Hermès Temptation

“Hermes Temptation is like a book written in the Braille language; it is perfect for those who are about to go blind, have gone blind and aspire to be blinded – with Birkins and Kellys! Trust me, this book will help you regain your long lost consciences when you sold your soul to the Hermes brand.”

SAMUEL MULIA . Lifestyle Observer “A very enjoyable and interesting read of Dewi and Fitria’s personal journey through the world of the Hermes-Birkin obsession. They share their insider experiences in a humorous yet thoughtprovoking way as the ‘dark’ side of this addiction is exposed. I appreciate the honesty of their emotions that they are now sharing with us readers.”

SHABNAM MELWANI-REIS Businesswoman, Fashionista, Wife & Mother.

“Hermes Temptation shows the other side of fashion that I’ve never known before.

I very much enjoy all the humor and stories of the duo’s personal experiences and reading this book was such a sheer joy and pleasure. I believe that this will inspire many readers out there. And one thing for sure is that you will never see these bags the same way ever again. I LOVE IT!!! :) “ JULIE ESTELLE . Model, Presenter, Actress “Imagine having a ball with your best friend in a small cafe in Paris, chitchatting and laughing together; remembering not only good times but also the true meaning of your friendship.

This book gets me out from my orange boxes to this cafe. Congratulations.”

GERY PURAATMADJA . broadcaster

HERMES TEMPTATION Have you heard of Hermes? What about Birkin and Kelly bags?

What’s that? Oh, you’re a super freak fan?? You bought a separate house just to store your Birkin and Kelly bags collections? Excellent.

This book is for you. Come along on a journey with a couple of Birkin and Kelly bags re-sellers into the mystical world of Hermes; the crack for the high society, the heroin for the exclusive.

Read the swashbuckling duo’s adventures and struggles as they established HermèsTemptation, an online forum to re-sell the beautiful and rare bags, and laugh and cry as they tell their ups and downs in running the business, weathering criticism, warding off scams and turning France upside down in search of the elusive Birkins and Kellys - and found Mickey Mouse underwear instead.

“This book is a pure pleasure to read; filled to the brim with humor and I love the wittiness of Alexandra Dewi and the sincerity of fierce yet darling Fifi. Hermes Temptation is a celebration of all women. The dynamic duo’s passions, sensitivities and measured ways of dealing with the intricacies of this tough business and of course the many temptations in LIFE warrant a thorough read.”

CATHY SHARON . Model, Presenter, Actress.

“I can’t stop smiling reading Hermes Temptation…..this book is not too lengthy but definitely interesting to read all the way through! It is amazing to read how some people can be so superficial for something so artificial, for a piece of (what we believe) a branded bag. This book is an eye-opener for all of us.”

BECKY TUMEWU . Presenter & Founder Of Talkinc.

“Well, here we have one intriguing book...... It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, ‘Are you what you wear’.....or ‘Do you wear what you want to be’?”

SUSAN BACHTIAR . Model, Presenter, Actress.

“My ultimate life goal?

To continually work on my internal glamour - because what’s outside is just window dressing.”

Alexandra Dewi

“I build my wardrobe starting with my self confidence and positive insight first.

And I won’t let what I have or what I don’t have dictate whether I’m superior or inferior to others.”

Fitria Yusuf

Penerbit PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama Kompas Gramedia Building Blok I Lantai 5 Jl. Palmerah Barat 29–37 Jakarta 10270 www.gramedia.com

Sanksi Pelanggaran Pasal 72 Undang-undang Nomor 19 Tahun 2002 Tentang Hak Cipta Barangsiapa dengan sengaja melanggar dan tanpa hak melakukan perbuatan sebagaimana dimaksud dalam Pasal 2 Ayat (1) atau Pasal 49 Ayat (1) dan Ayat (2) dipidana dengan pidana penjara masing-masing paling singkat 1 (satu) bulan dan/atau denda paling sedikit Rp1.000.000,00 (satu juta rupiah), atau pidana penjara paling lama 7 (tujuh) tahun dan/atau denda paling banyak Rp5.000.000.000,00 (lima miliar rupiah).

Barangsiapa dengan sengaja menyiarkan, memamerkan, mengedarkan, atau menjual kepada umum suatu ciptaan atau barang hasil pelanggaran hak cipta atau hak terkait sebagai dimaksud pada Ayat (1) dipidana dengan pidana penjara paling lama 5 (lima) tahun dan/atau denda paling banyak Rp500.000.000,00 (lima ratus juta rupiah).

HERMES

HERMES

TEMPTATION

TEMPTATION

BY FITRIA YUSUF & ALEXANDRA DEWI

BY FITRIA YUSUF & ALEXANDRA DEWI GM © Penerbit PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama Jl. Palmerah Barat 29–33, Jakarta 10270 Perwajahan isi: Desain Grafis : Yan Mursid, Yoggi Ardy Ilustrasi : Dedy Kurniawan, Widya Putri Mada Diterbitkan pertama kali oleh Penerbit PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama anggota IKAPI, Jakarta, 2011 www.gramedia.com Hak cipta dilindungi oleh undang-undang.

Dilarang mengutip atau memperbanyak sebagian atau seluruh isi buku ini tanpa izin tertulis dari Penerbit.

ISBN Dicetak oleh Percetakan PT Gramedia, Jakarta Isi di luar tanggung jawab Percetakan

Penerbit PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, Jakarta

CONTENT 1 2 Chapter 1: Tickled Pink Chapter 2: The Customer(s) Who Never Left Chapter 3: From Paris With Love (And It Comes In A Bag) Chapter 4: Birkin Fever Chapter 5: What We Have Become Chapter 6: Repeat Offender Chapter 7: The Ugly Truth Chapter 8: The French Connection (Part 1) Chapter 9: The French Connection (Part 2) Chapter 10: What You See is not Always What You Get Chapter 11: Summer Love Chapter 12: To Have and To Hold

04 06 09 11 19 22 35 40 55 63 74 86 93

Chapter 13: Unspoken Rules Chapter 14: Die Hard Chapter 15: Private & Confidential Chapter 16: You Are Not What Bag You Carry 1 2 3 Hermes 101 Acknowledgment the writer the writer

119 120 150

210

“sluurrp”

“let’s make fortunes from this, this seems like a piec e of cake ”

Introduction

By Fitria Yusuf

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house?

Nor thy neighbor’s wife, or manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or everything else in between? Why did we decide to write a book about the so-called “Bentley of handbags”? I’m not quite sure myself. Originally, I think, the idea came up as one day, Dewi and I were chatting on Blackberry Messenger, feverishly discussing the many different kinds of shapes and colors and types of the glorious Hermès handbags, when

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Dewi, always the free spirit that she is, suddenly blurted out, “Why can’t we go to Paris, fetch those bags ourselves and resell them here?”

I was taken aback briefly. The thought of having to deal with the guilt trip from a certain luxury travel combined with a certain luxury shopping spree to come was something that I don’t feel like dealing with. I mumbled, “You and I, to Paris?? Girl, how many Birkin bags do we have to sell to cover the cost of the trip??” But the damage had already been done. Like a creeping poison, the idea sinked in into our heads. You see, we’re part of this online chat group dedicated to auctioning Hermès handbags. That’s right - the bags are sold through a Blackberry chat group!

Hello… What else do you think us gals are doing when you see us with our heads down, eyebrows furrowed, furiously typing into our BlackBerrys?

We’re not autistics, nor are we flirting with our lovers.

Instead, we shop, sell, buy, re-sell, and then buy again these “commodities” like there’s no tomorrow via the BlackBerry Messenger group chat with terrifying speed and fervor. Is it any wonder then how we can’t seem to part, not

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even for one minute, from these ubiquitous little gadgets? Anyway, so as Dewi and I chatted about a particularly adorable grey-colored ostrich handbag, she blurted out that crazy little idea.

But strangely, it made total sense. We are, after all, hopelessly in love with these Hermes handbags … And we are both admittedly risktaking adrenaline junkies, Probably nothing else in the world excites us more than the prospect of a mysterious, even romantic journey into the world of Hermès, a brand which for the high society is like drugs; the crack and the Viagra for the stylish and socially happening jet set.. And thus this fantastic journey began in earnest, and we decided to start brokering those who want to sell their bags.

Also, every time we travel to a destination where there happens to be an Hermès boutique store, we would never miss out on buying a couple of bags and bring them back here to re-sell. And boy, do they sell well in those days. Well, actually, even until today they still sell well. The thing with these bags were, everyone has to have one; otherwise, you are out of the “It” crowd. So, with that knowledge in mind, coupled with our superfluous excitement, we decided to open up a

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bank account under our names. This was so that when one of us is traveling overseas, hunting the bags, the other can wire transfer whatever money is needed to pay for them. Yet, these Birkin bags cost so much that they can easily run even our platinum cards over the limit, especially when we’re talking about the exotic leather ones.

Incredibly, they still sell like peanuts. Some of these bags have price tags that are, believe it or not, enough to fetch you a nice Mercedez benz.

We decided to set our spending limit to cover the cost of around 15 regular-leather Birkins. Next, we set up our own Blackberry Messenger chat group called “Hermès Temptation” as a forum to sell the bags. We made 7 groups, each with 30 people. Soon, inquiries from people asking about the bags started to pour in, so much so that our Blackberrys were starting to freeze up on a daily basis. Daily basis? More like hourly. Our lives, of course, were starting to fall apart because about 80% of our waking hours were lived inside our BlackBerrys, answering queries, explaining things and negotiating. I think the only time I wasn’t thinking about the Hermès Temptation business was when I was either having sex or sleeping.

Even when I was eating or going to the bathroom

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I would bring my phone with me just in case a query pops in! Such was the mania. And sadly, with all those time and effort, hardly enough bags were sold.

And then things started to turn around. A prominent lady first bought a Birkin crocodile bag from us, and then after that, a lizard bag, exactly like the one Carrie Bradshaw toted in Sex and The City: The Movie. We were jumping for joy and became optimistic. “The hard work paid off,” we thought.

Next out the door was the Hermès Bubble Gum Pink Shiny Crocodile Porosus Birkin. This one almost gave us a heart attack, and I’ll tell you why, later in this book. So don’t even think about putting this book down! You’ll find a nice surprise. All in all, this is such a hard and timeconsuming job, but we love it with all our hearts.

These Birkins and Kellys, in our eyes, are what candies are to kids or sports cars are to men.

They’re all so beautiful! The biggest temptation is of course to avoid purchasing the bags for ourselves.

I sold some exotic leathers myself. Profit was

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not much; it was perhaps not worth the efforts, but…. what the heck; it’s fun, and it’s almost like window shopping every day. Well, we prefer real shopping to this, of course, but then again, it was pretty good that we were able to sell some heavyweight bags (baby crocodile, ostrich, Birkin Himalaya as worn by Victoria Beckham and even a limited-edition bag that is one of only 3 pieces ever made by Hermès and all are special order!).

We also sold a number of regular leather bags that fetched us reasonable profits and made us smile, but won’t make us billionaires. The irony is, the cheaper the price of the goods you are selling, the bigger chance you can make money.

The more expensive it is, the more difficult. Well, at least in this business!

Selling stuff to women, who, by their natural predisposition, have lots of demands, lots of requests and need lots of convincing, is hard enough. Now imagine how tough it is selling handbags that can cost as much as a small car to these exotic species.

Like any business, we encounter many obstacles and occasional break downs. Difficult clients,

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troublesome suppliers, complaints about imperfect bags (according to some customers) all drive us to the brink of madness. I felt like screaming, “Hey, we’re just the reseller; we’re not the owners of Hermès, for crying out goodness sake!” There were many times when we think to ourselves, “What the hell did we get ourselves into?” Our life was fine and peaceful before; we can treat ourselves to a couple of Hermès bags every now and then, but now, look where we’ve gotten ourselves into.

There were many shock therapies too, and adrenaline rushes. Waiting for bags that have been paid but have not yet arrived from overseas while the customers scream on our ears are stressful. I honestly feel that sometimes I could use some Valium to keep my cool; other times I just want to punch a sandbag as hard as I can to release my anger. However, never for once did we not find everything that we went through as funny, if not hilarious. We admit that we learned a lot by being in this business.

We learned how to be more patient, more careful, more persuasive in terms of selling (to a point where perhaps one day I can work for an insurance company, selling insurance to people?),

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more persistent, more tolerant and forgiving (will also be discussed in later chapters), more easygoing (when receiving not-so-pleasant news) and also to be more “grace”ful in facing any situation (the Kelly bag was named after the Queen of Grace, Grace Kelly herself, and so we must show some gracefulness in selling the bag, must we not?) and many more other things.

Therefore, dear readers, keep on flipping the pages and live in our shoes. Maybe one day you’d like to try your luck in becoming a reseller, or maybe you don’t. Whatever it is - Happy Reading.

We are thankful for the experiences, both positive and negative ones. Most importantly, without those, this book would not have come into reality. Interesting, funny, exciting, memorable, stressful and surprising are all adjectives that describe our journey, and we felt it will be a waste not to share them with you.

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From “I Beg Your Prada” to “I Beg You.”

By Alexandra Dewi

The very first time I wrote a book was titled ‘I Beg Your Prada,’ published in 2006. In one of the chapters, I wrote about fake Hermès handbags and how it always amused me to see how some women would kill to carry these handbags - which often would cost as much as a small automobile - but that they don’t actually own any car themselves. I also wrote that I had

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no idea whether their bags were real or not, as I had NEVER owned one of these before in my life, NEVER held one in my hands before and probably will NEVER own one, either real or fake.

Never say never, people say. Indeed, never say never; and four years later, in 2010, I found myself taking pictures of The Alligator Birkin Bag from 26 different angles to make sure that the bag is flawless before we hand it out to a customer.

When and how did all this happen? I thought I would never care for those hideous, overpriced bags. I don’t remember exactly when this syndrome of obsession; this poisonous fever, entered my system; but I do remember that sometime around 2007 I started admitting how cute I will look like if I pair a Birkin 30 with my not-so-tall frame, easy jeans and a Mickey Mouse T-Shirt. But even then, I still felt it would be such a waste of money to spend a fortune on a bag, so I didn’t really give it much of a thought.

Until one day, I was talking to my sister-inlaw who lives overseas about this Hermès phenomenon in Jakarta and she told me that she

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didn’t see what the big deal was all about; that she found the Birkin bag which her husband had bought for her to be rather cumbersome to carry around on - its design does not facilitate carrying the handle on the shoulder. And then she said something that changed my life forever: “I’ll give you this bag; I don’t like it anyways, and I’m positive that after you carry one you’ll also agree that this bag is not worth the money.” I remember at that time I only shrugged and was almost indifferent. I was like, “All good...free, hand-me-down Birkin! Yaaay!” That was my first Birkin bag. It was a hand-me-down and never would I have ever thought that such an item can create such unfathomable addiction - and how my sister-in-law could never have been so wrong.

What’s a girl to do? I went, gone through all the trouble to hell and back for this bag. It was a Birkin 30, and just as I’d imagined and hoped, I did look cute with jeans, Mickey Mouse T-Shirt and my precious hand-me-down. And all hell broke loose from there onward. “One color is SO not enough.” “This is not the size or the color I want; therefore I need to get another one.” That, and many other excuses. Just like any addiction, you eventually need higher and higher doses to

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get the same high or reward and, by the time I was writing the closing chapter of this book, any Hermes bag that wasn’t in exotic leather just didn’t talk to me anymore. By the time this book reached final editing, I have reached the point where I realized that no matter how many Hermes bags I got in my hands; it can never make me a better or happier person. Surprised?

The journey from being an addict to a “reformed convict” was long and arduous, of course, and that’s what I wanted to tell you in this book. You should also know that the journey from being a non-believer into one that is a person of faith is sometimes marked with episodes of personal absolution and oftentimes bone-shakin’, soulshakin’ revelations before you can actually arrive on the “other side”. Hence, my own experience in arriving to the other side has been one that is filled with endless, pathetic sometimes, and always hilarious stories down the realm of the Hermès universe.

Here’s a quick example: at the start of my full-blown obsession, I went to Paris with my husband. Naturally, I dragged him along to an Hermès Boutique store, not just once, but

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multiple times, as every time I went to the store all the sales associate ever said was, “Sorry, we don’t have one right now but you can try in another 2 hours.” Exactly 2 hours later, I showed up again at the store. Well, what can I say? I was a beginner then and had no clue on how the store worked. My poor husband, who had only gotten wind of my new hobby, half-jokingly and half-seriously commented that next time, I should bring a friend (instead of him, hint hint) who is just as obsessed as I am, set up camp outside a couple of stores in the area and equip ourselves with walkie-talkie so we can communicate with each other whenever we see orange boxes being carried into each store at 10:30 AM sharp. Then we could follow the boxes inside and demand to the salesperson to see the content of the boxes.

And if we do find any Birkin or Kelly inside, AHA! We would immediately scold them, saying we don’t like to be lied to when they say they don’t have any Birkin or Kelly today.

My husband was having fun as he pictured the scene verbally, his arms waving around pointing at imaginary people. He didn’t realize that I was looking at him at that moment and seriously wished that he would do exactly that on MY

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behalf. I want the trophy of that shameful act but I don’t want the shame on me. Many more about my Hermès easter egg hunt trip to Paris later, in another chapter.

As of now, Fifi and I are having a ball, learning and laughing together from all of the unique experiences we get from nursing these 7 groups of Hermès Temptation. We refer the groups as “tokos” (stores) as that’s exactly what they are: full-service, full-fledged online stores offering more selection of Birkins and Kellys than the actual boutiques. And the service that we give out…. boy, don’t get us started on that. Like Fifi said, we’d bend over backward, somersault with our hands tied in the back and do other impossible maneuvers just to get that superrare Birkin in your hands. Let’s just say that we give out a lot more service than the actual boutiques. For one, we won’t require you to set up surveillance camps outside our homes with walkie-talkies. More on this later.

help but wonder that since I also love these bags, have I changed to become a fake, status-hungry, attention- craving snob without realizing it?

Why do I like these bags so much? Why do you, the person who is reading this book, love these bags so much? The answer may not always be so obvious, but on top of all the laughters I’ll share with you in this book, I’ll also try share some of life’s most interesting point of views. One of them is getting to know ourselves and from then on, hopefully make a real effort to be a better, happier person, with or without the Birkins.

Happy Reading!

XOXOXO

In the beginning of this love-affair-gone-wrong, I used to think that any non-celebrity or non-VIP person toting a Birkin bag must be a fake, statushungry, attention-craving snob. And sadly I can’t

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d e l k c ti

pink CHAPTER 1

FITRIA YUSUF

AS I’M WRITING THIS CHAPTER, I AM CRACKING MY ASS UP, LAUGHING AGAIN AS THIS IS YET ANOTHER BIRKIN BAGRELATED TOPIC. I HAVE BEEN LAUGHING ALMOST NON-STOP SINCE I STARTED BECOMING A RESELLER AND I MOSTLY LAUGH AT MYSELF. I LAUGH SO OFTEN FOR MY FORTUNES AND THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE THAT I WITNESSED. WILL I TURN FLAMINGO PINK SOMEDAY FROM ALL OF THESE TUMMY-SHAKING LAUGHTERS?

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I surely hope not. Well, there are two reasons why I am tickled pink. One is out of misery. You have to be thankful for whatever life may bring, don’t you?

The story goes like this. The other day, I experienced what you might call a heart-stopping moment.

It was beyond depressing and morbidly shocking. A client of ours, who had purchased a Bubble Gum Pink Shiny Croc Porosus Birkin from us (which I mentioned at the beginning of my introduction), told us that the bag was slightly discolored. Now, if the bag had only cost Rp.5 million, I would not give a slightest damn about it, nor if the color wasn’t bubble-gum pink. Even if

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the worst-case scenario was for me to purchase the bag myself, I wouldn’t care, but the bag’s color was a…. flamboyant bubble gum pink.

To begin with, I’m not a pink person by nature.

What in the world was I going to do with that bag? I cannot change my style to Barbie or Paris Hilton overnight just so that I can carry it now, can I? And by goodness golly, the cost of that bag is enough to fetch a decent house in Jakarta.

So I was mortified to hear the bad news from Dewi in regards of the client’s complaint.

What’s even worse, the original CITES certificate (Hermès products are CITEScertified; CITES stands for “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species”, meaning the leather products are from farmraised animals - the certificate is required for import to non-EU countries) was not given to us by the original seller for whatever reason.

And it just so happened that it slipped right

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through our minds. This meant that we had no legitimate proof that the client was getting an authentic Birkin, and that we weren’t selling her a bogus item! We didn’t have anything to support our defense. This obviously presented a big headache for me. I can hardly tolerate such menial problems such as this (I told you I’m easy going didn’t I?).

But at the conclusion of this problem, I slowly discovered that maybe, deep down inside, I actually have what it takes to take on something as strenuous as an Army training; on the frontline and ready to be attacked at any time.

We were basically squeezing every last molecules in our brains to try to figure out a way to convince our client. Then, finally, we came up with a plan (or so we thought): we would bring the bag to Singapore for authentication and obtain the CITES certificate. But even then we hit an immediate roadblock.

