Hello everyone!
I wanted to post about my recent shopping day in Honolulu, because it had a happy ending for me that I am anxious to share. Im sorry if this is long-winded but thought that my experience might be of interest to some
I have been vacationing on Maui and decided to fly to Honolulu for a day just to try my luck at the Hermes boutiques there. Unfortunately I no longer live in a city with a boutique, so my Hermes shopping excursions have been few and far between. As many of you who do not live near a boutique know, this makes it difficult to form the relationship with a boutique / SA that is necessary to be able to access coveted items at Hermes. I have a great relationship with my SA in my former city, however its a smaller boutique with limited inventory, and so much of my shopping happens on the Hermes Canada site. Again, not ideally conducive to being able to score hard-to-find items!
I had read promising things about the ability for walk-in clients to get K/Bs at the Honolulu boutiques, so I figured I had nothing to lose. Whats more, Im eight months pregnant with our second child, so its likely that this would be my last chance to have a dedicated shopping day in a major center for a while. The purpose of my trip was two-fold given my limited boutique access and the talk of an imminent Hermes price increase there were a number of scarves and jewelry pieces that I was looking to acquire. In particular, as a relative scarf neophyte I was looking to expand my collection of scarves beyond the 90 cm silk twills. I had posted and received some wonderful advice about various alternative sizes here:
http://forum.purseblog.com/hermes/please-help-me-expand-my-scarf-shawl-collection-800084.html
My secondary goal was to try my hand at perhaps being offered a bag. I have been debating what the best next bag for me might be, and again, the advice of tPFers was, as always, immensely helpful. I had been considering a Jypsiere despite having a typical collectors longing for a Birkin. I started a thread asking for advice and received some wonderful feedback, including suggestions to consider a Kelly retourne or a Shoulder Birkin II, as I am not a handheld bag girl at best of times a reality that is exacerbated with young children in tow. I received so many helpful suggestions, photos, etc. I am so grateful for how helpful the tPF community is! That thread can be found here:
http://forum.purseblog.com/hermes/hold-out-for-birkin-or-go-practicality-jypsiere-796624.html
So, I set off on a day trip to Honolulu. I had called both the Waikiki and Ala Moana boutiques the day prior to see if they had a few of the scarves that I was interested in. Waikiki would not give me inventory information over the phone, but Ala Moana was very helpful. They took down the list of scarves, and called me back about two hours later with inventory information, including all available colors. They even offered to hold several of the scarves in different colorways for me. They were so helpful that my inclination was to begin my shopping day at Ala Moana.
However, by chance I ended up beginning my day in Waikiki as I have a girlfriend honeymooning there and so we had a coffee in the morning. I thought that I had might as well pop into the Waikiki boutique to see what kind of inventory they had and what sort of reception I received. I was greeted immediately by a lovely SA. We started in the scarf department. They didnt have a tremendous selection of stock in the items that I was mainly interested in, however I did find a 70 cm scarf that I was wanting (Les Parisiennes in white so cute!). There was another that I had her set aside for me to think about. I then asked to look at jewelry. I was interested in some enamel bracelets (Clic Clac / Clic H), however I was only looking for gold toned ones as Im partial to gold and their inventory in gold toned pm sizes was very limited. I then asked if she happened to have any CdCs (despite the fact that there were none on display) and, low and behold, she came out with an orange Epsom with ghw in the small size a piece that Ive been hunting for ages! I was delighted and said that I would take it.
I then asked to look at bags. I inquired about some Jypsieres and other models that they had on display. I then asked whether by chance they had any Kellys or Birkins available. She said that no, they did not have any currently available, but asked how long I was in town. I said that I was there just for the day, but that if something might be expected to become available the next day that I would consider extending my stay by one day (which I was prepared to do). She said that she didnt think there would be anything coming in the next day either, but that on my next trip to Honolulu I should call ahead to inquire and perhaps try to stay longer.
