A friend sent me this article the other day, so I thought I would pipe in.
I agree 100% with the premise of the article, because my friends and I have experienced this birkin overdose for ourselves. This isn’t even the first article that’s tackled the birkin overload subject, there have been several articles in the press that have come out since last year tackling the very same topic. I just read one the other month entitled The Birkin Backlash, with pretty much the same message.
I started to feel less thrilled about using my birkins perhaps mid last year. In the cities I live in, and travel to for work, birkins have become very common sightings. Last summer, I met up with a friend in NY and every other woman was toting a birkin at the Sak’s café such that when my friend’s husband walked in, he said “what is this, a birkin convention?” Right after NY, I had to fly to Bangkok for a quick business trip and went on a biz lunch. It was the same experience, so many ladies carrying birkins, almost 1 out of every 3. Perhaps not all the birkins being carried were genuine but for me that’s not even relevant. In bigger cities, birkins have become the new LV Speedys (in terms of estimated number of users.)
I have nothing against birkins being made more accessible to more customers, but have to be honest – carrying a bag that so many others around me are carrying has made me less inclined to use my birkins (my birkins are my LEAST used H bags now) Yes I’ve heard the logic – you should dress primarily for yourself and you shouldn’t care what others are wearing or carrying etc etc but fashion/style for me has always been about personal expression. It takes the joy out of wearing and carrying something when everyone around you has the same, starts to feel like a uniform.
And let’s be honest – a big part of the attraction of Hermes bags for many of us in the past was its understated elegance, its anti-seasonal bag, under-the-radar image. These days you can’t pick up a celebrity magazine w/out seeing someone toting a birkin (and sadly these “celebrities” are not the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow anymore.)
Another incident in relation to the Huffington piece. Earlier this year, I walked into FSH. My regular SA greeted me and asked “Is there anything in particular you’re looking for today?” And I said “I’m open to anything EXCEPT another birkin.” I followed that up with “I bet you don’t get THAT a lot!” And he said “Au contraire Madame, my regular customers are all telling me the same thing!” I was actually not THAT surprised to hear that, it validated a lot of what my friends and I had been observing since last year.
One last story and again back at FSH on a different day. I could overhear a tall lady in front of me speaking to her SA (interestingly, the tall lady was talking as she was transferring the contents of her own kelly into what appeared to be a newly purchased kelly) and I heard her say (paraphrased) “oh yes Anna Winner and I were saying nobody we know in New York is using her birkin anymore!” I realized she meant Anna Wintour and as she turned, I recognized the lady speaking as Wendi Murdoch, wife of Rupert. Granted, Wendi Murdoch and Anna Wintour move in more rarefied social and fashion circles but that was still interesting to hear.
Yes I continue to love Hermes and what I personally believe it STILL represents: beautiful craftsmanship, quality, understated elegance. But these days my OTHER non-birkin H bags are meeting those needs, not my birkins, so time to give my birkins a rest (for now.)
Here’s another article from Vanityfair.com that sadly reinforces this notion that the ones that parade the birkins these days are a “certain type of woman” (notably the Kardashians, the reality TV starlets, etc)
Coincidentally it mentions Wendi Murdoch too lol
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/07/wendi-murdoch-tiger-wife-201107
Just to add: I do live in a big city and have to travel for my biz to other big cities hence my somewhat jaded perspective.
Sorry about off topic.