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The seller refused to be identified and she was in fact very worried that we would report her to Hermès that she re-sells the bag. Oh my Lord, just who the heck does she think we were, INTERPOL?! We’re a couple of Hermès Temptation’s Founder / CEO / Administrator / Sales / Marketing / Debt Collector and we absolutely have no interest (nor time) to do whatever it is she feared us would do! We were praying hard; yes harder than usual, more serious, more dedicated, more compassionate, you name it all.

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All we wanted was the CITES certificate. We were willing to pay the extra cost just to get this bloody certificate.

I checked their websites. I called the CITES agency in Singapore and Indonesia and the Department of Forestry Diversity of Natural Resources. I asked a friend in Paris and Indonesia for a reference of people who can help certify the bag and get us the CITES certificate.

I did so much research that I almost become an expert of endangered animal species.

After countless hours in and out of search engines, I found out that the CITES was only a certificate to permit a one-time import or export between two countries. Regardless, we still need to satisfy our client. But thankfully, after all of these stresses, this morning a glimmer of good news came in: the original seller told us that we can get the CITES certificate, with her name disclosed along on it. Hell yes, we don’t even care whose name is on it; we just want the certificate so we can get it off our shoulders! So now we’re waiting for the CITES certificate to come and

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hoping and praying that everything would turn out well next week. Wish us luck!

Okay, so I’m throwing a bit of a proverb here, but people say there’s always a rainbow after the rain, so enough about woes and let me share with you a moment of triumph. Just now I scored a sale of a lovely Gris Tourterelle Birkin bag to a friend of mine.

Well, the profit, again, won’t make up for the Pink Crocodile even if I sell 50 of these. But at least it’s something that put a smile on my pouty lips that has been puckering sourly since yesterday, even with the whole Pink Croco bag fiasco still looming large in the back of my head.

I know I still have to bring that bag to Singapore, convince the client, do lots and lots more of praying for her to accept the bag and, if things turn south, think of a backup plan if she decides in all her wisdom to refund the bag. Even with all that, I believe I have gained a lot of lessons today.

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The most important thing is we shall never be discouraged. Obstacles should not bring us down and we have to strive to become better all the time. The storms in our lives will always pass, and there is never one problem that comes without a solution if we include our Mighty Creator in our everyday life. I am thankful to God for everything that I have experienced in life, for He is a kind God. See, did I not tell you that we gained a lot of positive things from this Hermès Temptation business? I, for one, am known as a person who used to live a controversial lifestyle.

the girl who “becomes more religious” because of her Hermès Temptation virtual store business?

Ain’t that something that makes you tickled pink?

PLEASE HELP ME GOD

So now the question is, will I be better known as

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THE CUSTOMER

THAT NEVER LEFT CHAPTER 2

ALEXANDRA DEWI

WHEN I WENT TO PARIS IN 2007, I HAD ALREADY DEVELOPED A SYNDROME OF HERMÈS ADDICTION IN MY SYSTEM. IT WAS AT THAT TIME WHEN I FIRST DISCOVERED THE INTRICATE CHALLENGE OF OBTAINING HERMES’ BIRKIN OR KELLY. SOMEHOW, I JUST REFUSED TO BELIEVE THAT THERE COULD BE A BUSINESS THAT WILL GIVE ITS CUSTOMER A HARD TIME TO BUY ITS PRODUCT. HEY…I’M TALKING ABOUT SPENDING SOME SERIOUS MONEY HERE.

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And so it was with full faith and an attitude of “I-shall-find-myself-a-Birkin” (banging fist) that I marched down to two Hermès stores, head held high. One was in Saint-Honoré, the beating heart of Hermès’ headquarter and the other in Avenue George V. And perhaps it was good luck that I managed to snag myself a gorgeous Birkin 30 in Brown and Parchemin this first time around.

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Hermès stores in Paris on a typical day are full of Japanese tourists and other visitors, who crowd the stores in search of - like myself - Birkins and Kellys. A good strategy to increase your chance of snagging one of these babies is to show up at 10:30 in the morning, right when the store is just opening. That was what I did on my second visit.

Talk about dedication and motivation! And that’s a lot coming from me, because I’m usually always late for appointments, but not this time.

Yes! I was pretty satisfied and boasted to everyone that the popular belief about how the Birkins bags were so hard to get was just an urban legend…. at least to me..

On my second trip, again I walked in to a Hermès store anticipating yet another flawless experience, and voila! Again I got lucky. This time around, I was helped by a very helpful sales associate.

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The sales girl showed me a yellow Birkin in size 35 and while I was looking at the bag, I felt considerable pressure to exclaim, “Yes, I’ll take it.” Behind me stood a group of tourists who were hovering around like sharks, just waiting for my “no” verdict so they can pounce in on the bag. I was under a lot of pressure from these people to make my decision, yet I was torn between the fact that I do like the yellow-colored bag, but that it was made from Swift leather, which was too soft for my use and abuse. The group of people behind me was getting restless... what should I do? What should I do???

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“I’ll take it,” I heard myself saying.

See how hard it is to be me? I’ve got tremendous pressure from both the sales girl (I could read from her face and body language that basically said, “Take it or leave it. Make up your mind.”) and the group of people behind my back, so I just kept saying “yes” to every single bag the sales girl showed me.

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I said yes to the Yellow Birkin in 35; yes to the Green Kelly 35 in Swift; yes to Birkin 30 in 2-Tones Leather and Canvas; and yes to Orange Kelly in 35 and finally another yes to White Birkin in 35, which I ended up having to relinquish; because there was a 2-bag maximum per person (either Kelly or Birkin), according to the sales girl. Since I was with my husband at the time, we can get a maximum of 4 bags per store policy.

That limit speaks to 2 sides of the coin. On the one side, my husband was pretty happy (and relieved) at this sudden break of luck. To him, not having to open his mouth and argue with me about spending our children’s entire school funds for these bags was a blessing any way he looks at it. On the other side, that wasn’t the best thing for my business and I, where I I can sell these bags at a profit.

On my third trip there, I took along one of my best friends who was also very much on a mission to get herself some Birkins and we literally spend the whole 9 days going back and forth to the Saint-Honoré store. This time around, I, or rather

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we, didn’t get lucky. There was always no stock when we came to the store. Disappointed, we had no other choice but to place an order that will arrive in six months’ time without even knowing just when the bags will actually be ready. Since, Hermes does not ship things to Indonesia, so the only thing we could do was either pick it up in Hong Kong or Singapore; or simply go back to the store (yes, in Saint-Honoré, Paris) -which is of course expensive and very unpractical.

All we could do is wait for another six months,” we pouted, trying to win her sympathy. After some serious ass-kissing session, she finally let us buy one Birkin for my friend and one Kelly for me. We felt sooo much better about our trip afterwards although we really wished that she’d let us buy more bags. What is wrong with us, seriously?

After the sales associate took our order (again limited to 2 bags per person, per season), she said to us, “Great! Now you two ladies are done in Paris.

There’s no need to come to the store anymore; both of you have placed a special order of very special bags. Now you can go to the museum, enjoy the city of Paris, whatever you feel like doing.” My best friend and I looked at each other. And we almost burst out in laughter. We told her, “Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

The next day, we were back at the store. Pathetic.

I know. The sales girl was speechless. “What happened?” she finally asked. “We feel depressed because we don’t have the bags in our hands; we can’t touch them and we can’t feel them.

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FROM

Paris With Love

(And It Comes In A Bag) CHAPTER 3

ALEXANDRA DEWI

WHEN I TRAVEL TO PARIS, I SEE A LOT OF PEOPLE THERE CARRYING THEIR BIRKIN BAGS THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE: AS HAND BAGS. THEY WOULD TREAT THE BAGS AS HOW BAGS SHOULD BE USED: AS ACTUAL CARRY-ALL TO HOLD STUFF IN AND NOT AS A CRITICAL PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE THAT, IF ONE WAS TO BE SEEN IN PUBLIC WITHOUT IT, SHE WOULD INSTANTLY EXPLODE AND VANISH INTO THIN AIR.

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In Paris, people put their Birkins on the floor as they casually eat at crowded street side cafes.

They don’t bother wiping them down afterwards and the bags look like they’ve been used daily, too.

What a stark difference. Here, as some of you probably do (you know who you are), we refuse to peel off the protective stickers on the hardware and buckles long after we buy the bags. Not ever, maybe. And I bet if it starts raining and we forget to bring the rain pouch provided with the bags, some of us will instinctively crouch and shield the bags with our bodies.

Okay, I’m exaggerating here. Relax, girl. I only wanted to make you laugh at the things we do for our Birkins. But I’m trying to illustrate a point that I think we can all relate to, and that is owning one of these gems could be one of life’s greatest pleasures - or it can be a burden.

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Thus, will you be surprised if the rain comes and all I have with me is an umbrella, and I end up putting the bag inside the umbrella instead of my head? Let the rain fall on my head... What’s the worst that can happen?

I’ll catch some cold, fine, but I’ll live. BUT IF MY BIRKIN GOT WET, not only will I suffer emotional scarring, I will likely also suffer some loss of financial investment on that bag, too. Now how sad is that? In a hindsight, girl, to put the wellbeing of a handbag more so than our own health is probably not the best outlook in life.

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Perhaps one of the reasons Parisiennes treat their Birkins to a much more casual approach than us here is simple geography: they live in a city where the bags are more accessible to themand they don’t have to camp outside the stores to check whether there’s any Birkin in stock. We, on the other hand, are on limited constraints (visa, budget, hotel; you name it).

Also, not knowing when we can get, much less purchase, a bag can be quite a frustrating and exasperating experience.

Here’s the perfect illustration of “From Paris With Love”. Allow me to begin by explaining that Hermès stores in Paris do not believe in phone calls. They do not conduct any sales via the telephone lines. They will not call you at the hotel, or any number for that matter, to let you know that they now have a Birkin or Kelly of your desire in stock.

That was the reason I had to go back to the store every 2 hours or so when I was in Paris.

Obviously, life would have been much simpler if the stores are willing to notify me by any means that there is now a Birkin in stock, that they would keep the bag for me in the store but that I

should hurry my ass up and run like hell because they are only keeping the bag for 5 minutes before they auction it off to the gazillionth customer on the waiting list.

That I can live with. But that also can only happen if my last name were “Beckham” or “Winfrey.” In reality my last name is “Dewi” and I need comply with the stores’ policy. But I shouldn’t feel so bad. Words have it that even the big “O” (that stands for “Oprah”) herself had had a less-than-spectacular experience with Hermès. One day I stumbled upon one of Oprah’s TV shows where the CEO or whoever the top executive is at Hermès came on and made a public apology to her about an incident where she wasn’t allowed admission to a private event held by the company… Either the representatives at the event did not know who she was or she was not willing to line up to get in or there was racism at play there, I don’t remember exactly; but to make a long story short, I guess I shouldn’t take it too personally when even Oprah Winfrey ran into a short circuit with this curious company.

Just precisely what makes these bags so alluring

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to women all over the world, from every known social stratum escapes me.

I don’t understand it any better than the next glassy-eyed lady who had just gotten her nth collection of Birkin or Kelly.

Maybe it’s because of the quality. Or, even more probably, maybe it’s because of the prestige; the fact that the bags are not exactly the easiest thing on earth to get: at any given time, a prospective buyer will have to swallow her pride and endure a long waiting list. This is probably true even if your name ends with “Winfrey”.

These factors combined together are what make the Hermes brand so exclusive and its products the ultimate “it” holy grails.

Now, ladies, pay attention. What Hermes did with its brand is probably a very good marketing ploy for us to follow and apply to men. “Quality not quantity” should be our motto. Maybe if we follow Hermès’ culture of “Thanks for inquiring, but we don’t come to you. You want us? Then come and get it yourself,” or, “Take it or leave it,” then at the very least we’d be getting a natural selection of men who are either willing to

obey us or hit the road, just like how Hermès’ had built its very own customer base.

Honestly, to me, the real beauty of a Birkin or a Kelly rests upon the hands that carry it. It really depends on who is carrying the bag, how they carry themselves and most importantly, how that person is really like in her daily life. Beauty comes from within.

A friend of mine who owns a jewelry store told me

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once that the segment of her regular customers, who usually buy very expensive pieces while never bargaining the price down, do not, in fact, own Birkin bags.

On the contrary, those that do come in with flashy Birkins will demand special services and will, in fact, bargain to the last penny. And the funniest thing is, she mused to me, not only will they bargain like there’s no tomorrow but they will also ask to pay in installments. A word of warning, ladies: don’t do this. Seriously. Not unless you like being gossiped by a group of random strangers.

What’s wrong with this picture? What is the point of carrying a Birkin if there’s hardly any money inside that exotic leather that it forces you to pay in installments when you buy another luxury piece?

This is precisely the sort of thing that previously leads me to believe that all people who own Birkin bags are just status-seeking megalomaniacs. I also saw with my own eyes how some of these people act as if they were Kate Middleton just because they carry Birkin bags.

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A Birkin bag, no matter how expensive, no matter how hard to get, will not matter the slightest if the person carrying it does not represent the supreme human qualities such as : Grace, Kindness, Sense of Humor, Humanity and, most importantly, Respect toward one another. Just because we can afford a Birkin bag doesn’t mean that we will instantly turn into a better person.

Au contraire. If you doubt me, try picturing one person that you may have known personally who owns many exotic leather Hermes bags. Use your instinct to deduce whether or not that person has become a better person because of it. Or, maybe you have your own secret collection of Hermes bags In that case, can you honestly say that the more Birkins and Kellys you have in your closet, the better, wiser and happier of a human being you become?

Maybe it’s time we start carrying our Birkins the way Parisiennes carry and use them: like actual handbags, not as compensations of our shortcomings.

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BIRKIN

FEVER CHAPTER 4

FITRIA YUSUF

THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THE BIRKIN BAGS APPEAL ONLY TO THE FEMALE POPULATION ARE GRAVELY MISTAKEN. THEY OBVIOUSLY HAVE NO IDEA THAT THE BAGS HAVE BECOME SUCH A PHENOMENON THAT THEY INFECT EVERYONE REGARDLESS OF SEX (OR LACK OF CLEAR DISTINCTION THEREOF).

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There is, in fact, a Birkin with up to 55 centimeters in length. There is also a Birkin travel bag with a unisex design form. And then there is the Hermès HAC (Haute a Courroies bag, the original bag before the Birkin), which is a type of Birkin with a taller height ratio compared to the regular bags, making the shape look more like a tote bag and the preferred bag of choice for homosexual men because of its design. To be honest, I personally think that just about anyone can get away with carrying a regular Birkin bag since it resembles a little like a doctor’s bag when the buckles are closed...

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I need only point out to Marc Jacobs, the famed boy genius of design, who is often caught strutting the streets of New York and Paris carrying his trusty Birkin bag. Now, the Kelly bag, on the other hand, is definitely better suited for women because of its soft lines and feminine design.

The universal appeal of the Birkin bags obviously results in increased demands from both sexes. I personally know a very stylish gay man who has a stellar collection of exotic leather Birkin bags, enough to motivate any woman (Birkin-obsessed or not) to murder him just so that she could rob his collection. My other gay friends are so addicted to the bags that they cannot stop talking about them.

One day, I was talking to one of them about a tragic incident that befalls our mutual friend. She just lost her house in fire. As concerned and as sympathetic we were feeling toward our friend at the moment, I was by and large tickled hearing his honest, spontaneous reply.

Instead of hearing statements of grief from him, with a pale-stricken face and trembling voice he croaked, “Oh no, goodness dear, luckily it didn’t happen to you. All those Birkin bags of yours! The croco, the lizard, the ostrich… I’d jump into the fire

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and save them first, oh no nono…knock on woods, honey.” He buried his handsome face in his hands.

I was astonished by his response. I teased him back, “Thank God I don’t live with you; if I do, you’d probably save my Birkins and let me burn inside on purpose so that you can inherit my bags!” We both laughed about it, but deep inside we both knew that sadly, this scenario may not be that far off the truth.

The story is just a small example of how phenomenally adored the bags have become. I should also tell you the story of how a gay man cheated and ran away with my Etoupe Birkin bag.

The Birkin fever must have infected him so badly that he was willing to degrade himself so low just for the bag.

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This contagious Birkin fever is not only limited towards gay men. Many straight men are also infected by it, and some are to a worse degree.

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I’ve heard a story about a wealthy businessman who only allows his wife to carry Hermès bags.

Maybe it’s for his image, although in reality it is his wife that does the carrying. Another story was about a father of three who would personally handpick and buy his wife one Birkin or Kelly anytime there’s a special occasion. There is also a family man who would search and order rare kinds of Birkins, such as the Himalaya which costs more than a half billion Rupiahs. And the kicker is that he would order and buy not only one bag, but two, for his mother and wife. What a devoted family man!

The most outrageous story I have about these Birkin “zombies” is about a friend / supplier of mine. Let’s just call him “The Birkin Boy.” He is a well educated, silver spoon-fed man who is as straight as a ruler, loves women with big… er, chests, soccer, basketball, sports car and all things that straight men are fond of. Birkin Boy has a real business and he doesn’t really need to be selling the Birkin bags to make money.

However, his obsession for the bags stems from his utter pleasure when he sees very nice and rare Birkin bags made of exotic leathers.

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He would describe each bag as if the bag is a virtual representation of a voluptuous woman’s body - detailed, full of passion and intensity.

He really should be awarded a doctorate for his knowledge on Birkin bags. Anyways, we started a business relationship because one day, out of the blue, he sent me a picture of a very rare unicorn white Birkin bag made from matte Porosus crocodile. He told me that the price is exuberantly high, yet, it would be such a waste to not share such an enthralling image with someone – namely, me. He obviously didn’t expect me to be able to sell the bag, let alone buy it due to the price, but unbeknownst to him, I had posted the picture of the bag on my profile picture.

Surprisingly, not long after that, a client of mine expressed her interest to purchase the bag.

I text-messaged Birkin Boy to ask whether it is possible to get a lower price from his posted one since my customer tried to bargain a little.

He did not reply immediately, probably thinking that I was not serious. I tried to call him and no answer. After about 10 minutes, he called me back and the first thing he said was, “Hey, I have bad news…” I deflated like a balloon, because at that moment I thought he was going to say that

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the bag was already sold. But then he continued on, “…I cannot give you any discount - the price is fixed.” Whoooaaa…!! I almost screamed (or might have had) and hastily said to him, “No problem, give me your account number and the payment will be transferred to your account by tomorrow.” Birkin Boy must have been amazed by how fast I got his bag sold. He kept asking me who bought the bag, but I, of course, being professional, must never sell and tell.

He also warned me not to faint when the bag arrives in Jakarta. He said the mere sight of unraveling such a beautiful bag is enough to strike anyone into Birkin fever overdrive, just like Birkin Boy’s mother and sister, who ended up dreaming about getting the bag for themselves.

That could spell trouble for me, who is obviously a sucker for these babies. Luckily, I had paid him in advance. Until today, Birkin Boy still confide in me that sometimes he wished he had gotten the bag for himself - and he probably would have, if he had a girlfriend. I, on the other hand, secretly wished that he doesn’t find one soon so that he continues to supply us with those beautiful bags.

Ha ha.

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Birkin Boy is in this business for the fun of it, as the profit from selling the bags are zero to nothing for him. I can be sure of this because he once told me, “Promise don’t tell anyone, but I like trading Birkin bags because I enjoy the kick and adrenaline rush from seeing and selling such nice bags.”

Well, I assume that since I’m not mentioning his real name here, I’m not really breaking my promise to him, am I? After all, I won’t judge anyone who fell head over heels over the Birkin bag. The bag is nothing short but an icon, is hard to get, timeless, durable, possesses certain investment value (can be re-sold at a handsome price) and many other qualities that will understandably lure a person into the temptation of possessing at least one, before, of course, being seduced to have even more.

Dewi and I are examples of only two people who, honestly and admittedly, are infected with a severe case of the Birkin Fever. And we relapse so very often that we decided to make a business out of it.

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The truth is, this Birkin fever is almost like a virus. It can infect anyone, is easily transmitted and there is no known vaccine to immunize yourself from it. The only thing you can do is bite down on your fingers hard, meditate solemnly and hope that you don’t catch it. But then again, everybody catches a fever once in a lifetime, don’t they?

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WHAT WE HAVE

E M A BEC CHAPTER 5

ALEXANDRA DEWI

IN PREVIOUS CHAPTERS FIFI HAD WRITTEN THAT RUNNING THIS HERMÈS TEMPTATION BUSINESS HAVE BROUGHT POSITIVE CHANGES IN OUR LIVES, BOTH ON THE MENTAL ASPECT AND PERSONALITY. IT HAS TAUGHT US TO BE MORE PATIENT, MORE DIPLOMATIC, MORE PERSUASIVE AND TO A LARGE DEGREE, HOW TO BECOME MASTERS OF GRACE UNDER FIRE.

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Speaking of maintaining grace under fire, let me add that being under pressure reveals who we really are underneath. The old saying goes to say that people are just like tea bags to some degree: we don’t know how strong we really are as individuals before we are doused in hot, boiling water. Well, in our case, it turns out that we’re a couple of pretty tough cookies, and well on our ways to become the masters of grace when under fire every single day.