I continued to look around while she assisted me. I went upstairs and looked around there. While we were there she asked what colors / sizes I would be mainly interested in in bags. I told her my preferences either a neutral or a bright and fun but still wearable and multi-season color, preferably in togo, with a strong preference for gold hardware ideally in a 35 (maybe 32) for Kelly and 35 for Birkin. I did not even think to mention Shoulder Birkin as I had read somewhere on the forum here that they are quite elusive and that boutiques generally only receive one Shoulder Birkin for every ten Birkins or something like that, so it seemed like a super-long shot. She indicated that the previous day they had received a beautiful B35 with ghw but that it had immediately gone to a delighted local client. She indicated that she might have a B40 available and asked if I would be interested in that size, but I said probably not as I felt that it would be too large / heavy.
Finally I had looked through the entire boutique and decided to pay for my items. She had me fill out the client profile sheet and noted that I had purchased in the US before (not much one exotic CdC that I luckily procured from Madison Avenue last year all of my other purchases have been from Canada and the Canadian and American systems arent linked). She asked me to list on the back of the client profile my particular size / color preferences for bags. After I did so she disappeared for a few moments as my items were being packaged. When she returned she said that she would double-check with her manager on the possible availability of bags and call me within the hour if she happened to have any good news. She suggested that I go have lunch and wait for her call, which I did.
About 45 minutes later she called and said that they had two bags available that she was wondering if I might be interested in a B35 in a dark green color with phw, and a Shoulder Birkin II in what she described as orange with ghw. I assumed that it was the classic Hermes orange. I said that I would definitely be interested in looking at the Shoulder Birkin and arranged to meet her back at the boutique later that afternoon. She was extremely gracious and told me not to rush, which I appreciated, assuring me that the bag would not be sold before I had a chance to see it.
At this stage I started getting excited. Classic orange, although not a primary wardrobe color for me, is one of the fun neutral colors that I had been considering given that its so classically Hermes, and I do love it with gold hardware. That said, I cannot seem to pull off orange with black (it seems too Halloween-y to me somehow, although I have seen many others pull it off with true style), so I was a bit concerned about that as I do wear a lot of black especially through our long Canadian winters! Still, I was quite excited at the prospect of possibly being offered a bag, period!
I wanted to post about my recent shopping day in Honolulu, because it had a happy ending for me that I am anxious to share. Im sorry if this is long-winded but thought that my experience might be of interest to some
I have been vacationing on Maui and decided to fly to Honolulu for a day just to try my luck at the Hermes boutiques there. Unfortunately I no longer live in a city with a boutique, so my Hermes shopping excursions have been few and far between. As many of you who do not live near a boutique know, this makes it difficult to form the relationship with a boutique / SA that is necessary to be able to access coveted items at Hermes. I have a great relationship with my SA in my former city, however its a smaller boutique with limited inventory, and so much of my shopping happens on the Hermes Canada site. Again, not ideally conducive to being able to score hard-to-find items!
I had read promising things about the ability for walk-in clients to get K/Bs at the Honolulu boutiques, so I figured I had nothing to lose. Whats more, Im eight months pregnant with our second child, so its likely that this would be my last chance to have a dedicated shopping day in a major center for a while. The purpose of my trip was two-fold given my limited boutique access and the talk of an imminent Hermes price increase there were a number of scarves and jewelry pieces that I was looking to acquire. In particular, as a relative scarf neophyte I was looking to expand my collection of scarves beyond the 90 cm silk twills. I had posted and received some wonderful advice about various alternative sizes here:
http://forum.purseblog.com/hermes/please-help-me-expand-my-scarf-shawl-collection-800084.html
My secondary goal was to try my hand at perhaps being offered a bag. I have been debating what the best next bag for me might be, and again, the advice of tPFers was, as always, immensely helpful. I had been considering a Jypsiere despite having a typical collectors longing for a Birkin. I started a thread asking for advice and received some wonderful feedback, including suggestions to consider a Kelly retourne or a Shoulder Birkin II, as I am not a handheld bag girl at best of times a reality that is exacerbated with young children in tow. I received so many helpful suggestions, photos, etc. I am so grateful for how helpful the tPF community is! That thread can be found here:
http://forum.purseblog.com/hermes/hold-out-for-birkin-or-go-practicality-jypsiere-796624.html
So, I set off on a day trip to Honolulu. I had called both the Waikiki and Ala Moana boutiques the day prior to see if they had a few of the scarves that I was interested in. Waikiki would not give me inventory information over the phone, but Ala Moana was very helpful. They took down the list of scarves, and called me back about two hours later with inventory information, including all available colors. They even offered to hold several of the scarves in different colorways for me. They were so helpful that my inclination was to begin my shopping day at Ala Moana.
