Burning (Hermes) Birkin Bags?!!

2012/06/25 Better Blueprint

Are you familiar with Hermès' Birkin (& Kelly) bag? Do you know they cost upwards of $10,000 (and as high as $150,000) depending on the material? Do you know they are completely made by hand by one person (& inspected every step of the way)? That said, you can absolutely assume they are precious and hard to come by ~ not to mention the waiting lists that can extend upwards of one year.

So, the big question is ~ what happens to the imperpect Hermès' bags? Can we get one on-the-cheap somewhere (Nordstrom Rack, Marshall's, Last Call)? Can we camp outside the Hermès factory and rummage thru their trash? Alas, the answer is yes, but you will not find an imperfect Birkin bag. Mulberry's Emma Hill says Hermès disposes of any imperfect bags by burning them. Referring to the high standard of quality kept at the French company, Hill told the Telegraph:

"A friend who was working at Hermès said that if there was even the most minor imperfection on a bag they would take it out the back and burn it -- no compromise."

Clearly, that sucks but it appears that Alexander Wang may have engaged in the same policy.

Let's go one step further, given the rarity and precious nature of these bags, you can imagine our overwrought anguish when we saw the video of Francesca Eastwood (Clint's daughter) along with her beau, Tyler Shields, destroy a $100,000 red crocodile Birkin bag by burning it! I don't know about you but, why?!

Stars everywhere can be seen wearing them (see below), but just because they can, should they burn $100,000? Aside from the symbolism of it and the financial state of millions in the world, the months it takes some artisan to craft that bag stitch by stitch makes this totally disrespectful.

So, if you had a spare Birkin, would you burn it too?