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We also learn that sometimes we lose to win and that keeping our words is very important – hence, we get very frustrated when others can’t keep theirs and we won’t roll in the dirt when things go down. There are too many incidents during our time at Hermès Temptation to tell you, dear readers, of what we have gone through that forces us not only to become better persons but also to get to know ourselves better, so allow me to pick one of two such stories to illustrate my point.

This one time, we received an offer for a hot new merchandise, which is a limited edition sky blue Birkin bag. Within minutes of my posting it into the group forum, we received considerable inquiries left and right and the bag was sold in less than 5 minutes. We were happy. To secure the deal, we immediately tagged the bag and wired the payment, and asked for the bag to be delivered to our hands right away so that we have time to properly check it for quality control. Yes, dear readers, this is the reality of our job – we are the “Founder”, the “CEO”, the “Secretary”, the “Accountant”, the “Debt Collector” and “QCG” (Quality Control Girls), just like Fifi said.

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DE BT COLLE CTOR

C EO S EC RETA

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Carrying that many titles on our hands means that we have to act and adjust our demeanors to reflect these roles, and luckily so far I believe we’ve been carrying them to quite a decent degree.

So anyways, the limited edition sky blue Birkin bag is sold.

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no payme nt no bags We had the bag on its way to the client’s hands when suddenly, the owner of the bag whom we got it from called Fifi and begged and begged her to rescind the sale. Basically she wanted us to call our client, say we’re sorry but that we’d need to take the bag back and return her money. This poor lady who sold the bag to us was being threatened by another re-seller, who happens to be a highranking general’s wife and who wanted the bag just as badly. Having sent the bag to us, she was stuck in between as the bag was no longer in her hands and she was scared that the “general’s lady” will give her a call and demand it.

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Okay. So first and foremost, we have promised our client that the bag is now hers and no matter what happens, we have to keep our words, don’t we? And second of all, a deal is a deal. It goes without saying we must honor it to the best of our abilities.

So with all due respect to the general’s wife, if she persists in getting that particular bag, she should extend the same courtesy and buy the bag from the new owner now, given that she is willing to sell it and with a note of profit. Look, the reality of the fact is these things work just like the stock tickets or properties. You never know what’s going to happen. If you’ve got a good fashion/business sense, then you need to act fast and it may just reward you with a handsome profit at a similarly fast rate of return.

So after some heart-to-heart talk with the original owner of the bag, Fifi managed to convince her that she wasn’t doing anything wrong. Conclusion: problem solved. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, let me assure you that when you’re in the middle of it, simple is anything but. A living hell is more like it. There are so many variables that you have to take into factor, and you’re never sure whether or not

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you’re making the right decision. This time around our seller used the cover of a general’s wife; other times, who knows what she may come up with: Queen Elizabeth, maybe?

Another lesson I learned is to always take a down payment for any order, no matter how small. One time there was this lady client who wanted to buy a wallet and since the price tag is only one-fourth of a regular bag, she said she was just going to pick it up and pay right on the spot. Cash and carry, in her words. Cash and carry-on maybe is more like it.

Anyway, so what happened was we had arranged for the wallet to be ready for pick up at Ivy Boutique (Fifi’s boutique in Plaza Senayan) when suddenly our client changed her mind. Yup, somewhere along the clouds she decided that she just didn’t feel like it anymore. Of course, it escaped her completely that we have to: 1.) Pay our supplier for the product that she claimed was, “Very sure! I want the wallet, very sure!” 2.) Bear the risk that our supplier does not take any refund or exchange or even store credit, for that matter, and, 3.) Consider accepting her change of heart with a simple, “I’m sorry.”

In Christianity, there’s a teaching that says one must forgive those who wronged him or her not

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0 7 x y r r o s i’m just 7 times, but 7 times 70 occasions. I believe that when Jesus said that He was assuming that no one under His guidance would be stupid enough to be fooled that many times.

Thus, as this is her first offense, I decided to seriously forgive her and get on with my life, but the experience did leave me with an improved business model: whatever it is, whoever it is, if you want something, you leave a down payment.

No exception. Not even when you swear on the Holy Bible that you are really, really, really serious times 70 seriousness about getting a merchandise.

But after all that’s said and done, the experiences we got from running this Hermès Temptation can be no more valuable in teaching us that there is always room for growth, no matter the adversaries, and that, in my book, is a cause fully worth fighting for in the whole wide world.

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ho w mu ch?

t a h w ur? colo too ! e v i s n e exp

REPEAT

R E D N E OFF CHAPTER 6

ALEXANDRA DEWI

PEOPLE SAY THAT WOMEN ARE GOD’S MOST COMPLEX CREATION. FROM MANAGING THIS HERMÈS TEMPTATION BUSINESS, ALLOW ME TO ADD THE EMPHASIS THAT SOME WOMEN ARE AS COMPLEX AND AS DIFFICULT AS GOD CAN EVER BARGAIN FOR WHEN HE CREATED THEM IN THE BEGINNING. SOME OF THEM CAN BE DOWNRIGHT WEIRD.

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I myself have encountered my fair share of customers who are every bit as complex, difficult, and, like I said, weird. This chapter is dedicated to some of the more colorful women I’ve encountered during the course of running this Hermès Temptation business. To get your tickle on, read on.

To begin with, unlike a real corporation, we don’t have the luxury of a Public Relations or Customer Service Department to handle this type of customer. We, as the CEO (and the Accountant, the Administrator, the Billings, the Buyer, the Telemarketing, the Information Technology and the....what else is there? Oh yeah, Quality Control.) are it. We’re your proud, friendly, be-allyou-can-be two-woman band.

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So. Let’s get down to business, shall we? Let’s start with this one lady who terrorizes me with the same question over and over and over again. She keeps asking me to send her a picture of a particular merchandise again and again even though she could see it from the BlackBerry group forum that I created for Hermès Temptation.

I mean, seriously, why would you want to ask me in detail about a bag I posted up in the forum, about how much it is and what type of leather and how much stitches it has only to tell me in the end that you have the same exact bag?? I’m happy for you, but with all due respect, is anyone home there? Why? Why are you doing this to me?

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?

And then there is this woman who, instead of buying anything, sends me the pictures of her own Hermès collection and discusses them to no end, while making it clear that NONE of them is for sale. Look, I’m a nice person and all and I try to accommodate everyone who comes to me for a friendly talk as best as I can, but when I have 10 other inquiries I have to respond to in the Hermès Temptation forum at the same time, you will have to pardon me if this is driving me nuts.

? ?

And, please, don’t ask me to arrange with the owner of a bag to see the merchandise only to reveal later that you’re somewhere overseas and don’t know when you are coming back.

In another case of highly complex personality display, a lady would ask me to describe the color of a particular bag to the last precise dot on the color palette, out of the entire color spectrum.

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I’ll admit that I got a pretty good sense on colors and what works with which, but once it strays into the realm whether a shade of blue is that of Prussian Blue or Turquoise Blue, I give up. I have a Birkin Vert Anis bag in green. Green. Someone should have a pretty good idea of what green is. But no. The lady wanted to know what exact shade of green it is.

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Uh…..green as in green like what you see on the picture posted on the forum? Apple Green, isn’t it? Picture not clear? Okay, Grass Green. Does that give you a pretty good idea? What? No, I don’t know if it’s USA-apple green or Malangapple green! For crying out loud, lady, would you just puh-leaze take a look at the bag? The best I can muster is leaf green. I would be more than happy to arrange it for you. But nooooo you would rather just go on endlessly discussing what shade of green the Vert Anis bag is really made of. Lord has mercy on my soul. And the best thing to come out after all this? No sale, of course. Just my fingers numb from all the furious typing of apple this, apple that, grass is green, sky is blue, roses are red and my sore thumbs are about to fall off.

The most common type of inquiry I got is from people asking how much a particular merchandise is and then saying, “Oh, okay, thanks,” or “That is still too expensive for me.”

This is perfectly acceptable to me. But what drives me to the edge of insanity are the people who get mad at me for thinking I’m trying to rip them off. In their minds, I own these bags and I have absolute liberty (and constitutional

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PRELOVED

NEW responsibility) to get them the lowest price below retail. They would quote me exactly how much a bag would cost after tax refund in Paris, Tokyo or Singapore. Anything less than what they have in mind and it’s my fault for being a greedy cat.

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What they seem to have forgotten is that there are the cost of airfare, the hotel and our time spent – both on traveling and on the waiting list – and then there is the fact that once you get to the destination, you won’t even be able to find the bag that you want.

Other customers also sometimes ask me to find secondhand bags or what we prefer to call “preloved.” They specifically ask for secondhand because naturally, the price will be much cheaper.

But what kills me is when they finally get to see the bag that they want - which I have obtained laboriously, I should add - they would turn around and ask, “How come there’s a scratch here?” My standard reply to them would be, “Because it has been USED.” I’m just kidding. Of course I don’t say these things to them. Instead, I would suggest to them to take the bag to a “spa treatment” at Hermès to recondition it for a reasonable couple of hundred dollars and remind them that it truly is a great deal to be had since the price of these secondhand bags can go south of one-third of a brand new one.

Another typical discussion that commandeers long hours of work is about receipt and

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CITES certificate (for exotic leather bags). The CITES certificate, like Fifi wrote previously, is a certificate required for import to non-EU countries certifying that the exotic leathers used to produce the bags come from a CITEScertified farm. CITES stands for “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.”

Some owners do not want to give away the original store receipt and the CITES certificate.

The reasons for that vary. It could be that an owner receives a bag as a gift and thus does not have a receipt. Some simply lost the original store receipt or forgot to ask for the CITES certificate when they bought the bags. Others fear that Hermès will use either the store receipt or CITES certificate to track down and black list the respective owners for re-selling the bags.

These are just some of the more common reasons that I hear over time, but there many, many more which will require me to write an entire chapter for them, so let’s leave it at that. But I’d like to re-visit my last point about the CITES and original store receipt as they present a particularly challenging set of problems in this business.

The CITES alone is especially problematic as it is

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And it takes time to get a CITES certificate.

When an item enters a country especially strict about CITES, even if we claim that the bag is for personal use, you’d better have all your documents ready. Something has to show that the bag is not a counterfeit first, and that the skin did not come from a wild animal.

COUNTERFEIT

ORIGINAL RECEIPT

required for import / export of exotic leather bags to show that the skin did not come from hunted wild animals.

Most countries in the world honor CITES agreement and the certificate must be issued before the item can leave the country in question.

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The issue of counterfeit Hermès is also a serious and taxing one for our business. Often, we’d get a bag that has no receipt (due to various reasons cited by the owners as I wrote previously) but we know that the bag is real. We will not, under any circumstances, accept any Hermès bag for sale from someone we don’t know for precisely that reason. However, the situation where we have a bag that we know is real but possess no receipt makes it very difficult for us to explain to potential clients the what, why, when, where and how the bag came to be. This situation is aggravated by misperceptions by the general public. Did you know that a single receipt is not a sole guarantee that the bag is real? If you’ve never owned an Hermès bag before, then there’s a good chance that you don’t really know what an Hermès is supposed to feel like, how it handles and what the bag really stands for.

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I don’t mean to be haughty here, but it is more than likely you will not be able to spot the differences of a top-quality counterfeit Hermès bag that comes complete with the receipt and box from the real one.

This whole subject is too long to discuss here, but I merely wanted to make my point that selling these bags require us to possess excellent, unerring product knowledge as well as documentation and/or paperwork proficiency to help us differentiate between the fake and the real thing. As the proud, friendly, be-all-youcan-be two-woman band and heads of Hermès Temptation, we want nothing more from our clients than to carry their bags with their heads held high in the air, also proud and confident owners of authentic Hermès bags. We absolutely do not mind going the extra miles to obtain our clients’ trust and peace of mind, knowing full well that these bags ain’t cheap, baby.

compels me to count backwards from 10 to 0 are the kind of customers who seem to struck conversations with me just to kill their boredom and by being difficult.

Now, I have come to terms with the risks and the challenges in running this business, but I have to thank you, difficult customers whoever-you-maybe, for helping me grow tremendously just from doing this BlackBerry chat group forum.

Because of you, I made a promise to myself to not be a difficult customer to some other customer services I come in contact with. I promise myself to be an easy-going customer. Because of you, I’ve learned to become a better person.

But, since this chapter is dedicated to God’s most complex creation, I’ll have to end this with a note of humor highlighting the topic at hand.

Sometimes, what really tickles me silly and what

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TRUTH

THE UGLY

CHAPTER 7

FITRIA YUSUF

(NOT SO LONG AGO), IN MY LATE TEENAGE YEARS, FINDING SOMEONE WHO TOTES A BIRKIN BAG IN JAKARTA WAS LIKE TRYING TO FIND A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK. THE BAG WAS AS RARE AS THE RED DIAMOND. ONLY VERY FEW PEOPLE IN THIS TOWN WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO CARRY IT.

And when someone does, people all around will literally turn their heads or at least glare at the person. Most of the early owners were established and mature ladies, if not wives of prominent businessmen in this country. To see one with regular leather was rare enough, let alone the exotic leather ones; spotting one of those was akin to spotting the comet Haley!

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It was different back then. The bag was like the ultimate icon of luxury in style. I remember an episode from the television series Sex and the City, where Samantha Jones, a character in the series whose role is a well-known publicist for celebrities, was depicted as not being able to get the bag. And I thought to myself, “If even she could not get it, what chance do I have?” Rumors have it that the waiting list for a single bag can take up to 2 years (it was six).

I remember that the price of a Birkin size 35 then was around US$5,000, at a time when bags from other brands only cost less than US$1,500.

The price of the same size Birkin Bag with Togo leather can be up to US$10,000 today.

Strangely, as the prices soar up, more and more people become obsessed with the bags.

I remember walking into an Hermes store in Takashimaya, Japan, to put down my name on what I call “The Hermes Book of Judgment” a.k.a. The Dreaded Waiting List. When they opened the list, I saw many names, with my name probably on the 28th place or even more. I can’t remember my exact position, but the funny

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thing was most of the names listed there were Indonesian. Most of whom, of course, are wealthy and influential people. Great, I thought, it might take forever for me to get the bag.

I sometimes see Parisiennes, New Yorkers and Tokyo women toting the Birkin bag when traveling. Those who carry the bag always look understatedly chic; never nouveau riche. The inherent design and style of the bag is indeed simple: no flashy logos, or, God forbid, tawdry pattern all over the body. It only has minimal, yet classy accents. I love the bag mostly for its simplicity, durability and the fact that it will never go out of style. “One day,” I promised myself back then, “I’m going to reward myself with it.”

In my head, I pictured myself looking as stylish as Grace Kelly or Jane Birkin, walking down the street, my long legs swinging spiritedly in the bright sun, my head held high and my hair bounces beautifully while a lustrous Birkin or Kelly bag dangling attractively from my slender arm complete the look. Ahh…that was the dream.

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But times are different now, and things aren’t what it used to be. These days you can see high school kids and actresses and housewives carry the bag. From Lindsay Lohan to Carla Bruni to Heidi Klum to Victoria Beckham – they all have one. Mrs. Beckham, however, is an extraordinary exception as she always gets those rare, limited and hard-to-find ones.

Today, if you go to any high society event, you’ll see Birkins and Kellys with all kinds of variations, from jeweled tones to muted colors in almost everyone’s hand. The Hermes company itself, seeing great opportunity for success, had expanded its production capacity to bolster the quantity of bags it can bring to the market, but demands still outweigh the output. The demands for the bags are still very high even until this minute.

There is no doubt that Hermes bags have become the undisputed symbol of status in our society.

Without intending to pass any judgment, some might believe that without the bag, they won’t be accepted in whatever society they want to be in. Some, on the other hand, will only be nice to other people who carry the bag. Is this a new

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phenomenon? Are we what we carry? Does the bag determine our social status, or is it the other way around? Those who agree with this kind of thinking will behave crassly or even ruthlessly as a result.

I have heard many comical yet appalling stories about those who are willing to go beyond common sense to obtain the bag. There were those who try to coax the store salesperson with expensive gifts and presents so that she’d sell the bag to them, never mind if the bag is already reserved for someone else. Or those who pretended to see a bag and try to exchange it with a fake one. And let’s not forget catfights happening between two girls fighting over the same Birkin bag.

Friends can become foes; and civility can quickly deteriorate into disgrace just because of the obsession over the bags. It is no wonder why re-sellers of Hermes bags, seizing on the opportunities, flourish faster than grass (including us). People are willing to pay 20 – 30 per cent more to get the bags now rather than having to wait on the list! And still, in this business, one must always be vigilant about

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dishonest re-sellers who are rumored to be selling fake Hermes bags.

I received two messages from my contacts on the popular social networking site Facebook warning me to be careful with two different ladies as they apparently climb the social ladder by way of taking pictures with famous people, socialites and celebrities and then posting them up on Facebook, claiming that they know them. By doing this they are trying to build the credibility that the bags they are selling is real. Buyers beware!

I myself have experienced the ugly truth from this whole Birkin mania. It was perhaps due in part to my naivetĂŠ, but at the end of the day it was a bitter experience that showed me the other side of the human nature.

There was this who acted as if he knew everyone in the whole wide world. My gut instinct told me that there was something wrong with this guy, but when he kept calling and forcing me to sell my brand new Etoupe Birkin size 40 to him, which he said he wanted to give to his mother, I finally relented and sold it to him.

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This was before I dabbled in the Hermes Temptation business, so I didn’t have an organized payment system set up. I was doing it for fun, and, having never before encountered a swindler in my circle of association, I naïvely trusted him when he said that he’ll pay me right after he received the bag. Tragically, he ran away with my bag, leaving nothing but empty promises. Imagine a girl like me having to chase down such a crook. I ran around calling debt collectors and debt specialist; I tried going through his family and even threatened them so that I could get to him; I even considered calling a hit man to track him down.

Okay, I lied about the last one, but the thought to hire a Private Investigator did cross my mind.

But just so you know, with the kind of price that the bag has, it actually is worth it to hire a hit man.

it was entirely my fault for trusting someone I barely knew. This was a hard earned lesson and up until today I am still trying to get him to pay the remaining balance that he owes me. From some people I heard that he posted a BlackBerry Messenger profile picture of him posing with my stolen bag in his hands. I think he is the perfect example of someone who firmly believes that having the bag will earn him a place within the crème de la crème of society.

I pity him.

The truth is the bag will probably get you some friends. But these are not friends who will stand by your side through thick and thin. If you have the buying power, then absolutely go right ahead and get the bag – it’s such a great piece of investment. However if you have to go through hell and back just for that little recognition from the high society, that’s something that I definitely do not recommend.

I was having a tough time with this. The regret is undeniably obvious, but at the same time I cannot get mad at or blame anyone because

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Happiness does not come from the list of things that you own. It’s what’s in your heart. I really believe, and this is common sense, no one should sacrifice his or her dignity just for the sake of a bag.

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I find it inevitable however for the society to feel such pressure. The glitz and glamour life of celebrities, socialites alike are always exposed in the media. Magazines, television, movie help creating this mindset. Tv series such as Gossip Girls for example, portrays how school students discriminate each other based on their social status. I find it sad however that even adults behave in the same way. I believe that this does not have to be the case. At least not for me.

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So maybe you don’t own a Birkin or a Kelly bag – so what? Never ever let anyone make you feel unworthy just because you do not own a particular something. Believe me when I say that your self esteem, sincerity and honesty are much more important. And believe me when I say that maintaining your reputation for integrity is priceless. You can always buy a Birkin bag with 12X 0% installment but you can never buy back a tarnished reputation and that, my friends, is just the ugly truth!

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THE FRENCH

I O N1) C O N N E C T(PART CHAPTER 8

ALEXANDRA DEWI

ANOTHER TRIP TO PARIS. JUST FOR 3 NIGHTS. HERE WE GO AGAIN. I WISH I COULD TELL MY SENIOR BUSINESS ASSOCIATES IN EARNEST THAT I WAS GOING THERE FOR SOME IMPORTANT BUSINESS DEAL THAT WILL INCREASE OUR STRATEGIC ALLIANCE OR TO EVALUATE SOME FACTORY. But the truth was that I needed to pick up some bags that I ordered last year. At long last, they have finally arrived. I mentioned in earlier chapter that my friend and I had ordered the maximum number of bag allowed during our visit, which was not a lot - one Birkin and one Kelly is all without really knowing how we were going to get them. But now that the bags were almost in our clutches, we were faced with two options regarding the logistics of this feat.

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7 per cent GST from the total value of the bags, which, with the kind of price tags that the bags have, would equal to a full airplane ticket to Paris and back. Was that really a choice at all?

Nay, it was pretty obvious: going to Paris ourselves to fetch the bag was a much better option compared to the rest, plus the added bonus of being able to see whatever new collection was available in the flagship store proved to be a tempting prospect.

