Handbags of cash

The group is in the happy position of having waiting lists for Birkin handbags

While the cost of living crisis has left many a punter struggling to put food on the table, it’s a different story up in the stratosphere where the nearest thing to an existential crisis would be the shame of being seen in public sporting last season’s handbag. French luxury goods group Hermès has had a stellar year, with sales up 23% to €11.6bn on the back of a particularly strong performance in China, where many of its rivals have been wailing and gnashing their teeth due to Covid issues.

The group is in the happy position of having waiting lists for the privilege of shelling out north of €10,000 on one of its iconic Birkin handbags, named for the celebrated 1960s saucepot Jane Birkin, whose intimate collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg has been a beacon of hope for plug-ugly men ever since.

Her breathy lyrics on the 1969 smash hit Je t’aime, moi non plus were rumoured to have been recorded in considerably steamier circumstances than the average studio environment, a cultural contribution that in the Gallic mind deserves to be immortalised with a handbag.

Hermès started life as a maker of saddles and harnesses, pivoting into leather goods, clothing, watches and jewellery in the 1920s once it became clear that the horseless carriage was here to stay. It continues to invest to increase capacity particularly in leather goods production, and created about 4,300 jobs last year, mostly in France. But the company says the quality it requires from its artisans is so high that it can train only about 300 leather craftsmen a year.