager and back it went to Paris.
I’ve heard of mismatched hardware & missing heat stamp…here’s some bags shared by an authenticator & reseller on RED (yeah the bags were authentic…the craftsman and QC just missed it). Human error will always be a thing - I guess in a way it proves that some stuff are done by hand - but in recent years it definitely seems to be getting more frequent.
Thanks for sharing. I think if it's that one plate it can be corrected. Mismatched hardware elsewhere might be more challenging. And I was wondering in my case, did the person who assembled the kit not check the hardware colours, and in this case, the craftsman not notice when it was upside down all the while. 
It begs the question if the artisan is versed in a language that uses Latin Alphabets. Surely no one can miss that when hand filing those nail heads down.Thanks for sharing. I think if it's that one plate it can be corrected. Mismatched hardware elsewhere might be more challenging. And I was wondering in my case, did the person who assembled the kit not check the hardware colours, and in this case, the craftsman not notice when it was upside down all the while.
And on the opposite sangle!Thanks for sharing. I think if it's that one plate it can be corrected. Mismatched hardware elsewhere might be more challenging. And I was wondering in my case, did the person who assembled the kit not check the hardware colours, and in this case, the craftsman not notice when it was upside down all the while.
Yeah hence I think maybe the steps are that the hardware is put on the sangle pieces first at which point it’s not wrong (yet), but then an error was made mixing up the sangles’ side (left vs right) when attaching them onto the bag body; if you swap the two sangles it results in the hardware getting rotated 180 upside down. And maybe attaching sangles happens mainly on the back of the bag so they didn’t spend much looking at the front hardware while doing that. I have no idea what the actual steps / order / process is but that would make the most sense to me for how this error could happen. Regardless QC really should have caught it!
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Is it just me or is the nail placement on the special order bag questionable, too?I’ve heard of mismatched hardware & missing heat stamp…here’s some bags shared by an authenticator & reseller on RED (yeah the bags were authentic…the craftsman and QC just missed it). Human error will always be a thing - I guess in a way it proves that some stuff are done by hand - but in recent years it definitely seems to be getting more frequent.
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The entire bag is questionable IMO.
That said, mistakes like this do get made, as well as more subtle ones. I have a Kelly being re-made right now because the back pocket is imperfectly sewn and you could just slightly see an imprint of it on the back of the bag.
What surprises me is that this was a relatively minimal defect - enough to bother me or anyone else but not easy to see at first glance - but my SA (who had not seen the bag before; it was sent direct to me unopened and might never have been seen by the boutique that sold it to me) took one look at it, said "this is not right, this should never have been released" and whisked it to a craftsperson. Yet bags are going out with mismatched HW.
I saw that same excellent podcast and came away thinking that the process was essentially as outlined by koucs in post #18.
It did not undermine my understanding of one artisan being responsible for one bag.
With saddle stitching the pilot holes are made with a special tool with a row of tines.
A machine makes the holes as it goes along. It makes sense to me that previously machine-stitched seams would be repaired by hand, because re-machining it would be difficult to align the needle to the old holes and avoid damaging the leather.
I know this is off the topic of making a Birkin, but volume 3 of 'LA MAISON'' (Koto Bolofo's fascinating photographic record all aspects that Hermes undertakes) is devoted to an exotic Kelly.
Nearly 100 pages of photographs follow one artisan from selecting the cutting dies to the completed bag.
IamGPS on YouTube has just posted an interesting video recounting information from discussions with artisans at his local Hermes store.