Hermes

Hermès, the French luxury brand that birthed the Birkin bag and all sorts of other status symbols, announced that global sales rose 13.4 percent to 415.1 million euros—that’s $642.9 million now, ouch!—year-over-year in the first three months of 2008.

Surprisingly, gains were felt on both sides of the Atlantic, with U.S. sales rising 23 percent annually in the first quarter. Even more suprising is that the banner performance of Hermès’ Wall Street branch drove up the numbers, WWD reports.  read more »

“Have you sat in that car outside? It’s insane!” shouted actor, jewelry designer and general man-about-town Waris Ahluwalia when the Daily Transom cornered him last night at the Hermes store downtown. He and a few other out-at-night types like Kristian Laliberte, Annabel Vartanian, Tinsley-sister Dabney Mercer and Kelly Killoren Bensimon had shown up for another one of those wearying publicity parties, but he was full of vigor, and apparently unaware that his celebrity status is what allowed him to visit the Bugatti Veyron luxury car at the curb outside the store. The car, a joint production between the automaker and the fashion house, was the guest of honor this night. The car retails at $2.3 million.  read more »

THE PERFECT SCENT: A YEAR INSIDE THE PERFUME INDUSTRY IN PARIS AND NEW YORK
By Chandler Burr
Henry Holt, 306 pages, $25

“The idea that you like something can lead to the idea that you know something about it,” Sarah Jessica Parker told Chandler Burr, author of The Perfect Scent. “Which is, of course, not necessarily the case.” Luckily for Ms. Parker, a crack team at Coty, the $3 billion perfume conglomerate, helped her create Lovely, the Sex and the City star’s first signature fragrance.

Mr. Burr, the scent critic for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, juxtaposes the development and launch of Lovely with the restructuring and marketing efforts of the perfume division of the luxury brand Hermès. Written mostly for beauty industry insiders who’ll easily recognize the cast of characters, Mr. Burr’s book showcases his brilliance as a writer, though his voice is often buried by a too-generous supply of detail.  read more »

Shoppers wishing to pick up a Kelly bag from Hermès can expect two inevitables: a considerable wait and a minimum price tag of $6,000. (Want the crocodile-and-diamonds version? They ring in at more than $100,000 a pop.) The purse first became the envy of women everywhere after the late Princess Grace Kelly was photographed, in all her celestial glamour, carrying one in a 1956 issue of Life magazine. And according to Robert Chavez, president and CEO of Hermès, demand for the smallish, conservative square-pouch-with-a-handle has exploded in recent weeks.  read more »