In essence, it was a simple option: we could opt for the bags to be sent to Indonesia along with the inherent risk of losing them along the way, or having the bags seized by the customs agents and shell out a sum of payment equaling that of one of your healthy kidney. Or alternatively we can send the bags to Singapore and pay the

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My travel partner was the same friend who traveled with me last year when we ordered the bag, who, by that time, was on her fifth months of pregnancy. And a week or two before our departure date, the news on TV have been constantly reporting about some exploding I-don’t-care-and-don’t-know-where mountain in Europe (it was the Eyjafjallajokull), which was apparently pretty bad because it caused many airports in and flights to Europe being canceled.

Naturally, her husband and her mother were worried of the possibility of us getting stranded at one of those airports. The husband was trying to convince us to postpone our flights or at least

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reconsider our trip. He was doing an extensive research of similar situation in the past while his wife, or my friend, broadcasted every nugget of intelligence via BlackBerry Messenger with me in the hope that I would cancel our trip. One of the research he did was about another mountain somewhere in Indonesia – again, ask me if I care what the name was – which erupted sometime back in 1996 or 1997 and also rendered airplanes inoperative due to thick smoke and dust in the air. Lord Almighty, he might as well have hinted that if you’re crazy enough to fly in those conditions, then you probably deserves to die anyway.

His extensive, paranoia-inducing research nevertheless caused me to scramble and ask every living person I know in Europe and especially Paris how things were really like over there. My friend Mimi, who lives in Paris, said that nothing is out of the ordinary and it was clear blue sky and business as usual. A friend in Geneva and friends of friends all over Europe all reported that judging from the improvements in flight and airport activities; it appeared that the worst had passed. My logic reasoned that even if the worst thing should happen, which would

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p i h s d n frie

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be the closure of Paris airport; all we had to do is simply stay a few days longer in the city.

And so based on that, I told my pregnant friend that I was still planning to go ahead with my flight, relying on last-minute intelligence from my friend Mimi in Paris. My pregnant friend called me stubborn and insane. But in the end, she proved to be even more insane as she found herself boarding the plane with me, massive belly and all.

I really can’t emphasize just how blessed I am to have great friends in life, including her; friends who are so reliable, so dependable and who excel in different areas than mine. Good friends are like life’s perfect mirrors: they point out your flaws and they tell you the cold, hard truth when you need one. And I treasure them with all my heart. As for my pregnant friend, besides Fifi, she is my only other closest friend who is as passionately and as crazily in love with Hermes as I am. I am very lucky to have her, not just to gossip about the bags in particular but also to share our point of view on life in general.

However, in light of my friend’s particular condition, believe me when I say that you would much rather

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travel alone to Paris than with a pregnant woman as you will have to make certain accommodations or prepare yourself for certain…let’s just say… predicament.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help my friend when the need arises. But God forbid that if anything should happen to her pregnancy while I was with her, I will probably pass out long before she does.

But then again, I would rather travel with a pregnant woman than with someone who isn’t pregnant but is annoying as hell. I would gladly deal with my friend’s heavy luggage all the way than to deal with some people who appear to be nice and sweet, but would take advantage of you every single time they get the opportunity.

I believe these kinds of people have a personality disorder I call “passive-active, advantage-taking, backstabbing friend,” personality disorder. I think you know what I mean, and most probably know one yourself. That was why when her husband finally gave the OK for her to go, I was very happy.

Although her pregnancy did serve as somewhat of a wild card, it was cool beyond awesome to be able to go with my best friend.

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We are not exactly your stereotype spoiled brats, but sadly after passing certain age we just can’t handle sitting in Economy Class in any flight lasting longer than 3 hours tops.

Now, the flight to Paris would last 14 hours.

I can already picture it: limping from the numbness in my leg and butt off the Economy Class flight, I look like a Hurricane Katrina victim; face pale, hair jutting out every which way and dark, raccoon-like circles puffing up around my eyes. I shudder at the thought.

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However, given the situation surrounding the volcano eruption, we were also aware that minimizing transit points is probably a wise thing to do, especially in European airports. We didn’t want to push our luck with Air France’s Business Class route of Singapore - Amsterdam - Paris, so we decided to downgrade a notch to a Deluxe Economy route that travels straight from Singapore to Paris. How bad could it be? I mean, it is Deluxe Economy after all, with the emphasis on the word “deluxe.” And it was really, really not bad at all! For the first 3 hours, that is. After we finished watching a movie and falling asleep, on the eight hour I woke up with numbness and pain in my back. I got up to use the restroom and relieve some of the pressure.

My pregnant friend, who was seated on the aisle (as she needed to use the restroom a lot), was sleeping and I tried my very best not to wake her, but with that kind of space it was simply impossible not to disturb her as I wormed my way out of the window seat and out onto the aisle.

When I returned from the rest room she was already awake. I asked her, “Do you regret taking this Deluxe Economy?” She replied in this feeble, fading voice, “A lil’ bit…” I cracked out loud, knowing her full well, because coming from her,

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1. GO TO HERMES 2. BLA...BLA...B STORE 3. BLA..BLA.. LA...

4. BLA.

this translates to, “YES! I regret it very much!”

When she first sat down, she was the one who blurted out the bravado, “See? It’s not that bad. We shouldn’t be so spoiled! Look at how much difference this place is compared to the regular economy. Plus, we are petite,” and bla, bla, bla. Yeah, that was what you think then.

Ten or eleven hours later, she sat up straight and said, “I will never do this again. Crap!

Cannot NOT have money!“ I love it. There you go. I love it when someone says it that way.

We laughed and laughed at our silly mess and I was promptly reminded of a MasterCard advertisement scenario: Business Class ticket to Europe: USD5500. Hermes bag in flagship store:

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EUR5900. Sitting in Deluxe Economy Class with your best friend and sharing a laughter: priceless.

The good news was that when we arrived in Paris, it was clear blue sky, with nary a particle of dust. If I weren’t so haggard from sitting in the Deluxe Economy, I would have taken a picture of the blue sky and sent it my pregnant friend’s husband just to prove that his paranoia was baseless, and to give him a peace of mind so he won’t pester my friend with phone calls every hour or so. We arrived at 6 AM Paris time and had breakfast, settled in and then, after that, of course, we promptly embarked on a day tour to Lourdes to pray there. Wait. Go back one step.

Did you actually believe we did that?

Sorry, but nope. We feasted like queens on some hearty Parisian breakfast while instant messaging our husbands informing of our safe arrival, then after a quick freshening up, we fetched a cab and like a couple of professional assassins we proceeded to hunt down our prime target: the Hermes flagship store.

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This is day 1 of D-Day. Along the way, I also messaged my dearly missed business partner, Fifi, because at that time I was traveling not only with a pregnant woman but also with a very special Jaune crocodile Birkin bag. What is so special about that bag, you ask? Should I not be bringing back a handbag from Paris, not to Paris? Well, for one thing, that particular bag belongs to our customer. And that bag needs a CITES certificate.

Didn’t I say that we are more than willing to go the extra miles to ensure that each and every customer of ours is satisfied and confident that she is indeed getting an original Hermes bag?

Action speaks louder than words; I’ll let my traveling all the way here just to get the CITES certificate speak for itself.

As I have secured an appointment with the sales girl at the Hermes store the next day, I made a special point to stop by at the store today just to give her some “souvenirs” from Indonesia. One day before my actual appointment. And not to buy a bag. No, I didn’t want her to think that the “souvenirs” have any strings attached to them or any hidden agenda behind them. And they don’t. Really.

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You can think whatever you want about me, but I’ll tell you the real reason why I’m giving these souvenirs to the sales girl in the next chapter.

Another thing I realized and learned from this Hermes hunt game is that we – Fifi and I and all that’s involved – is that we shouldn’t worry about what other people think of us.

Of course, that’s just another popular quote that you often hear, but in reality we really need to try to apply it in our everyday lives. To be continued ..

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T H E FR E N C H

CONNECTION

(PART 2) CHAPTER 9

ALEXANDRA DEWI

THE FRENCH CONNECTION part 2 GIVING “SOUVENIRS” THAT I BROUGHT ALL THE WAY FROM INDONESIA TO AN HERMES SA (STORE ASSOCIATE) LADY, WHO HAVE BEEN SO NICE TO ME ALL THIS TIME, ASSISTING AND ANSWERING MY ENDLESS QUESTIONS ABOUT THE HERMES BAGS WITH SEEMING INFINITE PATIENCE, ARE ONLY NATURAL, IF NOT THE DECENT THING TO DO.

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How nice was she treating me, you ask? Well, most of the time when I called the store in Paris, she was always busy doing something somewhere but if I leave my name and number, she would miraculously call me back. And I appreciate that. Truly.

So, in my life’s dictionary, giving this small token of appreciation is really something that I would do to just about anyone whom I want to show my gratitude to. No hidden meaning. No cat-in-thehat. But in the wacky and mysterious world of the Hermes universe, the popular belief says that giving a gift, any gift, to any breathing, living soul inside an Hermes store equals bribe. Plain, simple and prejudiced. So naturally, it made me feel uncomfortable in giving it to her in plain view.

But how do I do it?

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The gift itself is a handmade necklace with key pendant adorned with tiny pieces of diamonds.

It’s a very simple design, and nothing bling about it. Nonetheless, it is made from real white gold and diamonds and I want her to know that this is not an imitation that will turn her neck green if and when she decides to wear it. But at the same time, I also don’t know how to subtly deliver it without sounding like I’m trying to bribe her with diamonds. So I turn to the PR Manager of Hermes Temptation, Fifi, for advice. Fifi told me to just give it to her casually, with a blank note that says, “I hope you like this diamond necklace; just like Birkins, diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

Brilliant! I thought. This will do it. She can open the gift and read the card later and mission accomplished.

So that was exactly what I did, except that I altered the note a little bit: “I hope you like the diamond necklace as diamonds are a girl’s best friends.” I took out the “Birkin” as I don’t want her to think that the gift will make her obligated to hook us up with any Birkin.

Anyway, on day 1 my friend and I went to the store and while chatting over the packing of

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our bags that we ordered last year, I casually gave the gift to her without so much mentioning anything having to do with Birkin or Kelly. We handed it over, picked up our bags and left.

Mission accomplished, I thought. But the next day, she called me and said that she loved the necklace, but in order to keep it she had had a 2 hours conversation with her manager, because

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Hermes company policy states that all gifts, save for food and beverage, must be approved by the manager. Cash gift is strictly prohibited and anything that has a good cash value is also not allowed. Good thing our gift was personalized and the necklace won’t be worth anything if she tries to sell them. The diamonds are simply too small to be resold for any cash.

She thanked us for the gift but she said that it was not necessary. We told her that we felt compelled to and that we truly wanted to give it to her, and she explained again about the strict rule from the company about gift. We said we understood. Now, it was then day 2, and it was the day of my appointment with her, and she had promised to sit with us to see what she can get us.

As we had came in the month of May, it was the end of the summer collection and not many stuff were left that can be ordered and delivered within 3 - 6 months time. New order time will be in September, she explained, with new colors and collections. On top of that, since we also requested exotic skin bags (lizards, ostrich or crocodile), she said that we can only buy one annually. I repeat: ONE exotic skin bag per YEAR.

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I looked at my friend in horror and I could see that she was struggling to processi this information.

From the remaining summer collection list, all that was left of the exotic skins Kellys or Birkins were: Kelly 35 Orange Alligator matte, Kelly 32 Orange Shiny PorosusSellier with Gold Buckle and Birkin 30 Ostrich in Grey. Since I prefer the Kelly over Birkin, I immediately placed an order of Kelly 32 Orange Shiny Porosus in Gold Buckle and my friend ordered the Birkin 30 in Grey. After which our good SA girl promptly said, “Thank you for your order. Your next order allowance for exotic skin products will be after summer 2011.” I didn’t say anything, but I heard a faint whisper on my left as my friend muttered “Sadis..” which means “brutal” in Bahasa. So we asked about the regular leather Birkin or Kelly. Surely we can still order them since they’re not exotic skins?? But she said that since we just picked up our bags yesterday, which were one Birkin and one Kelly, we cannot buy anymore Birkin or Kelly this year. Wait-waitwait-a second there! We scrambled to explain to her that those bags were last year’s order; ordered and paid almost in full last year, with the remaining balance paid just yesterday.

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That’s precisely why, she said, unfortunately somehow the computer system recognizes the transaction as two bags were being bought yesterday and that, my friend, logged us in as reaching our limit for order this year. So once again my friend and I sat in silence and once again I heard a faint whisper coming from my left, this time perhaps muttered subconsciously: “Sadis…” But by this time I would choose the word “TRAGIC!!!!” But what can we do? Rule is rule.

And so we thanked her for her time and she said, “Why don’t you guys come back tomorrow and I will talk to my manager and see what I can do. I can’t promise anything but we’ll see tomorrow, as now we don’t have any Birkin or Kelly anyways.” My friend asked, “Not even a mini one in size 25?” The SA replied, “Not even that.” The rest of the day we started regretting coming to Paris after all as we seem to have come for almost nothing. The only hope we had is that tomorrow there will be a dash of light at the end of the tunnel.

Day 3. Full of hope, we walked into the store and looked for our SA; this time we didn’t even

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bother coming in early since we have very little hope anyway, and as predicted our SA said that there was no Birkin or Kelly available that day.

Not even the mini one in size 25 as my friend had asked yesterday - and today asked again. I was already pretty defeated by the time we came to the store early that morning, but my friend wanted to try her luck at another Hermes branch and she actually got pretty lucky: she found a Kelly Lakis size 32 in etoupe. Meanwhile, I was busy processing the documentation for the Jaune Shiny Porosus that I had brought from home for a customer.

I went to an Hermes “expert” who was this old Frenchman to get the proper authentication and while examining the bag, he suddenly looked up and said, “This bag is not from Hermes.”

If I ever knew what it feels like to have my heart skip a couple of beats, this was it. I thought I was going to faint. But since I was sure that the bag is real, I inquired politely to him, “Sir, what made you say that?” He said, “Look at this buckle, it is discolored. It should not be this way.” I looked at it and said, “But sir… there’s protective plastic covering the buckle.” (Remember what I wrote earlier about us refusing to peel off

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the protective plastic sticker from our precious Hermes buckles? That was the same sticker this guy was looking at). He put on his thick, bug-eye glasses and peeled back the protective sticker.

My heart sank even further. Dude, I don’t know how happy my customer will be to see the sticker peeled off. But then the Frenchman immediately exclaimed, “Aaaahhh no wonder….. I thought there’s no way that Hermes would make a buckle this blurry.”

If I ever knew what it feels like to want to punch someone and hug him at the same time, this was it. However, I chose to sit politely and wait for whatever else he might throw. He then said he wanted to speak to the owner, so I called Fifi (posing as the owner) and after a short clarification and explanations he then proceeded to make the papers for the bag’s authentication.

That was, of course, after he examined at the bag from every angle there was. He said that if the bag was indeed a fake, he would have to detain it and report me to the authority. I thought to myself, “If you do such thing, I will definitely scratch and claw my way out of here. WITH THE BAG, of course.”

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So finally, the bag was authenticated and I got the paperwork to back that up, but the whole emotional roller coaster left me pretty drained. I met up again with my pregnant friend who was beaming with her etoupe Kelly Lakis in size 32.

Later that afternoon, which was our last night in Paris (we were to go back to Singapore very early in the morning tomorrow), I was getting pretty desperate. Okay, I lied. I was very desperate to get any Kelly or Birkin. My SA showed me almost every other popular design besides the Kelly and Birkin that was available like the Lindy or jypsiere, but no good. I felt like I should give up on life when suddenly my Sales Associate said, “Sorry, I have to take a break, but let me introduce you to my associate. Don’t worry, he is better than me.” So in he came, a new male SA, and we were a bit disappointed at first to have to deal with someone we didn’t really know.

But then he suddenly blurted out, “Apa-kabar?” (how are you?) And, surprised, I replied, “Hey, you speak Bahasa (Indonesia)!” He told us about his many trips to Singapore, Thailand, Bali and Jakarta, where he said a lot of his clients are

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based at. My friend asked him, “Do you guys get like a commission here?” He replied, “If I do get a commission, do you think I will chat with you guys here for like 2 hours? I would have kicked you out and go for the next customer or poison all my colleagues so I can get all the commission!” I immediately liked his sense of humor and spontaneously asked if he’d like to join us for a drink after work.

Surprisingly, he said, “Sure. I get off at 6:30 and I will go home and change and meet you guys up at wherever.” So we exchanged phone numbers and e-mails and off we went our ways. But not before (out of desperation) buying myself a Gypsierre bag. My friend also shot randomly if he had any more Kelly Lakis as for sure there were neither more Birkins nor Kellys that day, and he took out a black Kelly Lakis size 32, but the stamp initial on it was “K”.

My friend went, “Humm… Hemm… I see… My mom has exactly like this one…. And hmm…. The stamp is K… and oh gosh darn it…. I don’t know if I should… It’ll be such a waste of money…

Hmmm… Okay, I’ll take it.” I looked at my friend and said, “How desperate are we?” We laughed.

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Yes, we were pretty desperate housewives.

We came back to the hotel and tried to do some packing before meeting our “French connection” later at 8 PM. Our tiny room was full of orange boxes scattered everywhere and we could barely walk around. We needed a strategy on how to bring all these bags home.

The Jaune Shiny Porosus, of course, was absolutely super-glued to my hand as that was the most expensive item on hand and it was not even mine. I also picked up another B25 in lizard rouge, belonging to a customer and 4 other bags of my own. It was suddenly 7:50 PM by the time we had packed most of our stuff, and, as exhausted as we were, we still managed to go to Cafe De L’Homme where we had the dinner appointment with our “French Connection.”

He was a young man, going to be 32 years soon and very polite, very friendly and rather decent character as he did not take advantage of the situation by ordering a 500 Euros bottle of wine.

My friend was pregnant so clearly she couldn’t consume any alcohol and I didn’t like to drink by myself, so he just ordered a wine and some liquor by the glass. We had a nice dinner and dessert,

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and even nicer view of the Eiffel Tower and interesting conversation.

He said he has been working for Hermes for 3 years now, and prior to that he worked in Armani, where he said he was bored to death and when he got the interview at Hermes he said his manager explained about the Birkin, the Kelly and how crazy the demands can be and that he could imagine what kind of job it is to repeat “I am so sorry, we don’t have any Birkin or Kelly today” for about 20 - 30 times a day. He said he told his manager, “I don’t know and have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

I thought you guys are selling scarves.” His manager loved it! He got accepted and how time flies… Now it has been 3 years long that he has worked in Hermes and he said that what we had just spent for this trip was probably his one year’s worth of salary and he was okay with that.

He also said that he was grateful to have met so many rich yet humble people and be friends with them from this job. He showed us pictures on his iPod of all his customers all over Asia, mostly based in Jakarta, Bali and Singapore. And he knows Bali more than we do.

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We also talked about the TV series The Sex and the City and being a relationship writer, I took the opportunity to ask his opinion about the bestselling book He’s Just Not That Into You that was inspired from The Sex and the City TV series. I asked him: let’s just say a girl invites a man up to her apartment and he refuses, saying that he has to work real early tomorrow. Does that mean that he’s just not into her? His reply: Double yes! Most definitely. “We men are very simple and we don’t refuse any offer on sex, especially if the girl is attractive,” he explained. I told him that I received some letters from my readers and there is this married woman who has a lover, who wants to have a “relationship” with her but without the sexual aspect of it. He said, “I have never heard of such a thing before.

What is the point of having a relationship if you skip the sex? And I bet there is something seriously wrong with a man who does not want sex. Something physical, maybe, like he has 3 balls or his penis is too small or he’s Mr. Two Minutes (meaning suffering from premature ejaculation) or a combination of all these things.”

We laughed and laughed and I said, “Come on.

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Maybe there are special circumstances. What if at the time the girl gives you the green light, you happened to wear the wrong underwear?” He answered, “Well, to begin with, I don’t wear the wrong underwear.

My underwear is always clean and says Dolce &Gabbana on top of it.” We continued to just crack up the rest of the evening and had so much fun. He even gave a serious thought about what would happen if he wears a Mickey Mouse underwear when the opportunity presents itself.

He said he would take off his jeans together with the underwear in one fast swooping motion that the girl won’t be able to see it. And when she’s not looking, he would throw the underwear out the window or eat it if he has to. He said he’ll find a solution one way or the other to get a home run on the girl. I laughed. I love people who tell it the way it is; openly and with a sense of humor that allows him or her to laugh at one self as sometimes we really need to just laugh it off.

He then said he appreciated it that we didn’t talk about the bags nonstop. He told us that once, there was this lady customer he went out with who just couldn’t stop talking about the bags

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and what he can do for her even when he begged her to stop and talk about something else. He said he had to leave by the time the main course arrived because she still rambled on about the same subject. But of course, we talked about the bags in the middle of the dinner, however sparsely, about the black market price of the bags and how I wished I own a 3-colors leather Birkin one day but that I want to get it from the Hermes store and not from the black market.

He said to me, “Give me the color combination that you want and I will make the order for you both.” My friend and I, looking at each other and trying with all our might to hold our grins, verified to him, “Are you just saying this ‘cus you’re tipsy?” He replied, “I’m not tipsy. I’ve only had 2 or 3 glasses of small drinks. Come by the store tomorrow and we’ll do that.”