However, by chance I ended up beginning my day in Waikiki as I have a girlfriend honeymooning there and so we had a coffee in the morning. I thought that I had might as well pop into the Waikiki boutique to see what kind of inventory they had and what sort of reception I received. I was greeted immediately by a lovely SA. We started in the scarf department. They didnt have a tremendous selection of stock in the items that I was mainly interested in, however I did find a 70 cm scarf that I was wanting (Les Parisiennes in white so cute!). There was another that I had her set aside for me to think about. I then asked to look at jewelry. I was interested in some enamel bracelets (Clic Clac / Clic H), however I was only looking for gold toned ones as Im partial to gold and their inventory in gold toned pm sizes was very limited. I then asked if she happened to have any CdCs (despite the fact that there were none on display) and, low and behold, she came out with an orange Epsom with ghw in the small size a piece that Ive been hunting for ages! I was delighted and said that I would take it.
I then asked to look at bags. I inquired about some Jypsieres and other models that they had on display. I then asked whether by chance they had any Kellys or Birkins available. She said that no, they did not have any currently available, but asked how long I was in town. I said that I was there just for the day, but that if something might be expected to become available the next day that I would consider extending my stay by one day (which I was prepared to do). She said that she didnt think there would be anything coming in the next day either, but that on my next trip to Honolulu I should call ahead to inquire and perhaps try to stay longer.
I continued to look around while she assisted me. I went upstairs and looked around there. While we were there she asked what colors / sizes I would be mainly interested in in bags. I told her my preferences either a neutral or a bright and fun but still wearable and multi-season color, preferably in togo, with a strong preference for gold hardware ideally in a 35 (maybe 32) for Kelly and 35 for Birkin. I did not even think to mention Shoulder Birkin as I had read somewhere on the forum here that they are quite elusive and that boutiques generally only receive one Shoulder Birkin for every ten Birkins or something like that, so it seemed like a super-long shot. She indicated that the previous day they had received a beautiful B35 with ghw but that it had immediately gone to a delighted local client. She indicated that she might have a B40 available and asked if I would be interested in that size, but I said probably not as I felt that it would be too large / heavy.
Finally I had looked through the entire boutique and decided to pay for my items. She had me fill out the client profile sheet and noted that I had purchased in the US before (not much one exotic CdC that I luckily procured from Madison Avenue last year all of my other purchases have been from Canada and the Canadian and American systems arent linked). She asked me to list on the back of the client profile my particular size / color preferences for bags. After I did so she disappeared for a few moments as my items were being packaged. When she returned she said that she would double-check with her manager on the possible availability of bags and call me within the hour if she happened to have any good news. She suggested that I go have lunch and wait for her call, which I did.
About 45 minutes later she called and said that they had two bags available that she was wondering if I might be interested in a B35 in a dark green color with phw, and a Shoulder Birkin II in what she described as orange with ghw. I assumed that it was the classic Hermes orange. I said that I would definitely be interested in looking at the Shoulder Birkin and arranged to meet her back at the boutique later that afternoon. She was extremely gracious and told me not to rush, which I appreciated, assuring me that the bag would not be sold before I had a chance to see it.
At this stage I started getting excited. Classic orange, although not a primary wardrobe color for me, is one of the fun neutral colors that I had been considering given that its so classically Hermes, and I do love it with gold hardware. That said, I cannot seem to pull off orange with black (it seems too Halloween-y to me somehow, although I have seen many others pull it off with true style), so I was a bit concerned about that as I do wear a lot of black especially through our long Canadian winters! Still, I was quite excited at the prospect of possibly being offered a bag, period!