Hermès Bags and the Transformative Process
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FSPC 1 (1) pp. 81–96 Intellect Limited 2014 Fashion, Style & Popular Culture Volume 1 Number 1 © 2014 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/fspc.1.1.81_1 Annita Boyd Griffith University ‘Oh, honey! It’s not so much the style, it’s what carrying it means’: Hermès bags and the transformative process Abstract Keywords This article investigates the characteristics that define the suitability of certain Hermès characters in a number of film and television programmes to be consumers of Hermès Birkin prestige handbags. First, it examines the status of a Birkin or Kelly bag and how it Kelly is perceived to have transformative powers within the narrative, its impact upon its prestige carrier’s own sense of identity and how it is read by others. Apart from signalling suitability itself as an index of luxury, the bag may also trigger connotations of a suspicious consumer sexual nature if carried by characters that do not have the means to purchase it, and by virtue of its inherent ability to conceal. Characters require a sophisticated knowledge and class in order to bear successfully the kind of distinction that Hermès represents. Second, it addresses the viewers of these programmes as highly informed and discerning consumers of images of Hermès bags. The ability to identify specific sizes, leathers and speculate upon the authenticity of the bag is remarkable, and can be considered as a particular kind of specialized and exclusive knowledge. These readings invite us to consider this accessory as something that exceeds its function as mere costuming or prop within the mise-en-scène, as the bag seems to have agency and at times overshadows the centrality of characters. 81 FSPC_1.1_Boyd_81-96.indd 81 9/12/13 10:55:11 AM Annita Boyd INTRODUCTION The prestigious Hermès company began its life as a saddlery in Paris in the mid- nineteenth century, providing goods for noblemen and royalty. After the intro- duction of the automobile the business extended its production of hand-made leather goods to include luxury luggage, and later, fine couture. It is particularly known for its silk scarves and women’s handbags, but retains its link to its equestrian past via its logo of the horse-drawn carriage. Two of their bags have become synonymous with the name Hermès. Grace Kelly (Princess Grace of Monaco) carried the famous Hermès bag known as the ‘small tall bag with straps’ (Steele and Borrelli 1999: 115). After being photographed for the cover of Time magazine using the bag to cover her pregnancy bump, it was renamed the Kelly bag in 1956 (Johnson 2002). The bag therefore, despite its royal connection, is associated with a kind of sexual deception in its representation. The Kelly emerged in 1935 and the Birkin in 1984, after Hermès president, Jean Louis Dumas, offered to make singer, Jane Birkin, a bag that would accommo- date her belongings more comfortably (even though she had to pay for it!). She has since abandoned the Birkin, claiming it was too clumsy for her. It has now become one of the most covetable handbags in the world. In Intolerable Cruelty (Cohen, 2003) Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones), serial divorcee, carries a red ostrich Hermès Birkin in her opening scenes, whilst dressed in stylish red dresses signifying her character’s fire and sexuality, and adorned in a gold multi-strand necklace. Upon learning that the private detective she hired has footage of her husband’s cheating, she declares, ‘I’m delighted you found this material’. Then as she picks up the Birkin and holds it close to her chest, she says, ‘This is going to be my passport to wealth, independence and freedom’. She is referring to the evidence of his infidelity but it is no coincidence that the line coincides with the clutching of her bag. The Birkin also accompanies her to Miles Massey’s (George Clooney) law office where she attends a meeting with him and her husband to discuss divorce proceedings. The bag is associated with wealth, ambition and above all, sexual deception. She carries a pink Hermès Constance bag later when she meets her friend ‘after she fails to get alimony from her ex-husband’ (rochasgirl, 13 August 2006). Sex and the city ‘It’s not a bag. It’s a Birkin!’ Hermès sales assistant, Sex and the City Samantha: Look at that one! Isn’t it adorable? Carrie: Which one? Samantha: The red one in the middle. I love it. Carrie: The Birkin bag? Really? That’s not even your style. Samantha: Oh, honey! It’s not so much the style, it’s what carrying it means. Carrie: It means you’re up for 4,000 bucks! Samantha: Exactly! When I’m tooling around town with that bag, I’ll know I’ve made it! Carrie: OK, let’s go. The visiting hours are over. (She pulls Samantha away from the shop window) Samantha: Bye Bye Birkin! (Frankel, 2001, Season 4, Episode 11) 82 FSPC_1.1_Boyd_81-96.indd 82 9/12/13 5:33:31 PM Oh, honey! It’s not so much the style, it’s what carrying it means In the voice-over of the episode ‘Coulda Woulda Shoulda’ (Frankel, 2001) of Sex and the City (Star, HBO, 1998), Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) describes the characters as being at a crossroads, and their destination: ‘a place called who we hope to be’. This speaks of aspiration and Hermès embodies it in myriad forms. After being told she must sign on for a five-year waiting list for a Birkin, Samantha (Kim Catrall) tries to jump the queue by claiming it is for Lucy Liu whom she is representing, and promising that it will be carried by her to a premiere and photographed at length. Days later she is confronted with the horror of seeing on the street, ‘a fucking nobody in a tracksuit carrying the one we want! Is Hermès short for “we take our good old fucking time?”’. Samantha reads this as not only an insulting injustice but also a denial of her entry into a certain class. Earlier she tells Liu, ‘When I’m representing you, it’s class all the way!’ Unfortunately Samantha not only abuses her position but also the publicist at Hermès in an effort to get what she wants. Samantha’s inability to acquire a Birkin signals failure for her. Her statement, ‘When I’m tooling around town with that bag, I’ll know I’ve made it’, says much more about her own perception of achievement than others’. Sam’s lack of ‘classy’ behaviour and loss of composure is incompatible with the cachet Hermès is meant to carry. And Samantha never gets to carry the Birkin. Even when she visits the Hermès store, the bag is snatched away from her by the sales assistant before she can hold it (if she does not own it, she cannot touch it). Her lack of entitlement to the Birkin is reinforced through- out the text. Her object of desire is continually ‘out of reach’. And despite her paying for the bag eventually, her deceptive measures ensure that she does not get to keep it, as it bypasses her and goes straight to Lucy Liu. The potential Hermès customer must demonstrate an observable degree of consumer sophistication to be deemed a suitable candidate for the purchase of a Kelly or a Birkin. To this end, Hermès has established the waiting list. Customers may even be told that the list is closed. The inability to simply walk in off the street and buy one of these bags means that they cannot be purchased upon an impulsive whim. Considerable time and expense is channelled into manu- facturing each unique bag, which is handmade by a single master craftsman/ woman and bears his/her mark. Susanne LeBlanc (2012) identifies this as a commitment by Hermès to slow fashion, selecting sustainable materials and business models that oppose mass-market production. An adherence to tradi- tional handcrafting and a refusal to increase its production volumes, reinforce its brand identity of exceptional quality and exclusivity, to the extent that clients are satisfied to be placed on the waiting list (LeBlanc 2012: 6). However, this waiting list is not as impermeable as it might first appear, as Michael Tonello, noted reseller of authentic Birkins online, discovered after several attempts at purchase in European stores. On initial visits he was informed there were no Birkins for sale, so he tried a different strategy on subsequent visits to different stores. After spending substantial amounts on several other smaller items such as scarves, notebooks and bracelets, he would then enquire as to whether there might be any Birkins available. To his surprise, staff would retreat into the back of the store and inevitably rematerialize with said item. It would appear then, with his initial monetary outlay and no impulsive eager- ness to have the luxury bag, he had demonstrated his sophistication as a serious client. The perceived scarcity of the Birkin had become a construction aimed at singling out discerning customers and a mechanism for ‘value adding’. The Birkin had emerged as rare as the rarefied air that Hermès clientele breathe, and the illusion of an impenetrable waiting list would ‘elude’ unsuitable punters. 83 FSPC_1.1_Boyd_81-96.indd 83 9/12/13 10:55:12 AM Annita Boyd Hermès president, Jean-Louis Dumas, insists that the brand ‘preserves a certain distance while at the same time being determined to remain contemporary. The notion of permanence gives us an aristocratic distinction which has, we must admit, an intimidating side’ (Dumas, quoted in Tungate 2005: 151).