Upon hearing that, my friend and I could sense each other out; without even saying a word, without even exchanging any look; we both felt like screaming on top of our lungs, “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!!!!!!” However, both of us managed to keep our cool - at least until this man is out of sight. Here’s the thing with my

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friend and I: we’re not exactly twins, yet we share so many character traits that we seem to share an almost psychic connection with each other.

We’re also pretty proud individuals, so we don’t easily show our emotions in front of just any strangers.

See? This trip wasn’t a total disaster after all. I sincerely would like to continue to be friends with

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this new sales guy even though he may no longer works for Hermes one day, which means I would not be able to get any more bags through him.

But he was a fun guy and we had a very enjoyable conversation, and having another great friend in life is always a blessing for me.

The next day, he kept his promise. He took our orders and said to us that the fact was that he was not a magician; we would still have to wait until the bags were done, which were approximately 6 to 8 months time. Only then can he submit the order, and the soonest that the ordering season opens is in September 2010, and we’d need to wait for that, too. He also said that he had one Birkin that day but that he could not give it to us as the computer system would not allow him to input any more order from us.

I almost forgot to tell you that I had actually brought my friend back to the store yesterday to place an order for a B35 Alligator Matte under her name, Again, my regular female SA said that she could not do it as my friend Mimi did not have any record in the Hermes system. Not everyone can just place an order for an exotic leather product even if she has the money to pay.

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I verified this with my new friend, the male SA we had dinner with the other night, just to double check. I asked him, what if someone had just won the lottery and she has never bought an Hermes ever before, can she then order a Croco? He said, “No.” Wow, I started to think that maybe Hermes do have waaayy too much money. Why do they make it so difficult for a customer to get their products?? I heard that if you want to get an exotic Birkin or Kelly on your first visit to the store, what you can do, although this isn’t the best or particularly rewarding solution, is to buy their other products such as their ready-to-wear, China or a 100,000 Euros Hermes Watch. Yeah, you’ll be stuck with things you don’t want, like or won’t use, but heyyyy……at least you’ll come home with a brand spankin’ new Croco Birkin!

This sort of system is exactly what makesthe black markets of Birkin and Kelly flourish out there. Yes, you pay much more than the store but at the very least you don’t have to buy, for example, 50,000 Euros worth of plates that you probably won’t ever use.

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On our last day in Paris, our flight was at 9 PM and so we still had time to meet our French connection who had kept his words and took our orders of 3-colors Birkin bags. He was also very helpful in helping us choose the colors he knew were available. It was pretty confusing to choose the colors as there are so many types of colors and leathers and how I wish I could order more… Which I tried anyway. I cooed to him, “How about one more 3-color Kelly?” I batted my eyes.

“Ha!” he laughed, “you greedy cat.

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I said one Birkin for each of you and those will be under your husband’s name. I never said anything about Kellys.” “I know,” I crooned, “but it’s worth asking, right?” He said, “True, but now I am cranky as this is lunch time.” I got the message. “Tell you what,” I said, “let’s get you un-cranked and grab some lunch as we haven’t eaten our lunch, too.”

And so off we went to get lunch at Buddha Bar, and he said to my friend, who was messing with her BlackBerry at that time, “Are you already putting the bag on eBay?” We were like, “Oh my God, no, of course not!” and he said again, “Look, I promised the Birkin and the Kelly and I will do what I can, but no promise on that, okay?”

We assured him that that was all we needed from him. That was the only line of conversation we had about the bag that day, and that came out of nowhere in between the lines of some more discussion about men with 3 nipples, 3 balls or some other physical or emotional freakiness that may decrease one’s opportunity of getting laid.

He said that I am welcome to stay at his small but neat apartment when I come to Paris the next time, and to not worry as he does not have 3 balls

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or 3 nipples - “Trauma-free stay guaranteed,” he said. We just laughed it off, as having a male friend carries the additional package of sexual jokes here and there. At least I know his sexual preference if I ever have to hook him up. There are always some single ones out there who are looking for a date.

This trip in a nutshell was very different from any other trip that I’ve done, and I am perpetually grateful that I have a husband who loves me just the way I am. He is not a man with many words; not only is he understanding toward me but he also understands me. I don’t know if that confuses you but there is a difference between someone making the effort to understand you and someone who simply “gets” you the way you are.

Talking about trying to be understanding, as a re-seller we need to understand that sometimes people change their minds [about whether or not to sell their bags]. I have experienced a change of heart myself. I had put up the Kelly Shiny Porosus that I ordered on my last trip and a customer in Jakarta had actually already put a down payment on it. This is even after my French

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connection had told me that I was only allowed to order one exotic leather product per year.

I told my husband about this and he said to me, “Why don’t you first see the bag when it arrives; if you like it, keep it, but if you don’t, then you sell it. Think about how much Euro it might be when the bag arrives. You don’t want to set a price now when you don’t even know how much it will be after the bag arrives.”

He has got a good point. The last Birkin I ordered ended up fetching for a final price tag of EUR5800 when I picked it up, but when I ordered it, the price tag was only EUR5600. So that was an increase of EUR200, which I had to shell out of my own pocket.

I told my husband that I bought myself a Lindy Niloticus Matte in pelouse and he asked me to wear it on my shoulder and send him the picture via BlackBerry Messenger. Upon seeing it, he exclaimed, “Oh my God, that is ugly.”

Hahaha. I told him that I have used the cash that I brought from home to pay for it and he said, “Well, you’re the one who’s going to

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wear it so it’s up to you.” That’s what I love from my husband. He really knows how to make me come to my senses. He said that I am as stubborn as a water ball in the swimming pool: no matter how much I’m being pushed, I will always bounce back without a single word coming through. So the “up to you” sentence he slipped in actually made me think (and not just being stubborn for the sake of it) and then he added, “Look, if you like this bag, keep it, but don’t sell the Kelly bag because it is just not worth the trouble. You don’t know yet how much is the final price on that bag.” This was, come to think of it, absolutely true. It indeed had not crossed my mind about the final price.

My SA said that the final price will be given when the bag arrived at the store.

So I returned the Lindy and used the store credit to pay for the Kelly in advance, but the SA said that there was no invoice yet as the final price will be given by email later on when the bag arrived. So I told Fifi that I changed my mind and we both apologized to our customer and returned her down payment. I realized that no matter how much explanations we give to her, this is disappointing news but I also believe

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that everyone can appreciate some efforts as well as the proper gestures of the acknowledgment that we are disappointing them nonetheless.

My friend and I went back to Singapore carrying so many Hermes bags in our Deluxe Economy seats and prior to our departure, my husband remarked, “Don’t worry about having your customers’ Croco bags being stolen while you sleep in the airplane. You guys are sitting in Deluxe Economy so everyone will think they’re

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fake.” I cracked up. Being with my husband for so many years means that I also “get” his jokes. Boy, I wish our customers “get” us the way we are: honest, understanding, reliable and trustworthy… But then again, reputation needs to be built and we “get” that, too.

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W H A T Y O U NSOETE IS

ALWAYS WHAT YOU GET CHAPTER 10

FITRIA YUSUF

THE OTHER DAY, I WAS BEING “A SHOULDER TO CRY ON” FOR MY GIRLFRIEND. SHE WAS CRUSHED AND DISAPPOINTED TO FIND OUT THAT HER ONCE SO-CALLED “PRINCE CHARMING” TURNED OUT TO BE JUST ANOTHER FROG.

It is true that finding real love has never been as easy as what were told in fairy tales stories.

Although I do believe that there is such a thing as a soul mate, the road to find one is often as challenging, if not more, as crossing the tunnel of Mina in Mecca. As I listened to my poor girl’s broken heart story, I began to relate the quest to find real love with the quest to find the right Birkin bag re-seller. It is no doubt almost as thorny as finding the right soul mate.

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As I have written in previous chapters, I am also a re-seller of Hermes and other branded bags.

In this capacity, I act as a broker that links an owner of a particular bag to a buyer who is also looking for that particular bag. Of course, I take out a little commission as my “search” fee to match what is supplied and what is needed.

As a reputable re-seller, I have to make sure that the bags that I offer to my customers are original, authentic and in the condition that is described by the owner. In order to do that, I have to make sure that the person who owns the bag is trustworthy and professional. What I mean by professional is that that person needs to be responsible with the products that he / she is selling and provide, in my dictionary, standard services such as delivering the bag on time so that I don’t hang dry while my customer screams in my ear. Also, when selling exotic leather bags, please, please, make sure that you can produce the necessary CITES certificate and more than not, the receipt from the store you bought it from. I don’t make these up; about 99% of my customers do ask for these indeed.

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This is understandable, considering the price tags that these exotic leathers fetch for.

You yourself wouldn’t want to buy yourself a cat in the hat, now, would you? You would want to be as picky and as annoying as you could be when you know you’d be shelling something that equals the GDP of some small country.

I’m just kidding. I’m exaggerating on that one. But I wish I’m only kidding when I say that some of my customers can be so picky and so demanding that sometimes I felt like pulling my head out of my body. Which is why it is extremely important to find professional, cooperative re-seller partners who understand just what it takes to sell these curious gems. But alas, finding one of these so-called professional partners is not as simple as it might seem. Many things have to be considered carefully.

Chemistry is almost always a must, but quite often looks can kill. What I mean by that

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is that looks can be deceiving; a re-seller who always dresses to the nine might not as reliable as she looks. Sometimes what you see is not always what you get. I have heard complaints from some of my customers saying that a wellknown socialite sells fake bags that she claims are real.

Of course, because of her popularity and social status, many did not hesitate to buy from her, trusting their purchase as sound before carefully inspecting the goods in advance. And of course, by the time they realized that the bags are fake, the so-called socialite had disappeared as magically as a white rabbit, along with their money.

I mean, OUCH. All that good money spent and you really end up with rocks instead of diamonds. Doesn’t that sound familiar with trying to find real love? We meet who seems to be Mr. Right, and we get swept up over our feet and when we’ve given him 100% of our hearts, we realized that those sweet nothings and promises are nothing but just that – empty promises.

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Looks can be deceiving, and you need to extra precautions to avoid being manipulated by such individuals. In the era of free trade and when China-made counterfeits (and very good counterfeits, too, I might add!) flood the markets, counterfeit products have become more accessible than ever before. The worst thing is, unlike in the past, some sellers are now willing to degrade their integrity along with their dignity by claiming fakes as real.

Another common issue in finding “the one” happens when you find what you think is definitely yours but turns out to be, alas, someone else’s. This, I must say, results in trauma in some cases. You’ve heard it all. A girl meets the perfect guy. He’s the Ken of Barbie; the Arthur of Guinevere; the Prince Rainier for Grace Kelly. All seem to be as perfect as a Walt Disney fairy tale until the most unimaginable thing happens: that Mr. Perfect, that gentleman, that prince charming is a husband and father of someone, somewhere.

Now, try to relate with me. It’s the same thing in this business. Sometimes, a re-seller promises us that a particular bag is ours, to be delivered soon, yeah, no problem, girl, you’ll see

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it tomorrow. Then, when we’re in the midst of jumping jacks out of excitement, that devastating call or text message arrives, saying, whoops you know what? I screwed up. Sorry. That bag had already been sold to someone else.

The impact of hearing this is somewhat worse in the Hermes bags business than in real romance.

In real romance, the effect of finding out that your Mr. Perfect is someone else’s will probably just stop you dead at whatever it is that you’re doing with him. But in the Hermes bag business, the effect could be nothing short than a domino effect: as if disappointment alone is not enough, I’d have to relay the bad news and explain to my customer just what the heck happened and why she could not get the bag. And if she happens to be another re-seller, she would have to then relay this to her customer and explain why the bag could be her customer’s and so on. Then I’d feel bad about the whole thing because I also feel responsible for his / her credibility in front of her customer.

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It’s like a chain reaction in a way.

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It’s bizarre I know, comparing love and Birkin bags. But like the journey in finding real love, a lot of understanding and devotion needs to be given in finding the perfect partner to do business with. After all, the investment is not just peanuts and bolts and I am always looking for a long-term, mutually benefiting business relationships. Learning each other’s characteristics, ethics and policies and compromises before finally letting yourself to fully trust the person is a lot like building a romantic relationship. Although, ultimately, I advise you, like in any and all relationship, a dose of reality check and a good measure of sincerity but not naiveté must always be exercised because, darling, human beings are always prone to temptation and to prevent is always better than trying to heal a broken heart.

much I make doing this business, it’s not really worth the hard work and time and effort that I put in. Still, I have to admit that doing this is addictive and many times it creates adrenaline rushes inside of me. To satisfy my customers and to deliver that hard-to-find, one-of-a-kind bag and see my customers’ face lights up with joy when they receive their bags are priceless for me. These feelings are the reason that I keep on going. And like in many great love stories that have been told, if you don’t stop believing, true love will eventually be yours. As for me, as a re-seller, I know that for as long as I remain honest, reliable and able to deliver prompt service and payment while utilizing certain degree of wisdom and logic in selecting my business partner, I believe that all the hard works that I have put in will not be wasted.

Now, doesn’t that sound familiar with any love story?

But after all this, and I must say that there were a lot of ups and downs in this business, I must still admit that I enjoy what I do - through and through. I know that when I look at how

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However as similar as they are, finding mr Right and Birkin is not comparable, at least for me. In life, I believe that true love does not come twice and I tend to prioritize it. I might give up on Birkin bag, but i will never and i say never on love.

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SUMMER

E V LO CHAPTER 11

ALEXANDRA DEWI

APPROACHING SUMMER HOLIDAY, EVERYBODY SEEMS TO BE OUT OF TOWN, BUT THE STOCKS OF BIRKIN, KELLY, LINDY AND ALL THE OTHERS ARE STILL COMING IN… We must still do what we do as a couple of good CEOs of the Hermes Temptation: keep posting those Hermes gems on all of the 7 groups of the Hermes Temptation BlackBerry Messenger Groups that we’ve created just for this purpose, answering inquiries and offering highly demanded and sometimes rare bags. Since it’s the holiday season, business is a bit slow due to people getting out of town and exiting the group temporarily to avoid expensive roaming charges.

Fifi and I had a little time to start counting how much we actually make from doing this, and we discovered that considering the time we put into this, and the brain cells we’ve killed, the reward is actually very small in terms of income.

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Then we realized why we never seem to see the actual figure of profit we should have been making from doing this: the minute someone paid us, whatever amount of money we received would be invested in yet another down payment for another bag, for another customer somewhere. So there it is… That’s why we never actually see the profit figure right there in the bank… So now we know for absolutely sure that we’re doing this for the fun of it. Fortunately, “fun” is also very much related with reward from the work.

And believe me, there are times when we question ourselves whether or not we should quit, not because we don’t enjoy what we do, but because of the curious side effects from doing this that are affecting our lives and those around us, and quite possibly our mental stabilities as well as those who are living with us. One example is our abnormal use of one of the world’s most ingenious (and infamous) mobile device that is the BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging system.

Our usage on this chatting system borders on lunacy that Fifi had to make a deal with her

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husband not to touch her BlackBerry during lunch and dinner; basically whenever they are eating, while my husband said that I needed to go see a shrink as from the minute I open my eyes to right at the moment before I go to sleep at night, my two eyes are glued nonstop on that little BlackBerry screen. He asked me how much I was making from this and when I told him the amount, indifferently he said to me, “Don’t forget to minus that with your phone bills after you got back from Europe.”

Oh. Yeah.

On my last Hermes crusade, a 4-days Paris and 3-days Singapore tour, I successfully managed to rack up a 15.8 million Rupiahs phone bill. I didn’t care what the telephone company said; I felt ripped off and robbed straight up. I asked Fifi how much her bill cost (because we had to keep communicating during that time) and she replied that she didn’t even want to look at hers.

I got a printout of this ridiculous bill to try and study their charging system, but I simply just didn’t get it. Some friends had suggested to me that to suppress the high roaming cost, I should

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a few times. Like maybe 5 or 10 times max? Just to show what merchandises were available, you know, and I definitely did not call anyone for more than 5 minute tops. You know what? I give up. Damage is done. But did you get me? My point is not about the money. Or just the money.

My point is that if I had used the darn thing the way I use it in Jakarta (and that’s some usage, let me assure you that) during my 4 days in Paris, then, fine, I very well deserve that gigantic phone bill. But it was just that I wanted to know exactly what features I had actually used that ripped me off, without actually feeling the benefits from using those features. But whatever. Life goes on. I just hope that anyone who reads this book will learn something from this and avoid getting ripped off of their hand phone when traveling to Europe. take off the email capability while I was abroad, switch off Facebook, and do not upload nor download any picture. BlackBerry Messenger should be okay, I remember them saying, it shouldn’t cost too much. Right you are.

But I really don’t think I was using my Facebook that much, if at all, while I was there. Let alone upload nor download any picture. Okay, maybe

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So I had decided to end my agony on this, swallow the bitter pill and forgive myself and move on. But guess what… Now every morning my BlackBerry started to act weird, like someone who stutters when she talks. I would type on a button and it took a second or two before it would show up on the screen.

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That was really pissing me off! It was infuriating. If you have the same phone, you know what it feels like. I swore that I was going to change that useless heap but then around noon my BlackBerry would start to function normally again. It was like this for almost every day, and to tell you the truth, till this day I would stick to the same device due to: 1.) I was partially against switching to a new BlackBerry (God knows how long and what can happen during that data transfer to a new device); and 2.) my husband convinced me that no matter how many times I exchanged devices, it will ultimately end up like this if I keep abusing the device the way I abuse it now.

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I mean, what will happen to all those Hermes groups if I change my device? And in the epic disaster scenario if and when I lost their contacts, how many people do I need to re-invite? I guess I have issues. Not long ago, I visited my best friend, who had traveled to Paris with me during the Hermes hunt, who was then giving birth to a baby girl. Before this BlackBerry fiasco she had told me that going out with me had started to feel like going out solo because I was, in her words, “so absorbed in her BlackBerry universe” that I miss out on pretty much everything. One time, my BlackBerry ran out of battery so for one reason or the other (but not the only reason), I had no other choice but to chat with them again.

They claimed, “Heeyyyy…. You are FUN when you’re not using your BlackBerry.”

And back at the hospital, in my best friend’s maternity room, I put my BB in the bag and she made a comment, “I am so touched that you choose not to use your BlackBerry while you’re with me now. That means I am more important than that thing.”

I guess I do have issues.

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To put the cream on top of everything else, her husband and my husband jokingly claimed that they were going to start a Facebook group called “Husbands Against Hermes Stupidity (HAHS)” and my own husband said that he does not mind becoming the honorary speaker. Great. Although they are joking, but deep inside, I wonder how many husbands out there who will actually join this group? I mean, this is a group dedicated to questioning why a particular branded luxury bag is so very expensive and people are still lining up outside its Paris boutique to fulfill more addictions. What do you think?

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HAVE TO

AND TO HOLD CHAPTER 12

FITRIA YUSUF

LIKE ANY RELATIONSHIP, BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP ALSO REQUIRES A GREAT DEAL OF TOLERANCE, UNDERSTANDING AND DEVOTION. TO UNITE TWO INDIVIDUALS WITH DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS, POINT OF VIEWS AND PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS IS DEFINITELY NOT AS SIMPLE AS IT MIGHT SEEM.

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Just like in romance-based relationship, love alone is not enough; in business-based relationship, money alone will not be adequate.

In an era where “frenemies” had become a more common term than “fraternity”, maintaining a decent and civilized relationship might require one to undergo more initiation ritual than ever before. This is especially true in the high society; I often hear stories of friends turning foes and best friends gone bad over a rather ridiculous matter.

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Although not always the case, many friendships turn ugly once business and money are mixed together. This happens not only in multi-million dollars corporation. I can tell you straight up that in this so-called luxury goods resale business, I have witnessed many partnerships turn kaput overnight. I am not sure the exact roots of problems for those impossible differences, but there has been at least three times that I’d received messages with a similar theme: “Hi, I would like to announce that I am no longer acting as so and so partner. If you wish to purchase any bag, please contact me directly on this number.” Some, of course, are civilized enough not to mention the cause of their separation, and still others will just say that they’re still friends but they have different visions and decide to go on their separate ways.

However, in some cases, either one side or both become so furious with each other that they start trashing one another. Sometimes, some these former BFF or so-called business partners shares their anger and complaints towards me.

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Listening to their stories, I often feel that the problems were just mere misunderstanding and should not end in such bitterness and farewell to a working relationship. Still, I am not one in their position, therefore I have no right to judge what should be or should not be done.

Listening and witnessing those fallouts, I keep telling myself and God how thankful I am that Dewi and I are such a solid team. I actually began my working relationship with her when we wrote our first collaboration “Little Pink Book: Jakarta Style and Shopping Guide”. Ever since then, we enjoy a great relationship as friends and keeping in touch with each other until we decided to become a reseller for luxury handbags together.

I always respect her as a friend and as a business partner. She is very hardworking, enthusiastic and full of wits and creativities. Apart from that, I believe what makes our relationship works until this day is the trust that we have for each other.

I believe that trust is the core of any relationship.

