Why?

Wassit

Member
Sep 22, 2009
53
0
I am a new member, and just bought my first Hermes item - a Twilly. It arrived (a Purse Forum authenticated ebay purchase) and I adore it. It feels so fabulous, and suits me too, I chose the colours well to suit my colouring I must say. I keep stroking the little round orange box and admiring its cute brown ribbon.

What the hell? :nuts: I just paid nearly $200 for a tiny piece of fabric! I'm not a wealthy woman. I am a supposedly left-wing academic. My colleagues all get around in grotty looking T shirts and mumble on about sustainabilty, the horrors of globalisation and conspicuous consumption. I buy and sell stuff on ebay and have maintained a healthy bank balance to allow my champagne lifestyle on a beer budget (I love to travel).

Today, I snuck up the road to the Hermes store, and fell in love with a scarf - a plisse noir/turquoise edition of femme aux semelles de vent. It's $600! That's a huge amount of money, better spent on so many things. My friends and colleagues would faint if they knew I gave it more than a nanosecond's consideration.

What is it with this Hermes stuff? Am I having a mid-life crisis (just turned 50)? Are you all fabulously wealthy and I'm playing out of my league? Why do people spend more on a handbag than I paid for my car? This is worse than gambling, but oh how I want that scarf! :graucho:
 
Congratulations on your new Twilly!.... The thing i love about TPF is that they are a great range of members! some are wealthier than my wildest dreams, some have well paid jobs and this is the way they treat themselves and some save and save for each purchase.... what all of them have in common is the love of H.... and like yourself each finds it hard to leave H empty handed as something will catch their eye and cause many a sleepless night!
 
It's because humans are not taught to correctly identify what they need (affection, recognition, friendship), but instead fill the empty void with meaningless but pretty things.

KIDDING! :biggrin:

I don't know. I'm a sucker for H silks and cashmeres, too. I like the feeling of a newly-bought silk carré, so stiff and rustles against itself like dead leaves.

I am patiently waiting for new designs of the 140 cm silk. Bolduc au carré, please! :heart:
 
wassit, we have many similar thoughts. I keep asking myself why the heck am I spending an obscene amount of money on what are essentially a few pieces of cloths, yet I find myself stepping into the store again and again. It's a disease, I tell ya!
 
Hermes is incredibly seductive, and has touched on something in you. Why not sit with that temptation for a bit and savor it?

And go visit the scarf...and perhaps it will show up on ebay or on another site for much less. And perhaps the urge for this particular scarf will subside.

BUT

I have to warn you...there will be another.

and another...;)
 
I am a new member, and just bought my first Hermes item - a Twilly. It arrived (a Purse Forum authenticated ebay purchase) and I adore it. It feels so fabulous, and suits me too, I chose the colours well to suit my colouring I must say. I keep stroking the little round orange box and admiring its cute brown ribbon.

What the hell? :nuts: I just paid nearly $200 for a tiny piece of fabric! I'm not a wealthy woman. I am a supposedly left-wing academic. My colleagues all get around in grotty looking T shirts and mumble on about sustainabilty, the horrors of globalisation and conspicuous consumption. I buy and sell stuff on ebay and have maintained a healthy bank balance to allow my champagne lifestyle on a beer budget (I love to travel).

Today, I snuck up the road to the Hermes store, and fell in love with a scarf - a plisse noir/turquoise edition of femme aux semelles de vent. It's $600! That's a huge amount of money, better spent on so many things. My friends and colleagues would faint if they knew I gave it more than a nanosecond's consideration.

What is it with this Hermes stuff? Am I having a mid-life crisis (just turned 50)? Are you all fabulously wealthy and I'm playing out of my league? Why do people spend more on a handbag than I paid for my car? This is worse than gambling, but oh how I want that scarf! :graucho:

I think you've answered your own question!! ;)
 
I'm also (supposedly) an academic - although increasingly without a wing to 'guide' me KWIM.

I don't even feel I need to tell you but this is how I justify my 'habit'.

People have loved and admired beautiful craft-made things throughout history.

In Europe and the US and other places too Pop/pulp/disposable nappy culture that started in the 1920s but really took a grip in the 1960s became fashionable and throwaway became the norm. Handmade objects that were 'special' and also could be passed down through generations became thought of as stuffy and old-fashioned.

This is why people who buy 5 cheap nylon coats a year can get away with thinking they are 'better' than someone who has worn the same fur coat for 10. Animal rights 'activists'? Eco-warriors? Sustainability models? :rolleyes: I don't think so. Anti-fur, like anti-$$££$$ bag is an outmoded conflict of goodies versus the supposed bourgeois. Actually, I think people who buy Hermes come from every walk of life.

Now so many things are made for the cheapest price-point poss and everyone wants everything NEW all the time. Hermes (and others) stand out like a historical landmark. The beautiful designs and handmade quality (and the packing) are reflected in the price but maybe you will have a scarf forever and wear it 100s of times.

I don't want a 100 H bags although a few would be nice. I also LOVE some other brands that have proved cost effective rather than cheap to buy.

I have the La Femme aux Semelles de Vent in a 90 carre. I don't mean to enable you but read at the story that the scarf depicts. The French adventuress Alexandra David-Néel.

ttp://www.alexandra-david-neel.org/index_stat.htm

From the same site, it begins:

Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David was the only daughter of a French father of Huguenot ancestry and a Catholic mother of Scandinavian origin. Very early she displayed her most characteristic personality traits, in sharp contrast with her severe, austere, bourgeois parental environment. She was a proud, fiercely individualistic child, yearning for freedom. She ran away from home several times to flee this dour loveless home, attracted by travels to faraway initiatory lands, to satisfy the need for escape she felt to the end of her life.

Her story is as far from the capitalist and bourgeois reputation that Hermes is/has been cursed with.

Buying Lots of Hermes for the sake of having 'H' dripping off you is not what Hermes is about for me. Choosing something that inspires you and admiring the quality and beauty is.

:biggrin:
 
Last edited:
Welcome Wassit!!! So glad you have joined the "H" family! You will find that the "H"
family on TPF is a fabulous group of "H" lovers from all over the globe and from all
walks of life and monetary situations, all bound together with a common love of
Hermes. You can lean so much about Hermes and also about people. They are so
caring and always willing to help! Some are wealthy, some have jobs that can afford
lovely things and some are saving (maybe in school for their dream items!
Congratulations on your beautiful twilly, and what a perfect scarf you are considering!