Seeing an Hermès craftswoman at work, croc leathers and Birkins galore!

La Vanguardia

PAPER DOLL
O.G.
Dec 21, 2005
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I thought that I'd share with you my story for today.

I went to Baselworld, the biggest jewelry and watch fair in the world! Yeap, even in the tiny city where I live we still have big things going on (we also have Art Basel, which is the biggest modern art fair in the world and in the US they celebrate it at Art Miami).

Anyway, lots of gorgeous jewels, watches and people! I saw about 15 Birkins mostly in black, red, orange, lots of gold, toile/leather and some croc and ostrich. There were also several Plumes and Kellys.

One of the booths was Hermès where the H shops and other watch dealers order the watches. They order them at Baselworld and not really in Paris. This is because the watches are made in Switzerland so its easier for the shops to order here. Inside was a craftswoman actually making the straps. I saw her making mainly black croc straps and BABY PINK matte croc straps! Yes, baby pink ... not rose dragee, but baby pink! At her side were huge leathers still in the shape of cows and ALLIGATORS! Yeap, there were all tanned and everything and it was so cool to see the alligators all glazed or matte ready to be cut. There were glazed black and fuchsia alligators and matte ebene and baby pink alligators. There was also a huge barenia cow, orange togo cow, natural chamonix cow and several other colors.

It was really an interesting experience and oh, my, I can't get enough of the jewels and watches. The highlights for me were the Patek Philippe and Rolex booths and several jewelry booths with antique Cartier and Van Cleef jewels, huge jewels! There were also loads of fancy colored diamonds. It's also very interesting to see the new designs of watches and jewelry. Oh, and they were auctioning some watches, special ones since they were going for 200,000 and 300,000 dollars!

You can't really purchase there unless you are a wholesaler or have a shop. You then place your orders. But the fair is also open to the public to window watch if you buy an entrance ticket. Gosh, this fair must be insured for billions!

For more info, you can visit: www.baselworld.com
 
Oooooh, LaVan! That must have been amazing! Were the skins just for display, do you think, or was the craftswoman also cutting them on site?

*sigh* I think I could have sat and watched all day.