In order to make it work, each member of the party has to be able to trust one another. In

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my case, I never for even once feel suspicious or worried about my partner’s integrity and goodwill towards me. I do hope that she feels the same way about me. Having trust in a relationship is also very effective in dealing with rumors that are often created by someone or some groups based loosely on assumptions.

Sometimes, gossips can result in insecurities and grow worse over time.

To avoid such thing, I always try to communicate my concern or request to my partner before sharing it to others. Simple things like this will save any relationship from a fatal disaster. It is impossible of course, to forbid people from making assumptions about us.

One most recent example was when Dewi’s BlackBerry device suddenly went completely dead and she had to wipe out all her data from the memory. You can read the complete story in one of Dewi’s chapter later on in this book.

Long story short, since we share the same email address that is registered in two separate BlackBerry devices, the deletion of her device’s

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memory somehow resulted in a complete wipe out of all of my BlackBerry Messenger contacts.

All of my contacts magically appeared in her device and my friends end up messaging her and ask why I suddenly changed my profile name to Alexandra Dewi.

I did not go out and explain this strange phenomenon to anyone because obviously I am not a technical whiz. I ended up having to restore all of my contacts and since I was lazy, I just posted my device’s PIN in Facebook and Twitter. Apparently according to some of my friends, doing so is dangerous and unethical. I mean, this is posting highly personal information in social websites. Dewi was panicking more than I. She kept explaining all of the possible technical blunder that might have caused the fiasco, but I remained as calm as a clam because I know I can always restore all of my data from my backup file that I created for my device. However, again out of laziness, I asked Dewi to help me broadcast my new PIN to her contacts and to delete my old pin.

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Amazingly, as if the world needs more drama, a reseller replied to Dewi’s broadcast by asking whether we have split up from our business relationship.

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Seriously, of all the time and things that she has to do, she has the time to think about this particular scenario? What a curious mind she has. I of course giggled when I heard it from Dewi. I cannot help but wonder that if this broadcast can trigger such assumption from people, then no wonder my rather liberal behaviors are often considered unethical. It makes me realize that no matter what you do, you will never escape people’s judgments and opinions about you. What is important is to stick to your values and principles for as long as they don’t cause harm to anyone.

Another major factor why our relationship works is how we are able to be the pillar of strength for one another. One typical example is whenever I feel down when I’m dealing with a difficult customer and about to go over the edge and quit being a reseller out of stress, Dewi has always managed to lift up my spirit and reminds me that everything is going to be alright.

On the other hand, I also always try to be

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there for her when she feels discouraged and needs someone to lift up her spirit. To have such partner is very crucial to keep you off from falling apart or having a nervous breakdown. I would be lying if I say that we have never had any disagreement; however, I always believe that if I keep my intention well and positive, most of the misunderstanding can always be prevented.

Besides, Dewi is a very straightforward person, which makes it easy for me to understand exactly what she really wants. I rather she tells me right in my face if she dislikes something rather than talking about it behind my back. Sometimes simple things can grow complicated if not immediately discussed and solved.

Relationship is always about give and take. I cannot expect my partner to perform well if I do not deliver my part and responsibility with my best effort. It is easy to demand something from your partner, yet we often neglect to reflect whether or not we have done our part accordingly, that which plays half of the role itself.

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My key to maintaining my relationship with Dewi and maybe other relationships is that I have always delivered my words and sentences carefully.

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In the days when people communicate mostly via BlackBerries and digital instant messaging systems, words and thoughts and sentences can really get lost in translation and easily misinterpreted and misunderstood; because writing does not indicate any tone unlike when it is spoken. Therefore, I always try to write my words in the most pleasant way possible without eliminating my key points within those sentences. I would not call it sugarcoating but rather “polishing” my words so as they will not be taken the wrong way and offensively.

It is to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. It might not be “till death do us part” but at least as long as there are bags to sell and opportunities to bank on and even beyond that, I do hope that our friendship will remain solid and unwavering. If you think finding Birkin bag is hard, try finding true friends.

Above all, relationships, whether personal or business, is about compromising and understanding. It is about to be able to prioritize common interests above individual interests and to be there for each other through each ups and downs. To think of it again, the purpose of any business relationship between two people or partners is somehow similar with those between a husband and wife.

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UNSPOKEN

RULES CHAPTER 13

ALEXANDRA DEWI

IN LIFE, WE HAVE A LOT OF UNSPOKEN RULES, LIKE FOR EXAMPLE, WE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO SPEAK ILL OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY PASSED AWAY. OR YOU SHOULD NEVER DATE YOUR BEST FRIEND’S EX-BOYFRIEND. PERHAPS THE GREATEST RULE OF ALL IS THAT WE SHALL NOT CREATE OUR HAPPINESS AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MISERY.

In being a reseller of Hermes bags, we too have a lot of unspoken rules. Many, many of them which we swear by the way sailors swear by their superstitions of the sea.

NEVER sell fake bags. Once you get caught doing so, your reputation, if you have any that is, will go down the drain faster than you can say “chickenfeet”. ALWAYS pay your supplier on time, or they will think twice about dealing with us again because we pay too slow.

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DO NOT be late when delivering a purchased bag to client. Do not take out the protective stickers (or any original packaging for that matter) from the bag as that will cause the price of the bag to decrease and on top of that, you will experience some verbal abuse from the owner.

And DO put in a down payment for a bag as commitment and DO pay your supplier on time and DO keep your words and DO, please do, make a profit as this business is now getting very tough. It seems like there are more sellers than buyers in the market.

Despite the tough competition, Fifi and I always count our blessings that even in a long holiday season we were still able to make decent sales.

Although since we are only human beings, when we experience some disappointing events, sometimes they make us feel like we should quit.

How could you not want to quit when you are having a bad day? Sometimes our profit is only 1 million Rupiahs. Look, 1 million Rupiahs is one million Rupiahs, it still is money and I don’t want you to think that we don’t appreciate 1 million Rupiahs.

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But let me tell you that sometimes, when we deliver a bag to a client who lives quite far, the cost of gasoline (or transportation) alone back and forth can be half of that sum already.

Still, that is 100 per cent okay if the story doesn’t end with something like this: a client puts a down payment for a bag after she viewed a particular product and liked it, and so we in turn pay our supplier to secure the bag.

Then suddenly, after everything is done and paid for, the client tells us that one of her friends, for whatever reason, advises her that MAYBE the bag isn’t real, and so now she wants to return the bag.

Dude. First of all, we KNOW that our bag is real. Second of all, she’s taking the advice from her friend who feels that the bag MAYBE isn’t real?? Sorry to say this, but is her friend an Hermes expert? Has she got any solid

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evidence to prove that her suspicion is not simply baseless? And besides all that, isn’t she dealing with us? But despite all this, even though we know for sure that our bag is real and she has no good proof to back up her claim, we still have to pick up the bag, return her down payment and then plead to our supplier to return the money to us. That takes a lot of energy and people skills, I tell you.

And of course after all the dust settles we end up with 0 Rupiah minus the gas bills and an unwanted bonus in the form of wrinkles on my forehead.

On top of that, if the client is one of those “difficult people” that I mentioned in previous chapters, she will spread her heroic story to her Bingo group, of how she smartly avoided a scam scenario. Yes, some people will tell their side of the story while we on the other hand always choose to keep our side of the street clean, even when others don’t.

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Still about unspoken rules, recently I was approached by a prospective lady client who asked me what the rules are if she wants to buy a bag from the Hermes Temptation group. She said that she was only able to see the pictures, and of course she would like to see and feel and examine the real bag in person. She asked what constitutes as an obligation to buy. Is asking to see the bag can already be counted as an obligation? I told her that there is no obligation at all. But there are still some unspoken rules.

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point of asking us to arrange a viewing?

First of all, we as a business would appreciate it very much if you are serious about getting a bag, not just because you have nothing else better to do and thought that looking at Hermes bags would be a good alternative to spending your day.

And if you are serious about getting the bag, you should probably already know what kind of bag that you are aiming for, meaning all the specs there is, such as, for example, a Birkin size 35 in Togo leather with gold buckle BNIB which stands for “Brand New In Box”.

Now, when you see the picture in the group and then you ask for the price, let’s just say, for example, it is selling for 100 million Rupiahs and you know that even though you really, really, really love the bag, you will NOT spend that much on a bag, then please, please, I beg you, do not ask us to see the bag anyway and make us spend the time and energy and gas bill to drive the bag to your house just for your viewing pleasure and then bargain 20 million right off the price tag, which is an impossible request. Look, you’re already sure that there is no way you’d pay 100 million Rupiahs for a hand bag. So what’s the

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Next, you should make peace with yourself to some degree and agree with the price BEFORE you arrange to see the bag. If, after agreeing with the price and then viewing the bag in real life you feel that the bag is not in perfect condition, or somehow the color isn’t what you really think it is, you decide not to buy it then that is absolutely our risk as a reseller. No obligation, no hard feeling. Everything is cheery.

But please don’t ask to see five bags at once when you know that you only want to see how different colors look on the same bag out of curiosity or maybe you are serious about buying the bag but only one out of those 5 bags. You should know that we have to fight to arrange those five bags in our hands, which would have to come from five different owners and that, ladies, are quite a load of phone calls and arrangements with the owners. Please show us some compassion.

Yet another unspoken rule is about the way you use words. Logic dictates that when you type such words as “Confirmed,” “Yes, please hold it for me,” “Yes, I will pay tomorrow,” “Deal,”

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or “I want it,” those are words of confirmation; or as outlined in the Hermes Temptation sales manual book, a promise to buy. According to this sales manual, we then are required to ask for your email so that we can email you the purchase confirmation.

This email is like a sales contract. Please refrain from breaking this contract at all cost, and although there is no penalty by law, it is a lot like honoring your own promise. Some customers do not have email addresses so we really have to trust what she typed on his or her BlackBerry chat. Sometimes that’s what bites us in our asses. Once or twice we would get cancellation order at the last minute, with some very politely calling and explaining what had happened: her cousin or sister bought the same color or a family member suddenly going to Europe so they’ll try to get one from there, etc. Yet some would just break the news by casually typing, “I am sorry but I changed my mind.” Worse still, some don’t even bother to reply for days and then without any inkling of humanity they would just type, “Hey how’s it going? Listen, I’m out of town / overseas so maybe next time. Thanks anyway.”

Fifi and I sometimes joke around that some

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people do act like royalties just because they’re clutching a little something with “Hermes” branding on it. But we also have enough compassion to give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe, just maybe, they’re having some kind of personal issues that caused them to not able to be considerate of other people’s situation.

This is another unspoken rule in this business.

If you want to survive, you need to have compassion.Compassion for your suppliers.

Compassion for our customers.Compassion for your partner and most importantly, compassion towards yourself.

In every situation in life, this unspoken yet very important rule should be practiced at all times: compassion goes a long way in every aspect of life. Don’t you dare believe that all we know about is only Hermes, luxury brands and their products, people! Hiding behind this little “company” titled Hermes Temptation are two very real and very hard working women who is simply trying to make it in this world and strive to be better persons every single day, in every way possible.

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DIE

D R A H CHAPTER 14

ALEXANDRA DEWI

YESTERDAY MY BLACKBERRY FINALLY GAVE OUT ON ME. THAT WAS IT. DEAD. KAPUT. GONE. AFTER MONTHS OF STRUGGLING AND STUTTERING TO BOOT ITSELF UP EVERY MORNING, I GUESS THE OVERLOAD OF ALL OF THOSE BIRKINS AND KELLYS IMAGES AND CUSTOMER INQUIRIES IN THE HERMES TEMPTATION GROUPS AND EMAILS AND DAILY ABUSES AND WHATNOT PROVED TO BE TOO MUCH FOR THE LITTLE MACHINE THAT COULD.

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You can imagine the rising panic I felt as I realized that this little device, which possesses about half of my entire life, has gone to the heaven for smartphones. Good thing you weren’t there when I was squatting on the floor, desperately clutching my BlackBerry, staring at the blackened screen and hoping to dear God that it shows some signs of life. Nope. Nada. My contacts, my emails, my documents, my photos, my conversations with all my customers – all gone. Just like that.

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Like any disease, it started out with seemingly innocent enough symptoms, albeit no less annoying. Every day, I would have to pull out the battery several times because the darn thing would just freeze on me. And like any problem we encounter in life, it is easier to ignore and hope to merciful Lord that it would just go away on itself. Of course, it didn’t go away, and became worse instead. Every time someone new joins the BlackBerry Messenger Group, my BlackBerry would crawl to a halt, and when I try to type something, the cursor would just stall on the screen for a long, long time, staring blankly at me, and then the device would go dead. On that fateful day, however, everything started out more or less normally (if you can call it that): I pulled out the battery several times as customary, cursing and hating, and the thing would turn back on and started to work again.

eternity. Disbelief, denial, hope, anger, pessimism, optimism – you name it and I felt it all at that moment. Above all I was totally hoping that it will show some sign of life. But nothing at all.

But after one particular battery pull, the device never recovered. It just seemed to get stuck on the boot up screen, looping and looping and forgetting how to bring itself back on. There was just a blank screen with the BlackBerry logo which I stared at for what seemed like an

So that was it. I had lost all of my data and contacts. All day I was stressing out because, alas, I had never for once backed up my BlackBerry. That’s another thing with me. Like everyone else, I only want to keep the good memories and not the bad ones. I wish I have

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selective amnesia so that I can selectively forget about all the bad memories. This was one of the memories that I’d really love to forget.

But this particular case was a total nightmare for me though. I brought my BlackBerry to a service center to have it fixed, or “detoxed,” as it was termed. Yeah, whatever, I said, just fix the darn thing because I need it. Detoxifying a BlackBerry involves wiping out ALL of the internal memory on the device, so that it goes blank and then reinstalling everything back on it again.

This way, it is supposed to make the device like brand new again and clear out all bugs or whatever programming that makes it wrong.

But it turned out that when they wiped out everything in the phone, which included the emails and BlackBerry Messenger contacts, the process not only wiped out my contacts but also the contacts in Fifi’s BlackBerry because we share the same email for this Hermes Temptation.

In a blink of an eye, we lost our entire client database – our business, our lives. No more Hermes Temptation group. Ooohh… how I really wish I can turn on my selective amnesia right at that point.

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But the Lord is good, and He has once again caught me on my way down. A miracle happened during all the fiasco: the technician who serviced my BlackBerry was smart enough to take out the SIM and memory card, and before “detoxifying” (more like “nuking”) my phone, the guy was smart enough to saved it all in his computer.

Thank God also for smart people. From where I bought my BlackBerry, the service was provided for free, but I gave the technician 150,000 Rupiahs anyways as a token of my appreciation even before Fifi called me in a state of panic and screamed, “Something bad happened; I lost all of my contacts!”

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It was overwhelming. I called my technician and explained to him what had happened. He said that Fifi’s data must have been linked with mine and that when he nuked my device, whatever link that Fifi shares with me got deleted, too.

But not to worry, he said, because he had kindly and smartly saved everything into his computer and all that was required to get us started again was a simple upload of those files back onto my device. And he did all this with a knowledge that he was only doing his job and didn’t know whether he was going to get a tip.

I told Fifi that all of our contacts can be retrieved and now we are back on track, minus the 7 groups. She went silent. I then asked her if we wanted to make new groups again for the Hermes Temptation. I perfectly knew why she was silent, and I felt it too: LAZINESS. Why? Well, you can read the exact details in previous chapters of what I have written about this business. It’s not exactly always a walk in the park, especially when the income doesn’t reach a six-figure deal here…. Well, seven-figure, if you convert that into Rupiahs.

Note to self: there are still good people in this world. So anyways, when I called him about the lost contact issue, the first thing he said to me was something in the line of, “Hey listen…

Thanks so much for the tip but you don’t really have to.” Well, maybe I didn’t have to, but him being so nice and so earnest, it’s not a matter of “have to” or “not have to”; but that I choose and I want to do it. When I need him the most he was more than happy to help, and I truly believe that he will help me even though I did not tip him. Which brings us back to the original topic: I felt that he soooooo deserved it.

We decided to just wait and see how it goes after we were able to re-invite back all of our contacts. That is as if. Who can we invite to the groups if we have no contacts? Our BlackBerry devices were still trying to re-add all of our contacts, synchronizing and pulling data from the server.

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In the meantime, I was starting to digest what exactly made me lazy to start a new Hermes Temptation groups. Why did we start this to begin with? I remember in the beginning we were so passionate about the business. As I can recall it, it was because we truly, deeply, madly

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love the bags, and we thought it’d be a good experience and a fun too at that.

FUN. This is supposed to be fun. But I started to question if this was the right reason to be this business. What if not-so-fun events occurred?

All of those thinking brought my memory back to the time when I was only 22 years old and had applied to become a Singapore Airlines flight attendant. I remember sitting in an interview session and being asked, “Why do you want to be a flight attendant?” My answer was, “Because I love to travel and I also love your uniform and commercial.” Go ahead and laugh at my answer. I was young and selfish, after all. It was all about “I, me and myself.”

The interviewer looked at me and smiled. She said, “You should have answered that you wanted to do this because you like to serve others. Our passengers are tired, homesick and have a lot on their minds. The least we can do is provide them a good service and comfort while they travel with us.” I walked out of the interview room 100 per cent sure I was not going to get the job. But for some reason, I did get it. I didn’t take it though because my father

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would not let me and got me a job in a bank instead which I hated (Sorry dad, but I really didn’t like that job).

The moral of the story is this: you can say the wrong words and still get the result you want and people will say that you’re lucky. But luck can only take you so far. Even destiny can only take you so far. The rest is up to us.

Now that all of the Hermes Temptation groups were gone, it was up to us whether we want to start this all over again or not. But before we come to that decision, first we have to look deep inside on each of us why we want to do this. We can start again. We can also choose not to. Either way it won’t affect us much in terms of income, not because we don’t need money or we’re too rich, but simply because this isn’t our primary business anyway. But the one thing that kept me right on going and steeled my resolution not to fold the cards as easily was, as corny as this may sound, the spirit within that told me that if I do quit, the reason would have to be something other than simple laziness or setbacks like this particular BlackBerry incident.

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no quit

quit

To not become a re-seller anymore, that I can live with. But to quit because of simple setbacks – that’s not who I am. That’s not the style I wish to adopt while carrying one of those gracious Kelly bags.

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Something out there had brought back all of the contacts that we’ve lost, which is a blessing considering how everything got wiped out like a tsunami. Who are we to throw away such a blessing like this? It can only take us so far. The rest is up to us.

And my BlackBerry shook with enough pings to let me know that our members were not ready to quit, neither.

I broadcasted a message in the newly created BlackBerry Group for the Hermes Temptation: Dear Friends, If you are a member of Hermes Temptation group 1 thru 7, please kindly note that group no. 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 is no longer active. Please help us by exiting that group as I have changed my BB PIN. I am no longer the admin in those groups. If you wish to join the new group, please update my PIN is .....and ping me.

Thank you.

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PRIVATE

AND CONFIDENTIAL CHAPTER 15

ALEXANDRA DEWI

OK, I DON’T WANT TO SOUND LAME OR CORNY. BUT I THINK TO EXPRESS ONE’S HONEST FEELING ABOUT SOMETHING THAT YOU’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT WITHOUT HINDRANCE OR SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, KNOWING THAT WHAT YOU WRITE WILL BE READ BY MANY OTHERS, SHOULD BE PART OF A BIGGER AGENDA IN YOUR LIFE AND THAT IT IS AN IMPORTANT YET DIFFICULT SKILL TO POSSESS.

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You and I know that this Hermes Temptation book is about Hermes bags. It tells the crazy stories and wild experiences of a couple of Hermes bags lovers who happen to be resellers for these bags. And the content of this book will give you good knowledge about one of the most sought after and highly desired possessions in the entire humankind history. This is what this book is all about.

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However I would also like our readers to get to know us a little better; that we’re not superficial human beings who know nothing else but Hermes bags and that we dedicate our short lives to this and nothing else.

No, dear readers, we’re a couple of very real human beings who feel, think, say, express, weep, cheer, disappoint, encourage and a host of other emotional mix that normal human beings possess.

Right after Fifi wrote the chapter “To Have and To Hold”, I texted her, telling her that I felt so touched reading her writing. I don’t know how our mutual friends view our friendship/ partnership. Maybe they view us as just “those two girls who sells Birkin bags”. But a friend once asked me how I get along so well with Fifi considering that she is much younger than I am.

My answer was simple: although she is much younger than me, the way she operates as an individual does not make me feel like I’m “baby sitting” her. I told her that Fifi is a mature person and more importantly, she “gets” me as a totally unique individual also. That alone, I said to my friend, was reason enough to be friends with Fifi.

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My sister, who is almost a decade younger than me, is another person who is younger than me but who “gets” me. However, I know people who are older than Fifi or my own sister but I just don’t connect with them and vice versa. I also know sisters who are only two years apart but act like strangers toward each other. That in my opinion is a shame because sisterhood is truly one of those rare gems in life that not everyone gets the privilege of experiencing.

