As I type this I am listening to Edith Piaf singing ‘Non, Je ne Regrette Rien’. It’s one of my favorive songs. I am not prone to major regrets but I do occasionally indulge in *if only* thinking.
When I visit Paris and I walk up or down the Avenue George V, I like to stop and gaze in wonder at the Hermès shop windows. Normally there are some Kelly or Birkin bags on display. I don’t know the genesis of my wish to have one or other of these bags but a wish to have one, I have. Just in case you don’t know the starting price of a Kelly or a Birkin is around €5000.
I can’t imagine ever, even if I had the money, walking into a Hermès shop and saying I’ll take one. It seems such a staggering sum to pay for a bag. Even assuming that I had unlimited funds, there is the small matter of the waiting list (six months I believe). The thing is though, over the year I have spent that amount of money and a bit more on bank shares. Naturally I thought I was making a sane, sensible and almost risk free investment when I bought them. I did not foresee the banking apocalypse; my shares are now virtually worthless.
While I was doing some de-cluttering I came across an article I had torn out of the Irish Times way back in December 2010. The article was in the Fine Art & Antiques section, what caught my eye was the heading ‘Hermès: not just a bag, an investment’. There is apparently a secondary market for the bags. According to the article ‘Because demand outstrips supply, the bags not only retain their value but some offer the potential for significant capital appreciation.’ The article goes on to say that Pat Frost a Christie’s director is of the view that to make mega money the bag has to be a Kelly or Birkin (not any other type of Hermès) must be in immaculate condition, in an unusual colour and made of a exotic skin.
So, if only I had bought a basic (exotic skins are not for me) Kelly or Birkin instead of my dud bank shares not only would it most likely have retained its value I but would also have had the pleasure of using it. Oh well, c’est la vie.
Just Add Attitude 
If those who study “risk management” and market probabilities intensively can’t ever get it right enough to avoid financial meltdowns, then if and when we have a penny we might as well do as we please with it, not what we’re told we *should* do, right? 🙂
i wonder if those who study these things will ever get it right? If only! Yes it would be good then to do as we please with our pennies (if and when we had them)
I think the Hermes shop in Paris on rue Sevres is quite possibly the most beautiful shop in the world and I said as much in a post. Having said that, I ‘m not all that keen on the Birkin bag or the Kelly bag for that matter. I did, however, buy the most beautiful Dries van Noten bag in Paris to join the heavenly scarf I bought there in 2010.
I agree the Hemes shop on the Rue de Sevres is very beautiful and I also love the shop where you bought your bag and heavenly scarf: Dries Van Noten.
The purse is lovely and would make a beautiful investment. But it’s all a kind of gambling, isn’t it? No one really knows where we should put our money, although plenty of people would like us to put it in their pockets.
Yes it is a sort of gambling. It appears sometimes, to me at least, that economies are run on a form of gambling. Or at least it seems so here as the sins of the reckless are visited upon us in the form of extra taxes and the euro is tottering around on impossibly high heels. (hopefully she won’t topple over).
What a beautiful bag. And who wouldn’t want a Kelly bag. But to go out and buy one…one can only wish!
Indeed one can only wish and dream.
Still time though surely darling. I mean surely. Never too late and all that? Do you get to USE your investment baggie though? Or does it have to stay in its box.. c
I hadn’t thought about that, I suppose that anyone who bought a bag as an investment would have to keep it in its box so that it remained in pristine condition.