Hermes Designer Luxury Handbags - leather goods, fashion, and perfume company based in Paris, handbags and purses

Hermes Luxury Designer Handbags

Hermes is a prestigious design house located in Paris, France. It is best known for it's leather goods, fashions and perfumes and it's famous H logo represents status worldwide.

The company was founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermes as a saddlery company. For the past 200 years the company has been family owned and operated and since there narrow beginnings the House of Hermes has branched out to include ready to wear, luggage, leather accessories, jewelry, fragrances, but are still known for high quality saddles.

At the beginning of the 29th century Thierry successor Emile-Maurice Hermes shifted the companies focus to trains, planes and car travel. trunks, suitcases and overnight bags were now being produced with it's signature saddle leathers. Emile's claim to fame also came form his decision to purchase the building at Rue Faubourg St. Honore' 24 in Paris which is still the flagship store as well as the companies workshops.

Emile had four daughters and one of there husbands Robert Dumas introduced ties to Hermes along with fragrances and beach towels. His son Jean-Louis Dumas Hermes was the 5th chairman of Hermes and headed the company form 1978 to Jan. 2006 when he retired. Thomas took his place and he joined the company in 1989 and is the current CEO.

Hermes may be known for its fine saddlery but there handbags and fine leather collections are known world wide and are held in the highest esteem for there craftsmanship. Hermes does not make its bags on assembly lines because instead one artist craftsman works on a bag one at a time. Hermes uses a wide variety of rare materials and skins such as alligator, crocodile, ostrich and lizard along with precious metals. At the House of Hermes only the finest craftsmanship is accepted therefore a bag can take one artisan 18-24 hours to create and will cost in the thousands of dollars.

Hermes and its famous named bags. The Kelly bag in the 1930's was later nicknamed for Grace Kelly who made it famous in 1956 when appearing in life magazine carrying the bag. Jackie Kennedy Onassis another big fan of Hermes preferred the Constance shoulder bag or the Trim shoulder bag. Hermes most famous handbag is the Birkin and was named for actress Jane Birkin who co-designed the bag with Jean-Louis Dumas after complaining that the Kelley bag was not practical for every day use because it locked.

It is rare to open a fashion magazine or a gossip rag without seeing the latest starlet carrying a bag from the house of Hermes. It is hard to say if this is good for the Fashion House that is known for the Haute Couture Styling. All this popularity has lead to Hermes being one of the most knocked off and copied bags today.

Author Source: Roy Leadwell