Odd leather smell

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Yup, I agree. I really doubt that all boutiques have been issued an infrared lamp. Perhaps they should be, but they haven't. The bag is being handed around in a back room and people are sniffing it. In fact, I suspect the monolithic "Paris" location is doing much the same thing, just with greater authority. And in French. :rolleyes:

I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is indeed the case!
 
Absolutely agreed. The leather either seriously stinks or NOT AT ALL. I mean if you have hit a skunk piece you know exactly that there is no may be or kind of skunk bag.

Well...... that sounds good but it's actually flawed logic. If Hermes continues to use the sniff test in the back room, they are failing to understand the catalyst to the smell and will pass the skunk right back to the customer. Aside from the obvious cases where when you open the box, the funk is released... There are bags that may only have 1 or 2 panels that are skunky. Mine was the left side panel so it wasn't obviously Pepe Le Pew....In this case, the key is SUNLIGHT. If I only carried my birkin around indoors, it would never smell. As soon as it was sitting on my front seat with the direct sunlight on it for a prolonged period of time (30 minutes or so)... the windows of my SUV needed to come down because it REEKED!
 
Darling, you don't need to 'heat up a room"... place your items on the windowsill with the sun shining directly on them. The heat will intensify the smell but is not necessarily the catalyst to getting the bag to start emitting the smell in the first place. At least in my case and from what I have learned from my friends, the direct sunlight is what starts the item to smell... the heat just intensifies the already emitting skunky stench.

As for me, after a long fight, I got a replacement bag. Thank God!



Ahh, so happy you finally got your replacement bag!!


As for my testing. It's already below freezing point some nights in Norway so the sun will not heat up the bag through the window. (I know, why do we live here right lol :))
Well, I'll try to smell it anyway....if it's only in sunlight the smell occurs I think I only will have a problem during the summer month.
 
Yup, I agree. I really doubt that all boutiques have been issued an infrared lamp. Perhaps they should be, but they haven't. The bag is being handed around in a back room and people are sniffing it. In fact, I suspect the monolithic "Paris" location is doing much the same thing, just with greater authority. And in French. :rolleyes:

oui oui :yes:

That's why Pepe Le Pew is still on the run....
 
No, I don't want Jean Claude Ellena to waste his olfactory talent in this endeavor.

:smile1:
Yeah, he'd probably have to retire on disability. Probably H should use trained beagles or bloodhounds to ID the problem bags.


It boggles my mind that, knowing of this problem leather months ago, H kept the factory lines rolling and did not institute a closer inspection to nip the problem in the bud.


Everybody excuse me for saying this, but that's pretty arrogant behavior in my book.
 
Oh no! I am so sorry you've had two bags affected! I know how disheartening it feels. My BE was my dream bag too, so my heart goes out to you! I wish you the very best in getting a speedy resolution to your smelly bags! Hope you won't have to wait too long for proper replacements!! best wishes!

Thanks so much! My BE Kelly is now stinky too. Not sure when this horror is going to end? What's truly awful is I've used the Kelly at least 10 times without noticing much, but when I took it to my brother's wedding last wedding, I noticed a slight smell at first, which rapidly progressed to epic proportions. It stunk up our suite. It's become a running joke with my kids. They're taking bets on which bag will smell next. :cry::crybaby:
 
I'm so sorry to hear about your 2 stinky bags. 😔😔. But from what I read here, if you are able to take it to FSH, I think that's the best thing to do. Have you tried to double bag it? Use 2 glade or other brand trash bags. Make sure one bag completely enclosed the other. Hope it will contained the smell until you can bring them to FSH.
Good luck and I hope you will get your replacement soon. 🙏🙏🙏

Thank you!! :winkiss:
 
Have you called you boutique just to see if the can do anything for you?
Like you, the idea of traveling with two stinky large pricey bags on a trip would seem daunting -
Plus having the smell in your house now-
Do you have a good relationship with your SA/Boutique?
Maybe they can help you now?

Yes, and they were actually very good. Told me to bring them in. Said I could exchange one if they had something I'd like, and would resubmit my SO. I don't live close to my boutique though, so that's the challenge. I have since had another bag turn, so not sure how they'll react to me bringing in 3! Also, now that this issue seems to be all over the news, I'm wondering if they'll have a harder time keeping up with all the bags coming in?
 
best quote ever.

i have had problems with those belts, not the bags. maybe the way you guys are keeping the bags?

i don't know. i live in malaysia. problem should be worse but remains yet to be seen/ :)

it's a serious problem but i feel that the media is sensationalize the whole thing. i mean, it's recession time and people who buy these things should be punished no? hahaha.

however, it's not just hermes belts. my nano smells like cheese too. i remembered how the smell pervaded the bag closet the day it was introduced into the room. no issues with chanel save for the hardware turning green...

since then, i do the sniff test. note: the celine bag incident was in 2012.

Definitely not the cause in my case. I store my bags the way I received them...in their dust bags and the boxes.
 
I apologize in advance if this questions sounds ignorant. Can the "skunk" "weed" smell harm the bag in anyway?


I was wondering this too. My stinky bags were all Q and R and in Togo. The leather to me felt dryer even though the bags were new. I am not sure how the bag would have aged because I returned them for the exchange months ago. The smell was overwhelming and there was no way that I could live with it. As far as testing, my store told me that they really can't do anything but sniff it locally, but in Paris there is much more sophisticated testing going on both of the bags that are coming in and those being shipped out to stores around the world.

As a matter fact, I literally saw the sales person sniff my bag and originally told me that everything was fine. It was a month later that I took it back because the smell had gotten so bad and requested that she send it to Paris to confirm that it was a stinky bag.

I think locally, sniffing is the best they've got. I'm glad that I was persistent. That was in the spring, before all this became more common knowledge. By my second bag this summer, the SA immediately took it in and gave me a receipt without trying to smell it or anything.

By the way, I had one of my bags in my hot trunk for days and it never triggered the smell. It was only a week or so later when I took it out in the sunshine on a moderately warm day that the smell first became apparent. After that it was worse and worse by the day. I strongly believe that if you're going to test your bag, you need to take it outside.
 
^ I'm not sure Paris has a more "clinical" way of testing the skunk bags. When I picked up my SO birkin in FSH a few weeks ago, my trusted SA tested it by leaving it upstairs by the sunny window for a few hours. Maybe there was double testing that took place involving something more high-tech, but my bag was manually tested via the sunny window technique.
 
I
By the way, I had one of my bags in my hot trunk for days and it never triggered the smell. It was only a week or so later when I took it out in the sunshine on a moderately warm day that the smell first became apparent. After that it was worse and worse by the day. I strongly believe that if you're going to test your bag, you need to take it outside.

I think it's been metioned here before that sunlight does trigger the smell, but you do not need to take the bag outside necessarily. If you place your bag in direct sunlight it should trigger the smell. I tried using a hair dryer before and it did nothing, 30 mins on a window sill and BAM! Skunky.
 
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