The first time I met Fifi was at my first book launch, in 2006. It was actually my sister who invited Fifi to the launch, and I remember Fifi stopped by to congratulate me. Afterwards, I honestly cannot recall how our relationship exactly developed into the close friendship that we enjoy at this time, but one thing for sure,Fifi and I “clicked” so well together that we ended up co-authoring the “Little Pink Book” that we launched in 2009. During the time when we were working on this book, I expressed some form of my insecurities towards her by refusing to go out with her together in public.

Several times she asked me to go out but I politely refused, not because I don’t enjoy

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spending time with her, but because in the wacky and weird world of the high society, assumptions run wild and they won’t hesitate to run you over if you let them. Now, Fifi is a popular girl, and in the socialite world we often see the “It” girl being followed by throngs of her so-called entourage, who seem to only tag along for the sake and the ride of it (translation: riding on her popularity). I, of course, am much older than Fifi and her circle of friends and I explained to her that since people’s assumptions are beyond our control, I didn’t want people to assume that my being friends with her was motivated by my desire to take advantage of Fifi or the situation.

I don’t know who in the public’s judgment are the socialite and who are not, but I know for a fact that I’m not one. However, I’d rather not give any chance to these people and limit my sightings with Fifi together. I really couldn’t afford the additional title of being an entourage to someone, especially when we’re trying to launch a book together. Sometimes I think a part of this is based on my own insecurities and another part is just the way the society works here, especially in Jakarta. Of course, when I told Fifi about this she just brushed it off, and said that I must be crazy. That very well may be, but I don’t feel at all that crazy.

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Already people were asking me some subtle yet direct questions about Fifi’s personal life. Maybe they think that since we wrote the book together, we must know each other from birth or that we must have gotten to know each other quite intimately by now. I’ve got questions about where she was or who she was with all the time. Most of the time, I honestly didn’t know where or who she was with.

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When I answered that, I could see that people didn’t believe me. I mean, seriously. Was I supposed to know Fifi’s detailed minute-byminute itinerary? Why is it so hard for some people to believe that I choose to respect someone’s privacy and that sometimes, I simply don’t know the answer to their questions? Now, of course, it’s a different story. Now we work as a team in this Hermes Temptation business and it will indeed look weird if someone asks me where Fifi is and I draw a blank. Fifi and I go overseas a lot and we try to cover each other’s backs as much as we can.

Within days after we set up this Hermes Temptation business, I went to Los Angeles with my kids and husband for a summer holiday. I only used my BlackBerry whenever there was Wi-Fi spot so that I don’t rack up another fortune with the roaming charges. One day, I was chatting with Fifi via BB Messenger while brushing my teeth. At that time, the capital that we allocated to start up this business was already running dangerously low, because it all went to down payments here and there to secure some bags that our clients ordered.

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I guess it was good that we were getting business right off the ground, but for as long as we haven’t gotten paid by our clients, all of that money that went to the down payment will continue to bog us down and cripple our operations. This was evident as soon as Fifi secured another deal for a crocodile bag: there was no more money to put down payment and I was still in LA, so I didn’t have access to the funds to top up the capital. Finally Fifi used her own money to close the deal. I felt bad that I couldn’t help out, so I told Fifi that she didn’t have to share the profit with me since I felt that this was all her work; plus, she used her own money as opposed to the company’s money. Fifi typed, “Huh? Whaddaya mean? How come?” I typed back that since I didn’t participate in that deal at all, both from the negotiation aspect to the financial aspect, I would be totally fine not taking in any commission. I wanted her to know that I would never ever take an advantage from that kind of situation. She messaged me back, saying, “Chill. We are a team. I am on your side and you are on my side. If I’m not in Jakarta and you close a 3 million Rupiahs deal, using your own money, would you not share the commission with me then?” I laughed so hard reading her message that I nearly swallowed the toothpaste.

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Of course I would share the commission with her! I just never thought about it that way. This was just days after we became business partners and I was just not sure what her business ethics were and how she felt about the whole situation, and so I guess I sort of pre-empted this “strike.”

But it turned out that Fifi is one of those people whose business ethic codes were nearing extinction; and one of the primary reasons why our relationship remains harmonious throughout all these years that we’ve been together. But hey… You learn something new every day, even from someone who is younger than you are.

From that day onward, I played my part as a team player: I am on her side, staunchly and unwaveringly, and vice versa. Need I say more?

Even when one of us makes a mistake, we still support each other and present a unified front to the outside world. Here’s what you need to know when you are supporting your friend or family when they make a mistake: It’s your friend or family that you are supporting, not the mistake.

It’s not your job to judge them for what they have done. But it is fully your job to remain their friend or love them as a family.

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It’s funny how some customers act like kids in the face of dealing with us. I have encountered people who asked about how much a particular bag was and turned right around and asked Fifi about the same bag just to see if he / she can get a cheaper price. Sounds familiar? If you have kids, then you’ve probably seen this: Kid wants something -> Mom says no -> Let’s go to dad and see if he will give in. Funny, isn’t it. I even had several gracious souls who went as far as telling me that they found it easier to deal with Fifi than with me.

That she is faster and smarter. Is that supposed to hurt my feeling? May be, if I were a fool. But to me, when I partner with someone, I want somebody who is fast and smart so as to bring profit to the business as quickly as possible. Isn’t that the whole purpose of partnering up with someone? And what a blessing that my partner happens to be fast and smart, among other qualities. Fifi is not my competitor; she is my partner and I am here not to compete with her but to support her.

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When we hear of business partners splitting up for whatever reason, we remind each other that being in this business sometimes can be very stressful and that we’d need to talk to each other if we have any issue to address and resolve it fast. If we don’t, even the smallest issue can accumulate and builds up into a monster and make us become very sensitive towards each other.

But although we’ve made a commitment to do exactly this, to this day we’ve never for once held a serious conversation to resolve a serious issue. We just seem to float along naturally, matching each other’s steps and completing each other even without saying any word. How could I not feel blessed? And how could people even think that they can somehow pit me against Fifi?

Of course, I also said to Fifi that we are all just human beings and that we don’t live in a perfect world. There’s no way that we’ll feel peachy and dandy every day of the year. And so being friends as well as business partners, we also learn to be sensitive towards each other’s situations.

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There was this one time when I was in a theater overseas with my kids and husband when an eager client pestered me with inquiries about a bag and requests to pay in cash. At the same time, my son was asking me to take him to the restroom. I BBM’dFifi, “Help! I am overwhelmed.

There is this client who wants to buy a bag in cash. Here’s her number…” Fifi swooped in and saved the day. Likewise, another time Fifi was in an event and a client who had dealt through her cancelled an order. I came in and took care of the matter on our behalf. That’s the way it should be.

And just like in any other team, you don’t talk about who did what and who is smarter or faster or who deserves more credit.

You just focus on doing your very best for the greater good of that team. While doing that, you also place an absolute trust on your partner that he / she will also do her best. If you’re overwhelmed, then you trust your partner to help you out. The same goes around. And if both of you are overwhelmed, then whoever feels less overwhelmed needs to step up. Yes, this is a lot of work, and it takes commitment, and it takes resolution, and if you are selfish and insensitive, I

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suggest you do not take a business partner if you don’t have a team spirit.

So to conclude this chapter, I hope you will have discovered that behind this business, this whole machination that involves merchandises with absurd price tags and large amounts of money exchanging hands, lies the very fundamental driving force for us to be precisely in this business: our interest and drive to grow as individuals, not individuals driven by the beauty of these beautiful bags but by the bond of friendship that we foster while doing this, and loyalty towards each other and understanding and, yes, even ultimately the sort of familial love that we develop towards each other.

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We hope the same goes for our readers and every woman (or man) who carries a Birkin bag.

I’m very sure that every person has his/her own stories to tell, whether they carry a Birkin bag or not. Make sure that you keep producing your own stories to tell and live life to the fullest while doing it.

Often we hear the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” and in this book, ironically, the phrase becomes, “Don’t judge a person by which kind of Birkin or Kelly bag she is carrying.”

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YOU ARE NOT

WHAT BAG YOU CARRY CHAPTER 16

FITRIA YUSUF

AT THE TIME OF MY WRITING THIS, IT HAS ADMITTEDLY BEEN A WHILE SINCE I LAST WROTE MY LAST CHAPTER. I COULD MAKE UP REASONS TO EXPLAIN THIS BUT I DECIDED TO SIMPLY TELL NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, WHICH IS I AM NO LONGER AMUSED NOR INSPIRED WITH THIS WHOLE BIRKIN BAG CRAZE, OR, FOR THAT MATTER, ANY OTHER “IT” BAGS.

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In the beginning of this chapter, I once mentioned my infatuation with my first Birkin bag. It became an addiction that was finally cured and remain as a harmless love affair once in a while. However, after six months of doing this Hermes Temptation business and seeing all kinds of bags in many different colors and materials, my worship of the once mythical, legendary and inimitable Birkin bag has, unbelievably, met its expiration date.

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But over exposure to the Birkins or Kellys is not the only thing that drives me away from these so-called ultimate bags. A lot of other factors also affect my feelings toward those bags. One such major factor is how common they have become, both authentic and counterfeit. A bigger factor is witnessing how people start treating a person based on what Birkin or Kelly bag she carries, and, conversely, how a person treats other people based on the bag she carries. It is a fact of life that wealth is often used as a barometer to measure someone’s credibility or as a kind of “bargaining chip” for those who possess it to tip the scales in their favor. But when a particular brand of bag is used as a tool to intimidate others or to judge someone, that, in my opinion, is just plain ridiculous. Even worse, this kind of behavior is becoming increasingly tolerated in this increasingly bourgeois and self-gratifying, status-seeking society.

The truth is look is often deceiving. It is not wise to judge a book by its cover, although the exact reverse logic seems to apply in our society. One can be misunderstood simply by her look. I myself have had several experiences in this topic; some

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of them are arguably……highly unpleasant. As an independent individual, I strongly believe in the basic human right to freely express oneself.

However, my belief is often misunderstood by others.

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To some people, especially in this country, my lifestyle can be taken as unconventional, to say the least. Wearing an actual showgirl costume for a showgirl-themed party, appearing backless in men’s magazine, owning a website that sells intimate products and more appearances in a men’s magazine wearing swimsuit…...these are things that I’ve done that will merely be taken as a celebration of life in other parts of the world.

But not here!!!

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Here, I can be convicted as a moral criminal.

People often ask me why do I even bother with such controversial moves? They wonder whether I’m doing these because I am stressed out or frustrated with my marriage and seeking revenge by doing such things.

As a carefree person, I simply brush off those questions and keep living my life to the fullest, but I sometimes wonder if they’ll get it even I tell them the real reason. Like I said, don’t judge a book by its cover, but I wonder if the society at large can see the “real me” even after I peel off all my cover. You be the judge.

do they know that I did it precisely because I used to hate my body and felt highly unconfident and insecure towards my body image. Posing for the magazine in a swimsuit is like liberating myself from my inner demons.

I wanted to feel proud of the little girl I see in the mirror everyday and I wanted to love her.

At the lowest point of my life, I believed that I could be more confident if I wear designer clothes and accessories, especially the Birkin bag. I used to think that I could be one of those “it” girls if only I own such a bag at an early age. I saved all of my allowances just so that I could buy that one bag.

Now, allow me to give you an example based on my personal experience.

Now, looking back, I realized how wrong I was.

No amount of “it” bag can ever satisfy what I crave most, which is the courage to love myself.

In any case, I also quickly discovered that the ultimate “it” bag is not exactly cheap, or even affordable, for that matter. My parents never spoiled me; therefore I did not dare to ask them to buy for me.

As I’m writing this chapter, I’m experiencing a severe backlash out of my daring appearance in the cover of Maxim Indonesia 5th Anniversary edition. Appearing in the magazine is of a particular honor and accomplishment for me, although the critics’ claim that my appearing with what they call a “controversial” swimsuit is the product of my overconfidence in showing off my body. Little

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In 2004, I got accepted at one of the most prestigious fashion and lifestyle magazines in

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Indonesia. There, I saw many chic ladies with their Birkin bags in fashion events. This only perpetuated my intense desire to own one of those ultimate bags. After I got married and started my own business, I finally managed to buy some Birkin and Kelly bags on my own.

Yet those bags didn’t instill even the slightest confidence in me. On the contrary, I became even more depressed, self-pitiful, angry, paranoid, emotional and even disgusted at myself.

Self loathing became my activity for quite a while. I would find every reason to hate myself. I became a difficult person to deal with. Until one day, I had a rude awakening.

I realized that I could either continue being angry and feeling sorry about myself, or I could start appreciating for who I really am and work with what I already have.

After a long battle of emotional love-and-hate relationship with myself, I finally reached a point where I was able to accept the reality and to appreciate it. I worked out more, eat healthier and get rid off things or people with

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negative influences in my life. I slowly learned to love myself. I grew more and more fond of myself, until, sorry to say this, today, I can say that I can be a little bit narcissistic sometimes.

Sometimes I smile to myself when I think about what I had been through. I cannot say that it was a walk in the park under the rainbow, but I did not regret a single thing.

I learned a lot from my experiences. I am fortunate enough to have gone through something that taught me that a person’s value is more than what she has or what she wears. This sounds simple, but believe me when I say that there are a lot of people in this world who remains ignorant of this simple wisdom. And I pity them, because they are missing a lot in life – the ability to learn something from a person and the ability to enjoy life to the fullest.

These days, I am no longer impressed by an individual who totes even the rarest Birkin in the world. Instead, only those who are able to embrace their life and bring positive

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aura towards their surroundings can impress and inspire me above all. I can only pray and try my best to be that person. I believe that it is impossible for others to love and respect me if I do not first love and respect myself. I vowed that I will never again let a nicely made precious leather bag inside an orange box dictate my

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feelings – whether to feel inferior or superior towards other people. I may be the first one to declare that I am proud to not own a diamondencrusted Himalaya Birkin bag size 35 and still consider myself as very fortunate person in the world. My name is Fitria Yusuf, and I’ve never been more alive than today.

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Something’s Gotta Give

By Alexandra Dewi

Well, dear friends, all good things must eventually come to an end and our journey this time around is no different. And I mean that literally and figuratively, which I will explain in a bit. But, like I said, we’ve come to the end of this book, and I wanted to let you know that by the time I am writing this, our little Hermes Temptation groups are still running, well alive and kicking.

My relationship with Fifi as business partners and friends are not only intact, but also has well grown into its most solid, most stable state ever - just like how our little “company” is. However,

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I’ve decided to end my run as a re-seller of these exclusive Hermes bags, and I’ll tell you exactly why.

The fact of the matter is, the closest people in my life, my family, my good friends, the people I care about - have repeatedly complained to me and expressed their wishes that they wished I stop whatever it was that got me glued to my BlackBerry so much whenever I was around them. It was, of course, the Hermes Temptation business. I’m not saying it was a bad thing, you see, for if you read this book cover to cover, you will have gained the understanding that when I first took this “job”, I took it for the experience that I thought will fetch me. And boy, what an experience it was. It looks like I got more than what I bargained for, and I am eternally grateful for all of the lessons, experiences, laughter, joy and even heartbreaks that I have had the privilege of encountering during my tenure here. I’m saying this with all the sincerity in my heart……this book is proof of it. In fact, this book is to become my lifetime memoir of all of the experiences I gathered while doing this business.

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Still, in the perspective of things, something’s gotta give. Now just entertain your humor for a moment and imagine how many times my husband, my son or my daughter had had to repeat the same questions or statements to me just because I was not able to give them my full 100%? I couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying because I would be typing furiously on my BlackBerry, answering so many queries in rapid fire rat-tat-tat that it almost seemed like I was holding my breath the entire time. I didn’t think it was healthy, of course, but at the same time, when you’re running a business with merchandises that can fetch a small automobile, it was also not particularly ethical or the right attitude to ignore your client base.

Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. At the point when I’m writing this, I realized that something’s gotta give. And I choose not to give away my most precious commodity, which is my time. That precious commodity of mine; that limited amount of time I have in this world, should be given to that which matters the most in my life: my family. As the old adage says, “time is money.” Time is something that, once you lost it, will never, ever come back.

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You cannot earn it. You cannot reclaim it back, nor reproduce it, nor slow it down. Every breath I take makes me older by one second. If I don’t make the right choice, then it’s not entirely possible that one day I’ll wake up old and frail; financially secure, perhaps, but my son and daughter will have moved on, and I will have missed on what they were trying to tell me. Worst of all, I will have missed watching them grow up.

Now, to be honest, this Hermes Temptation business is not without its money. We started sometime around summer of 2010 and in just less than six months we had raked in a profit of around USD 40,000 or about IDR 400 million.

Now I don’t know if you think that’s a big amount or not, but the fact is, considering that we NEVER had to re-sell our own personal bag collection, I am very proud of this achievement.

Some of you are thinking that USD 40,000 for a six-month run selling bags via group chats is a rather profitable amount. To that I say: don’t forget all the running around that we had to, all the stresses that we had to endure, all the deep breaths we had to convince ourselves to take, all

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the determination it took to keep us going and – you guessed it – all the time we lost answering questions after questions and soothing cranky clients whilst life around us unequivocally passed us by.

Some of you will think what a waste it is to shut down this kind of business, especially when it is just starting to pick up and yes, I won’t deny that the profit we picked up from doing this is rather handsome. However, when one of my best friends pointed out to me that I am more fun to talk to via the chat system rather than in person, I dropped my beloved gadget, literally.

She said that I give her a better attention; indeed, perhaps even my “undivided attention” when she chats with me compared to when I am standing right in front of her, as every now and then I would give her the “hold on, lemme get this one real quick” (an inquiry from my client is almost always followed by an urgent “PING!”).

That was the point when I started to realize that this was not the best way to live. Or at least it was not the way I want to do it anymore.

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See what a good friend can do for your life? This is another point I want to emphasize to you in relation to what I said about time. Look here, you live only once and you have a limited amount of time to spend it well. So use it well – surround yourself with people who are absolutely worth your time. A good friend has the power to change your life, and my friend is no different. She awakened me from the spell that is this Hermes Temptation business. I then realized that I should “pay” for all the time I had spent “ignoring” my family and friends. Consequently, Fifi and I decided that at the closing of this Hermes Temptation group, we would split whatever profit we earned in half and donate every cent to a non-profit organization of our own choosing to support a good cause.

I choose to donate my share to underprivileged people who are suffering from mental illness – people who are poor or under-resourced and have to fight crippling diseases the likes of schizophrenia or autism. And you know what?

These really are crippling diseases, at least in this country. Did you know that I could not find a single organization in the entire country that devotes itself to helping mentally ill people? I

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have the money and I want to give it away, and yet there isn’t a single entity I can donate this to.

Upon learning that, I have since made it my personal mission to support this cause.

Many people believe treating mentally ill people is similar hyperbolically like throwing salt onto the ocean. Basically, their apathy stem from two flawed assumptions: one, that people who are sick mentally never and cannot get better (Fact: some CAN get well, depending on the case, medication and proper treatment; what is true however is that they cannot get better without any medication or effort); and two, mentally ill people are like lost causes – even if they do get better, what kind of contribution can they ultimately give to society? And so, self-assured by these two false logics, the society decides to spare resources for those things that really matters. Spare the rod, spoil the children. Well, my heart goes out to the poor families who can neither afford treatment nor seek help for their family members who have to live through these.

I’ll tell you though; to drop the ball on someone with this kind of judgment can be a very cruel thing to do. The haves can afford to send their family members overseas to special schools or

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sanitariums, but the poor often have little choice than locking up their sick ones in a small room with balls and chains. These people would then proceed to live a life worse than animals for the rest of their lives.

I also discovered that with my share of the profit that I wanted to give away, I can only help very few people. It turns out that medication for mental illness is not cheap at all, and the number of psychologists in this country is far outnumbered by the number of mentally ill people who needs help. Now that I come to think of it, it is a bit like throwing salt onto the ocean.

What can I, one person, do to change the world?

But this is exactly why I need to do this. Michael Jackson said it best when he sang “Man In the Mirror.”

I See The Kids In The Street / With Not Enough To Eat / Who Am I, To Be Blind?

Pretending Not To See / Their Needs He was right. If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change. One person CAN make a difference in the world. Mother Teresa

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exemplified this when she said, “There are no great things, only small things with great love.”

Prior to this, I’ve been eyeing with certain lust a limited edition Franck Muller watch, which, according to the sales girl at the store, costs IDR 191 million. The perfect amount for my half of the profit from Hermes Temptation. However, I know it with all my heart (and from past experiences) that the “high” of buying and then owning this luxurious watch will only last me about two months; three if I’m lucky. On the other hand, I know that donating all of my profit to this cause will at least bring some comfort and hopefully joy to some people and I can’t put a price on that. It sure does feel good.

But it almost got derailed. I have an accounting staff whom I entrusted with holding Fifi and I’s ATM card so that she can put the necessary down payment for merchandises of interest here and there, even when both of us are not in town.

One day, she called me and said she fell victim to a hypnotic crime where the criminal, utilizing hypnosis to gain control of her, managed to take away her wallet, which, of course, contained

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our ATM card, which, naturally, happens to be the account where our profit from Hermes Temptation is stored at. Whatever.

