Hermès

The Birkin earns its reputation on the bench, not the billboard. A single artisan saddle-stitches each bag from house leathers, the same craft Hermès has refined since its 1837 beginnings in saddlery and harness-making. Whether it suits you comes down to how much you value that hand-finishing and timeless silhouette over sheer practicality, but few bags hold their place in a wardrobe quite so confidently.

Both descend from the house's leather pedigree, but they carry differently. The Kelly took its name in the 1950s after a photograph of Grace Kelly, then Princess of Monaco, was published in Life magazine; it is the structured, single-handle flap bag for a more formal day. The Birkin, designed in 1984 after Jean-Louis Dumas sat beside Jane Birkin on a Paris-to-London flight, is the open, two-handle tote for everyday carry. Choose by how you actually live with a bag.

Hermès has resisted scaling at the expense of its craft. Pieces are still built largely by hand from natural materials, a principle that once even cost the house ground against rivals using synthetics before tastes swung back. With descendants of founder Thierry Hermès still in control and many of its 60-plus manufactures based in France employing thousands of craftsmen, the price reflects time and provenance rather than marketing spend.

It is said air-MESS, with the s sounded, not the silent French ending many expect. The name is simply that of the founder, Thierry Hermès, born in Krefeld in 1801, who opened his first Paris workshop near the Madeleine church in 1837. It has been a family name on the door ever since.

Both come straight from the house's history. The logo is the Duc attelé, groom à l'attente, a drawing by Alfred de Dreux of a carriage and waiting groom, chosen by Émile-Maurice Hermès to nod to the firm's saddlery roots. The signature orange arrived during World War II, when shortages under the German occupation forced a change of packaging colour, and it simply stayed.

They are arguably the most accessible piece of Hermès craft. The carrés, the square silk scarves, were introduced in 1937 and became woven into French culture, with designs drawing on paintings, books and objets d'art. For anyone who admires the house but isn't ready for a bag, a scarf carries the same eye for detail in a far smaller form.

Horses, essentially. Thierry Hermès founded the company in 1837 making high-quality harnesses and equipment for riders, work good enough to win a first-class medal at the 1867 Exposition Universelle and clients including Tsar Nicholas II. Leather goods only became the core business later; the first leather handbags appeared in 1922 after Émile-Maurice's wife complained she couldn't find one to her liking.

It remains controlled by descendants of Thierry Hermès, gathered across the Dumas, Guerrand and Puech branches within the H51 holding company. With the single exception of Patrick Thomas, who served as CEO from 2003 to 2013 and was the first leader from outside the family, the house has always been run by a descendant of its founder.

Hermès deliberately keeps production small to protect quality and meaning, so boutiques only ever hold a few bags at a time and the Birkin is not sold online. That scarcity, rather than any single price tag, is why the bag has long been treated as both an object of desire and a remarkably resilient store of value.

The surest route is an official Hermès boutique or the brand's own channels, since the house controls its own distribution closely and has steadily bought back franchises to do so. If you shop the resale market, lean on established specialists and scrutinise the saddle-stitching and hardware, the very details a single artisan spends hours perfecting and that counterfeits rarely match.

Far more than most realise. Across its business lines Hermès produces silk and ready-to-wear, watches through its Swiss subsidiary La Montre Hermès, jewellery, fashion accessories, perfumery launched with Eau d'Hermès in 1951, and even tableware in porcelain and crystal. A beauty division added a sixteenth line in 2020.