Can someone explain the appeal of expensive Hermès bags to me

[KellyK2026]

I don’t know how, but I recently got sucked into watching a bunch of Love Luxury videos on YouTube which features rich people buying expensive Hermes bags. Can someone please explain the obsession with Hermes bags? To me, they look very basic or just plain ugly. I cannot fathom why someone would pay £20,000-200k on a bag which costs a fraction of that price to produce and was mostly made in China. I’d rather get a good quality bag which has been handcrafted locally for £200 or less. Someone please explain it to me?!

This!

In a world where so many people have so little, there are kids going hungry and massive homelessness to spend that money on a bag in obscene. I bet loads of the people who do it fiddle their taxes to be so affluent in any case.

I think what's rubbing people the wrong way on this thread is how you have been particularly derogatory to posters like @Dragonscaledaisy. You asked a question – assuming it wasn't rhetorical, then why not actually found out why people love these bags and listen with curiosity? Rather than just being snarky and presumptuous?

A great majority of people, if they have the money, will drop £££ on something that they personally see value in and/or get joy from – the big house, the swimming pool, the kitchen remodel, the car, private school. And then the numerous luxuries that are more invisible but still see you spending the equivalent over a decade, such as the £75 a month gym membership, luxury hotels, beauty treatments.

You can scoff at any and all of these as being 'worth it' or not, but why hold wearable luxury items to a different standard? Or perhaps you just hold them all to the same standard, in which case, where does it end?

I would tell you, from a personally perspective why I like luxury bags so much, and also why I think Hermes in particular is at the top end of price, but I don't think you're actually interested. You just want an echo chamber in order to make yourself feel somehow more worthy.

Yeah I have no dog in the ‘expensive handbag’ fight, but croc farming - specifically - is pretty grim. I don’t think this holds true in the same way for Ostrich or python (or indeed cows, pigs and sheep). I’m not even vegetarian but I absolutely wouldn’t buy a crocodile skin anything in the same way I wouldn’t buy a big cat fur.

I accept others will think that’s entirely hypocritical.

Anything that is exclusive is attractive to rich people & people who are not as rich!

To be honest, it only seems to be rubbing up a few people the wrong way. I’ve heard a number of different arguments as to why they are worth it - people believe they are well made, it’s a status symbol, it’s admission to the Hermes club, etc. Now I get the well made one. Do I think that it’s worth that price point? No, absolutely not, but that’s a valid argument. The other stuff I understand but it just seems more sad/desperate than anything.

Most wealthy people why buy luxury goods don't care one bit about what other people think about them.

Ooh good, another designer handbag bashing thread 🙄

Really? I’ve found the absolute opposite. You for instance seem to care enough to comment.

Don;t you just love it! MN at it's finest. 😂

As i said, I'm here to correct incorrect assumptions - as I've just done once again.

Let me ask you this, seeing as you like Hermes, do you agree with crocodile farming for fashion?

It seems to be the resale price you have the bigger issue with, because circa £10k on a new Hermes bag, made in the way Hermes make them, is not a particularly ludicrous price – relative to how all manufacturers and retailers price their products. You will see the same in a £5 unit price manufactured mid range bag, retailed at £100 – at a 2000% mark up.

I don't own anything made of crocodile skin from any brand.

I think it is silly if you genuinely cannot really afford such a bag. People who can the price tag probably seems more like £200 to them financially. If that.
But too many people do aspirational shopping and cannot really afford it. They might get a second hand one in a sale but even then, expensive.
To the very rich they are not expensive.
And that is what people are buying. Something everyone else knows is expensive.

Interesting as that felt like you dodged the question. Hermes kills crocodiles to turn them into handbags. Now, to me, if you’re here talking about how great Hermes is, you must also agree with how they operate in terms of how they treat their exotic animals. You can’t talk about how great a brand is if you also don’t align with them ethically. That makes no sense.

@KellyK2026 I read a couple of articles on crocodile farms and it shocked me!
@Terfarina I couldn't agree more....what a waste of money. It's a status symbol isn't it. I domt understand how people say a bag is gorgeous and worth the money...it's just a basic looking handbag

Yes, I think dropping 10k on a bag is wild but obviously not as insane as dropping 60k on a bag. Let’s face it, Hermes could mass produce their bags if they wanted to. They might be well made but you could still mass produce them and they’d be identical. They chose not to because it would no longer be seen as a status symbol as the price would come down. And that to me is why they aren’t worth it.

So don't buy one then. Simples.

Kind of the same as buying a car. Would you like an Aston Martin or Rolls Royce if you can afford it or still by a golf or Renault…just for example. They both do the same thing, one will feel more luxurious and I guess it’s the name and status.

The same argument can be made for so many industries and manufacturers though, and where do you draw the line between personal responsibility and the wider systems we participate in?

Smartphones involve mining of minerals and complex global supply chains. Fast fashion involves labour issues and environmental damage. Food production involves animal welfare, pesticides, land use and emissions. Cars, flights and electronics have environmental costs.

Everything has a footprint. And the vast majority of manufacturers and brands will have a product in their line that isn't, by all scrutiny, ethical.

I don’t agree with this. Certainly there are systems that are unavoidable. Everyone nowadays needs a phone for their job, to make appointments, etc. Nobody needs a luxury handbag from a company that does heinous things to animals.

@KellyK2026, in sayiing that they could mass produce their bags, if they wanted, you clearly haven't taken in the quality argument, which is the central argument here.
A mass-produced, machine made bag is never the same as a hand-made bag, crafted by a highly trained artisan working in France, with perhaps decades of experience, building on centuries of skill.

I don't consider the lives of so called 'exotic animals' any different to those of other animals and I would be happy to have a broader discussion about ethical standards of all brands in relation to the welfare of both animals and workers.

Then you get into the waters of comparing luxury fashion to any other form of artistry. Fewer people question the value of high-end art when it comes in the form of paintings, sculpture or limited edition prints/lithographs?

So what is art? And what is artistry?

Many lovers of luxury items would argue that they they are closer to fine craft than an ordinary consumer good. For example: design, hand-stitching techniques, leather treatment, embroidery, tailoring, textile innovation.

How is a handmade, highly constructed bag that involves hundreds of hours of skilled work, disimilar to a sculpture, a painting or a piece of furniture? A musical instrument? Why is a Damien Hirst limited edition printed costed between £1000-50,000? Why is a Marc Paquin violin in excess of £20k?

Are they out of the firing line because they are viewed as having more cultural worth than fashion is?

Really? So you don’t think confining an apex predator into a small space where they are prone to stress and will rip of each others limbs problematic? Nor that they can live 70 years in the old but are killed at 2-3 years old in a farm problematic? Or that because of their thick skulls their deaths are often painful and it takes several attempts to kill them problematic? Or that reptiles carry different pathogens to mammals and that croc farms can become a breeding ground for disease that could kill humans problematic?

even Jane Birkin said she wanted nothing more to do with Hermes when they started using crocodile skins.

but if you think this is all OK for the sake of fashion I think that says a lot about you as an individual.