LIFE BEYOND FIRST CLASS
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The Ultimate Guide to Hermès Bags by Alexandra Fullerton is an authoritative collector’s folio that unites history, craftsmanship, cultural influence, and the remarkable secondary-market stories that make Hermès bags true objects of desire.
Photography Courtesy: The Ultimate Guide to Hermès Bags, teNeues 2025
To cradle a Hermès bag is to cradle a fragment of design history, imbued with symbolism, precision, and an almost sacred sense of rarity. The Ultimate Guide to Hermès Bags, the newest volume in teNeues’ Brand Bible series, is far more than a survey. Written by stylist and author Alexandra Fullerton, this 192-page folio is a definitive guide for collectors, celebrating the legacy of the Maison’s most coveted designs and their enduring resonance across fashion, culture, and investment.
Founded in 1837 as a Parisian harness workshop, Hermès evolved from serving aristocrats on horseback to defining global discretion and refinement. That evolution is etched into its most iconic bags. The Kelly, made immortal by Princess Grace of Monaco, is polished, structured, and unmistakably regal. The Birkin, inspired by Jane Birkin’s chance meeting with Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas, is capacious, relaxed, and forever tied to its namesake’s carefree glamour. Each carries with it a mythology as potent as its silhouette.
Jean-Louis Dumas, Paris, 1989
Fullerton widens her lens beyond these icons to explore the Constance, with its graphic H clasp, the utilitarian yet chic Evelyne, and the practical but refined Garden Party. Through carefully curated photography and thoughtful text, she reveals how Hermès’ designs are both objects of utility and studies in proportion, balance, and restraint.
What makes the volume particularly essential for collectors is its acknowledgment of cultural impact and resale value. Hermès bags have appeared in cinema and television with almost talismanic force, from Grace Kelly’s photographs in the 1950s to Carrie Bradshaw’s memorable pursuit of a Birkin in Sex and the City. Yet beyond their presence in pop culture, the book underscores how these handbags perform on the secondary market, where scarcity and provenance drive remarkable results.
Emily Ratajkowski attends the Revolve Gallery at Hudson Yards carrying a black Constance, 2021
BIRKIN SELLIER
24 FAUBOURG NIGHT
Year: 2020
Material: Madame blue grained calfskin, Alligator Mississippiensis Matte, Swift calfskin inlays, palladium metal fasteners and clasp
Size: 20 cm,
Sold at auction at Bonhams in Paris for €108,350 in 2023
Fullerton includes examples from auctions that illustrate this dynamic. A Birkin Faubourg 20, designed to resemble Hermès’ historic flagship at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, sold for €108,350 at Bonhams Paris in 2023. A Mini Kelly II 20 in the coveted Nata color achieved £35,580 in London, nearly eight times its retail price. Most compelling of all was Jane Birkin’s own black Togo Birkin 35, offered by Bonhams in 2021 and sold for £119,000, bite marks from her cat and all. These stories capture not only the financial appreciation of Hermès bags but also their narrative weight—each example carrying layers of history, personality, and myth.
Behind every result, however, lies the Maison’s defining characteristic: craftsmanship. Each bag is constructed by a single artisan from start to finish, using techniques passed down for generations. Saddle stitching, the careful selection of skins, and the patience required to produce a bag over weeks or months distinguish Hermès as the last great house of leather luxury.
Book title: The Ultimate Guide to Hermès Bags
Publisher: teNeues Publishers
ISBN (DE): 978-3-96171-712-5
www.teNeues.com
Bryanboy aka Bryan Yambao takes his front row seat, carrying a Mini Kelly at Hermès Fall/Winter 2023 women’s runway show at La Garde Republicaine on March 4, 2023, Paris
NATA EPSOM
LEATHER MINI KELLY II 20
Year: 2022
Material: Nata Epsom leather, and a Jaune Ambre and Brique canvas shoulder strap, palladium hardware
Size: 20 cm
Sold at auction at Bonhams in
London for £35,580 in 2022
JANE BIRKIN’S
BLACK TOGO BIRKIN 35
Year: c. 1999
Material: Togo leather, goldtone hardware
Size: 35 cm
Sold at auction at Bonhams in London for £119,000 in 2021
In a market flooded with spectacle and overstatement, Hermès remains the patron saint of understatement. The bags featured in this guide do not beg for attention. They carry their lineage quietly. They require no introduction. And that, perhaps, is the ultimate luxury.
To own this folio is to understand that Hermès is not about fashion’s churn but about legacy. It is both reference and revelation, offering seasoned collectors’ context for their portfolios and aspirants a glimpse of what makes these bags worth waiting for. The ultimate guide does more than catalogue; it interprets, situates, and elevates, reminding us that Hermès is the rare Maison where function and poetry coexist in perfect proportion.
Models present large Garden
Party bags on the runway at Hermès Fall/Winter 2024 and Spring/Summer 2024 fashion shows, Paris. The tote bag is available in three sizes and in either all leather (smaller sizes only) or canvas with leather trim options.
It is a celebrity favorite.
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