Always love your stories and your writing style. You need to show us your sis because she is such a good sidekick. Love that BE mini Kelly. I'm glad that you finally found an SA that is friendly and willing to make you happy.
Are you back to London or your sis planning to try FSH again ?
Such a great story! Looking forward to more tales of BE with your sis!
So great to read this story! Congrats on the mini Kelly and a great experience getting it. Sorry about your sis not scoring though! I think this a good week for bags. Just enough after holidays and before fashion weeks.
NanamiRyu - Are you going to start collecting mini Kelly going forward ? How much can it really hold ? Care to share when you've time ? I've seen some photos people posted with the items displayed outside the bag but not an interior picture as to the spacing of it with the bigger smartphones. TIA.
While I know minis aren't practical, it was great timing as I recently decided to collect this tinsy size. Reason involves a separate trip with visit to another well stocked H store. The story is quite long and as it does not involve Paris, I would start another thread (with reveal pics!) in main forum later in the week. I would also take pics of mini's interior for that thread.
For now, this is how it went for sis after she got "no shipment" excuse last Monday at FSH.
We went to try out Sevres the next day. We knew the chance of scoring BKC there was low, still went, as I knew at least there would be some petit Hs for me to pick up. They had surprisingly huge inventory for the ever popular charms this time, including few selections from Rome event. However, none of my fave choice, the gondolier was left and none of the animals really appealed to me, so I ended up choosing two gelatos.
I expected the leather department to be busy with customers waiting, but it was actually quiet and no one around, except one employee. It turns out we got there during the good time, as the employee was the host for SA arrangement of the day and we were told sis would be next. A nice SA (I have seen this SA helping other customers in the past) came to meet us few minutes later. Sister's request was very much alike to my request. I think they had some Cs, as SA seemed more focused on that, asking sis if she's okay with the smaller size. But she came back with non BKC bags in colors sister said she like. Sis was a bit disappointed but not too much as she was well aware it isn't easy to get those bags at that location. She was at least glad they had real horsehair Rodeos she preferred over the original leather mane ones and bought them. Btw, SA upstairs said they were sold out when we asked earlier, so as always, different SAs says different things.
The next day was first H sale day, which we decided to visit in the afternoon. I simply could not even think about doing several hours of queue. Shopping result was worse than what we got last summer sale but still, I am glad we didn't do it in the morning. The lady in front of me at "soie" queue inside asked me how long I had to wait to get in. When I told her less than three hours, she said I'm lucky as she waited eight hours! Even though I wasn't too happy with leftover selections of CSGMs, I was able to pick one matching my new blue baby and got a few more as gifts. My mother recently borrowed my fave GM when she went to Korea to take care of a family matter. And she came back without it as she GAVE it to her sister!
To ease my way to ask my aunt to return it back, I had to get a new one for her. And this sale seemed a perfect opportunity to lessen the damage to my bank account. If I was a bit younger, I would've done jewelry queue but now that was a super long one I no longer hand the energy to do.
We made it out to Sevres one more time couple days after to see if we could see SA sis had before. The store was lot busier though and they were doing getting on the list to see a SA arrangement as we saw in July. Waiting time wasn't long as summer days though and they do text you when it is your time, so you can hang out in other parts of the store or even other stores nearby. The SA sis saw earlier was not available and sis was set up with a new one, who simply said no BK available right away, due to it being not long after holiday, etc. No way of knowing when the shipment would come, and more of the same excuses we've all heard. But then sis mentioned she'd also like a C, SA suddenly changed his expression and said he would check to see for one, with her passport in hand.
In the end, she was told no. Again, we could not help but think they definitely do have at least Cs. If not, why bother even checking? Especially with asking for the passport? I'm guessing they checked her history and decided based on it. The only purchases sis had at that store were two rodeos from couple days ago and silver earrings on that day while waiting for SA, so quite small. But I'm guessing if one has longer history or large purchases, they can at least offer a C. They certainly had lot more bags on display than really crazy busy days I've been there in the past. So if one wants a non BK bag, it would be a good other option to FSH.
While not that desperate for a bag, sis was a bit jealous how now she was the unlucky one, lol. So we Ubered over to FSH, to see if they can squeeze an appointment, hearing sometimes they do allow it. They already had few customers waiting around leather appointment hostess though, so we both expected it wasn't happening and were told it is impossible. FSH is so much calmer these days with new online appointment system, just having those few customers milling around means they are busier than usual.
Sis actually tried online appointment request everyday till we left, just to see if they would give her one more chance. But as others reported before, they really seem to give just one shot and that's it. How long of gap one would need to finally get another chance, I have no idea. If anyone read the terms posted on the online request page, they have a certain algorithm for the arrangement and I personally don't think it is 100% pure luck. Of course how they really work, we would never know, as always with many mysteries of H.
Just to clarify, prices go up in Europe as of Jan 1. Birkin 25 in Swift was €6400 last year. 
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