So the ATM card was gone. But for some miraculous reason, my accountant managed to block the ATM card in time and our money is thus saved. Things like these always make me wonder whether God Himself has a hand in this. Maybe He knew our good intention and what the money was for. Maybe He, as the all-powerful Treasurer of the Kingdom Heaven, simply protected His rightful share. The truth is, we’ll never know what God is thinking but this incident nevertheless made me feel so blessed and as if someone is looking after me.

Now, then. Another tricky challenge is figuring out whether we want to give this away publicly or privately. The dilemma is of course with the launching of our book, certain assumptions will be made for when we hand over our “donation” to the benefactors during the public book launch.

Realizing what we’re about to do, and having grown up in a country where the intricacy of politics have developed into an art form as fine

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as the Broadway, we can already hear snippets of scoff the likes of “What a clever stunt to promote their book” “Are they flaunting their wealth?”

“If they’re really humble about it, why should they publicize this?” “Look at them pretending to be so generous” or our favorite worst paranoia, “What are they trying to show, that they have too much money? Preposterous!”

But sometimes, one must define one’s own existence. And accordingly, how the public shapes their opinion toward you. As the character Morpheus aptly said to Neo in The Matrix (1999), “there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” It is not always prudent, indeed practical, to constantly care what other people think. In my case, it is definitely counterproductive to worry about what other people think about this little donation “stunt” whether I do it privately or publicly – especially when it involves a group of underprivileged people with little hope. In fact, come to think of it, I want to make it public.

I want to promote my cause. I want to give a little example. I want the public to know how so many people suffering from mental illness in this country have absolutely zero help.

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And maybe, hopefully, there will be some out there who will find their own calling as well.

I hope there will be some benevolent enough souls in my audience who realize that there are disadvantaged people out there who are stuck in a perpetual gridlock; the battle of their lives. I don’t ask for much. I won’t ask you to donate a third of your immediate liquid wealth, or sacrifice the rest of your weekends to support this cause.

But simply acknowledging that this problem exists, and that these people exist, is already a big help to laying the foundation of a better and brighter future for these groups of people. The rest I leave up to you. A little help in a desperate situation is much, much better than no help at all.

critics who might accuse me of “flaunting” it.

Yes, good friends, this is my bitchy poem: I do not care if you think I am flaunting I am flaunting a little example here and I feel good about it And those families who are desperate They sure don’t give a rat’s ass about what you think Because they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place And speaking of which If you do talk behind my back You’ll be stuck in a really good position to kiss my… well…. ass.

Something’s gotta give.

And so, dear friends: here we are, at the end of this book and the conclusion of our little secret sharing. I don’t want to end this as if it truly is an end….because it certainly is not. I’m very positive that I will see you all again very soon at my next venture – God knows what. I never like goodbyes, so in place of that, I wanted to instead leave you with a possible response I thought up for those

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Embracing a New Decade

By Fitria Yusuf

When people ask me, “What is your new year resolution?” my standard reply would always be, “I don’t have any.” It certainly is not because I have no interest in planning my future, but because I simply refuse to list the things I want to accomplish in the next 365 days in the beginning of the year, then, for one reason or another, fail to achieve them at the end the year. That won’t be good knowledge, and that’s not how I want

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to end my year. Instead, I resolve to plan my life day by day. I prefer to make use of every single opportunity that comes my way the best I can, and to the best feasible benefit as I can muster out of it. Hence, although I am focused on my major goals in life, I tend to not to worry too much in terms of what the future may hold. Let it be fun a little bit leave the suspense of the future to be a mystery while I deal with the best of the present.

I know that this mentality might be considered as a happy-go-lucky kind of thing by some people, but in reality, I do have many things to overcome, and believe it or not, I do have my own way to deal with them. Trust me when I say that it is not the easiest thing to try to remain coolheaded when the world outside crumbles down right before your eyes.

At the time of this writing, the New Year has just started. More than ever, I feel very thankful for the many, many lessons and valuable experiences that I went through in the last year. It also has been almost a year since we first opened up our Hermes Temptation shop on the BlackBerry Groups Messenger system. My friendship and

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partnership with Dewi has solidified into its most robust form ever, and I truly value her commitment and devotion in running the business. I really can’t emphasize in words just how much I appreciate her devotion. Back then when I was just beginning to know her, Dewi won’t be fully awake till noon. Now, however, I can always count on her to immediately respond back to me whenever I messaged her on the BlackBerry. But beyond all that, what I really value from her is her companionship and unrelenting support and friendship toward me.

She is always there for me whenever I need moral support and motivation to continue going in business circumstances that could be very discouraging at times.

This is not to say that all are roses. We have had our low points; many circumstances during the course of this business have tempted us to give up this Hermes Temptation entirely. As a reseller of the ultimate luxury bags, we were forced to become the creditor, debt collector, sales consultants, courier and even the credit counselors and pawn shop. Of course, we never undertook the latter activity due to the very high risk. But slowly, and with perseverance and hard

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work, helped in part by Dewi’s contribution as well as mine, we managed to pull together some profits and although not overly significant, they still make us very proud in the most humble way.

You may have read Dewi’s closing chapter where she says she is prepared to let go of the Hermes Temptation business in exchange for more family time and that she is willing to donate every cent of her profit to charity. For me personally, it’s hard not to admire Dewi’s generous heart at all levels. It was actually I who first proposed to Dewi about giving some of our profits to charity.

Not only did she immediately approve of it, but she also took it one level higher and counterproposed that we give half of our profits to the local charity. I can say that I am very proud to have a friend like her and I do believe that good things happen to good people.

No matter what people say, I cannot deny the presence of blessings in our business and everyday life. Like Dewi wrote in her closing chapter, our good intention to donate the profits almost got derailed by a criminal, who hypnotized our administrator on her way to deposit the money. Thankfully, and for all eternity we are

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thankful for this, the criminal did not succeed in withdrawing the money via ATM. Call it miracles, divine intervention, whatever. But I do believe that our Lord God will protect that which belongs to Him and those who do right by Him. I could picture God wagging His awesome fingers and exclaiming with a thunderous roll, “Oh no you don’t, you foolish petty thief!”

As you could probably tell, my bond with Dewi is very solid. I have witnessed many partnerships gone sour and I am very grateful for having a partner with many positive traits and a great sense of humor. The latter is very crucial. Great laughs help reduce stress and pressures. People wonder what the secret to our long lasting relationship is. I always tell them that there is no other secret but to keep your heart free from negative and evil thoughts. It works very well for us and I believe Dewi feels the same. That was why I didn’t see it coming when Dewi e-mailed me her closing remark and I learned that she is closing up the shop due to the high demand of time and attention needed to keep our customers happy. Although of course I totally support her decision, but I was nevertheless taken aback to learn from her writing how the stresses had

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taken a toll on her. And perhaps a bit guilty, too, because I have only realized how she felt Dewi never told me of the pressures that she bore all this time. I’m not the only one who feels this way.

My reply was something like, “Sure, family is a first priority; let me know when I should prepare the money to be donated for the charity.�

I was not at all upset about this because she was just being very reasonable and that I really appreciate her motive. However, I have to admit that at the time of my hearing this, my other business partner, Michelle, with whom I established Twinkle Twinkle in 2009 - a business which makes crystallized accessories (www. shoptwinkletwinkle.com) had also just decided to retire. My partner decided to retire because she also wanted to give her full attention towards her daughter, who is entering elementary school.

And so I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and frankly a little horrified at the prospect that I may have to run both Twinkle Twinkle and Hermes Temptation, if I so decide to keep it, alone.

Before I go on with the kicker for my closing remark, let me first tell you more about this other business I have; this Twinkle Twinkle. So

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basically, this is a business which ny dear partner and I started in 2009 and had had great success, with our operations expanding into Malaysia and Singapore. Michelle contributed significantly for this business and I really do have to thank her for her dedication, especially in production matters.

When she decided to retire, I was left between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, I knew practically nothing about production. On the other hand, it would be almost cruel to hang our distributors in Malaysia and Singapore out to dry. They have been very supportive towards Twinkle Twinkle and one of my Malaysian agents in particular was a very hard working woman, very trustworthy and she continuously dedicated her time and effort for this business. These kinds of partners were the ones who convinced me to keep on fighting despite my obvious limitations.

And so I moved the production to my basement, learned how to design the pattern and failed at least 20 times. Thankfully, after a long struggle and countless prayers, things are starting to turn around and a bright light at the end of the tunnel is starting to emerge. Now, after about 2 months, Twinkle Twinkle is back on track and going stronger. I dedicate this to my hard-working and devoted employees.

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But before things turn out for the better, the time when I had to decide on whether to continue or quit on two – not just one – business ventures which I had built together with some very dear friends was probably the hardest time of my life.

I tried to act cool and it worked; no one even noticed that I was majorly stressing out during that time. But the simple truth was that I just know, and I have faith, that everything was going to be okay. So instead of drowning myself, I decided to go on a holiday with my brother to Tokyo and find some inspiration. There, I let slip to my brother about how stressed I was about the whole thing of not being able to find someone that can help me with Twinkle Twinkle.

My brother, an angel sent from heaven, soothed me and promised that he would help me. I’m not sure how or why but after hearing my brother’s words, I felt so much better and my faith was restored. I realized that I won’t be forsaken by He who created me. And in my further witness to miracle, Dewi suddenly called and asked me whether I was still planning to continue the Hermes Temptation business. I said yes, because like I mentioned previously, I resolve things day by day. My logic was that as long as there are

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bags to be sold in each day I wake up, I’d sell them, until I can’t do so anymore or if I can’t handle it anymore. But the point is, I’ll see what I can do in each day that I wake up.

However, to much of my delight, Dewi asked whether I would mind if she changed her mind about quitting and rejoin the business. Why, of course not! I feel that I have to write this up to show that she’s no quitter. Far from it. She’s a trooper! I love her. But this story also serves to illustrate my point about not having a oneyear resolution planned ahead in the beginning of the year. A set of resolutions will never, and cannot, accommodate unexpected circumstances occurring at random for a whole year. If I were to rely on my resolutions for the whole year, I’d probably go crazy. Okay, I fail on that one.

Okay, I fail on this one too. Okay, I fail on….

Aarrrrgggghhhhh! No, my approach to resolve life as it unfolds day by day somehow prepares me to always look at a significant problem and chip away at it bit by bit. I am forever thankful for my father, who repeatedly taught me that all storms will eventually go away.

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Now, looking back, I can’t help but thinking how mysterious life can be. What we sometimes consider as failures can turn out to be blessings in disguise. I personally have experienced many circumstances like this and I still believe that there is no such thing as a coincidence. Since 2010, I can say with certain pride that I have progressed upward in life. Some people might not agree with my statement, that’s their right, but as for me personally, I know I really have because I am no longer the introvert, insecure and sensitive little girl with low self-esteem that used to be bullied at school. I believe I have transformed into something which I hope can be considered as a strong, positive and inspiring vixen.

these people’s comments are exactly what made it all worth it; my struggles, my fights, my hard times. Will I want to go through all of these again? Not necessarily, but I know I will have to again in the future, and thanks to these friends, I know I can pull through them yet again. The people who told me that they look upon me as a role model have no idea that it is they whom I look upon as role models. I am forever thankful to them for inspiring me in such a big way.

Today is the 21st century of a new decade. Some people still ask me what my New Year resolution is. My answer remains the same. I have none, because I still resolve my life as it happens day by day.

These days, I receive many messages from different people who claim that they look upon me as a role model to break free of their dogmas.

To not be afraid to show who they really are. To be positive and thankful for this life. Some even came up to me in public places and expressed their feelings directly. This, for me, is worth more than even the rarest diamond or Birkin bag in the world. I, the once-fragile and naïve ugly duckling, am now a source of inspiration for other people.

I sometimes find it hard to believe myself. But

However if you ask me whether I have any wish – now that’s a different set of answers altogether.

I do have many wishes and prayers. I wish for and pray to God to bless my loved ones, my family, my friends, my employees and of course my dear partner with pure happiness that can neither be bought by money nor power. As for myself, I think I am now in a state where I feel more content and at peace than ever before with my life. I have a very loving and supportive family and husband, great and true friends who

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understand me, trustworthy and reliable partner, a team of very dedicated staff both at home and at the office and, of course, a job that I truly love and enjoy. Nothing too fancy here, but life is actually starting to feel good to me. Oh and I almost forgot. I actually have another wish for 2011. I wish that all of you who, by any chance are reading this book, to be able to one day experience the joy of feel that I’ve had the luxury of experiencing as well. Alright, back to life now. I hope to see you in my next book.

God bless you all.

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go with the flow

By Alexandra Dewi

Previously, on my “original” closing chapter (which was written sometime around September 2010 if I remember correctly), I wrote about how I thought about throwing the towel on Hermes Temptation, hug Fifi and wish her luck, announce to the world of my decision, delete myself from the BlackBerry Group then collect my share of the profit and donate 100% of it to a charity and call it a day.

Well, like all things in life (and I should’ve known it), it ain’t that simple. Look, okay, I did tell Fifi about quitting. I told everyone else, too. I told

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my family and closest friends that right after the book launching I am officially off being the b***h of Birkins and Kellys. No more uploading pictures. No more answering queries at 3 in the morning, when I wasn’t even sure if there really was any query - maybe I was just texting someone in my dream. . No more stressing out through the brokerage nightmare I wrote earlier in my chapters. I will be available again as loving mother, wife, sister and friend. I will be once again FUN to be with. Talking to me during coffee time will no longer feel like talking to a brick wall, like one of my best friends once said.

I even wrote it down in my closing remark for this book. But then... then maybe I changed my mind.

So what now, Dewi?

Well, one thing for sure, I don’t want to amend the closing chapter where I said I planned on quitting the Hermes Tempation business or delete it to make it appear as if I’ve never said such thing. I want to leave my original writing as it is so the readers can see the timeframe between the time that I wrote my original closing which is around November 2010 until now which is

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January 2011, when I had this change of heart. I want the readers to see that, New Year resolution or not, things can change.

This is why I also agree with Fifi’s technique to not bother with making New Year’s resolutions.

I, too, never bother to think about it; much less spend the effort to make one for as long as I can remember.

I’m going to be frank here and admit that it is embarrassing to tell people that you changed your mind. To me it is a matter of the battle between ego and the right thing to do. But on the other hand I’m also the type of person who, whenever humanly possible, will spill out the content of my guts to you without hesitation, because more often than not, besides making me feel better, I also believe that someone can learn a thing or two from what I share. Pretty often people can relate to what I feel.

Okay, so now that I’m about to change the course of my decision, which will of course impact the people close to me, the first corrective measure I took was suck up my pride and told my husband about my change of heart. “Hun,” I said over the phone, “look, I don’t know how to

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best tell you this, but I think I am still gonna be selling these bags.” I paused. Then I added, “But Fifi and I will no longer be posting pictures on the groups; we’ll only do it once in a while when something really interesting or unique comes along. Basicaly, we’re just gonna take it easy.”

Since I said this over the phone, I couldn’t see his facial expression. I could only gauge his reaction from his voice. But it was enough to let me know that he fully knows that I really enjoy what I do and he would never ask me to give up something which I love to do. He did say something interesting though. He said, “You told me that you’re doing this for fun, so if it’s no longer fun, just stop doing it then.” Hobby is something that we enjoy doing; something that we find fun to do. I had lost that part in the middle of this Hermes Temptation flurry of business, because I started to link “performance” as a direct measurement on “fun”. This is a business that I supposedlydo for fun, yet perhaps I had forgotten how to have fun.

Quick example. Writing is my hobby. But do you actually think that I make money being a writer?

Ha! I lose money is more like it. But I guess all hobbies require an investment of money one

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way or the other. Sometimes I wonder why my hobby is not something like collecting stamps or studying aromatherapy instead of collecting exotic bags or writing books. Truth be told, becoming a writer in Indonesia is one of those ultimate underpaid jobs. I don’t care how many copies of books you’re able to sell; if you write and publish it in Indonesia then the income from it will never fetch you one of those shiny Porosus.

So obviously I treat writing as a pure hobby and I never did intend to do it for the money. Besides, a good hobby should nourish your mind, not consume your soul. The same goes with this Hermes Temptation business. What I need to learn is what you call balancing. I believe that if I treat it the same way as I treat my writing hobby, the “fun” will be back in no time.

In just one year of Hermes Temptation running its groups operation, we got to know many resellers and people who we can consider as Hermes bags lovers. We believe that even without the groups in our BlackBerry, we’ll still manage to run this Hermes Temptation business the way it’s meant to be: FUN. Previously, I got carried away with the “performance” and the “profit” part, and it

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did show. I believe the “performance” and the “profit” can be marked as satisfactory; however, I have lost the main intention on why I even agreed to start this business in the first place.

We never know what is going to happen in the future. Our present situation often plays tricks on us and we get pulled in to making predictions on what will happen within one week, year, one decade.Look, the truth is, we can never predict the future and my strategy from now on is to just go with the flow of the situation and with positive energy.

What is for sure though is that I need to make good on my pledge to focus on my family as well as myself as I wrote in my original closing remark in “Something’s Gotta Give.” I promised myself that along with my renewed goals in life, I would spare some time to “live”. Live in the strictest sense that I would strive to keep my general good character and spirit intact, be it in the year 2011 or the day when my children will have to remind me what year I’m living in – due to, God forbid, senility. But whatever. The point is I will try my best.

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Last Friday afternoon, I was in the middle of watching “Burlesque” with my best friend when suddenly a buyer hit me up. One of the shiny Porosus that I posted in the Messenger Group got itself a buyer, who insisted on receiving the bag right at that very moment because she lives overseas. I ended up missing half of the movie.

I had to ensure the original seller of the bag that her precious possession - that which she entrusted to us - is safely being shipped overseas while her payment will arrive…..next Monday.

Sounds simple, but believe me when I say it is far from it. But like I mentioned previously, when luck is in your favor and you put in the right amount of serious effort, you can secure yourself a nice little deal minus half of the movie.

The next day, I took my daughter with me to rewatch the movie. She loved it. And so I learned that if I wanted to, I can regain what I lost (half of the movie or half of “me” time) and perhaps with a little more bonus: some quality time with my daughter. It’s not about the business. It’s about me and how I choose to react to it.

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But perhaps more importantly, what I learned in this business is that apart from all the hard work, good will and pure intention, there are also a lot of factor “X”, so to speak, that might throw you off your back. Call it good luck, bad luck, good timing, bad timing, whatever you want to call it. But for me, it means that sometimes, in this life, you just have to “Forrest Gump” it and let everything unfolds as it happens. Just make sure that at all times you stay true to yourself and believe that even pain can be a blessing in disguise if you allow it to.

Happy living.

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hERMES 101 SOME KIND OF LEATHERS

By Fitria Yusuf

Well, Hermes enthusiasts, to help you get started on the right foot to hunt that elusive golden treasure; I’ve compiled several basic information about the iconic Birkins and Kellys.

Before you read the following information however, please keep in mind that I am not the final and authoritative expert on all things Hermes. I am simply a girl who fell head over heels for these beautiful handbags and collected as much information about them. I gather these information based on my experience as a writer, a reseller and a bag enthusiast, and I continue

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to gather additional knowledge pertaining to the Birkins and Kellys from the internet, books, blogs, magazines and word of mouth. I double-checked all information prior to putting them in this book; however you must understand that I cannot guarantee that everything is flawlessly written.

I decide to share this information because from my experience in this business, I found out that there are many people who own extensive collections of Hermes bags but have no idea of the origin or meaning of their bags and even how to pronounce the names.

People say that it is impossible to love someone without knowing a person first. I believe the same thing applies to handbags. If you don’t want to bother learning about the heritage or the meaning of your US$ 15,000 bag, at the very least you want to pronounce it correctly so that you don’t find yourself at the tip of some nosy people’s mouths who gossip that you’re toting a fake Birkin.

First Things First Birkin The epitome of luxury handbag, each bag takes

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up to 3 weeks to produce and rumor has it that it takes up to 2,800 stitches to produce a single Birkin bag. The bag itself earned its name from the actress Jane Birkin, who surreptitiously inspired the man sitting right next to her in a plane in 1984 to create a bag for her, Jean-Louis Dumas, the Chief Executive of Hermès. Birkin had fumbled her things when she tried to stow away her straw bag in the overhead compartment, complaining to Dumas that she couldn’t find a good weekend leather bag that she likes, and Dumas took it upon himself to give her exactly that. The Birkin bag was actually modeled after a classic bag, the Haut à Courroies.

Today the Birkin bag is available in several sizes: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50.

It comes in various leathers including the exotic groups.

Classic colors for Birkin and Kelly are Rouge Hermes, Etoupe, White, Orange, Gold, Blue Jeans and Black.

Other seasonal colors are updated each season to keep the Hermes enthusiasts’ anticipation high.

The hardware on this bag includes silver plates

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and palladium to ensure the bag’s durability.

A Birkin bag with diamond-encrusted padlock is available for those who believe the sky’s the limit.

Jean Paul Gaultier launched JPG shoulder Birkin which is basically a shorter and wider Birkin in the shape of a trapezium, which can be carried on the shoulder.

The Birkin bag itself has been the most celebrated bag and the symbol of luxury around the world. Celebrities such as Victoria Beckham, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Kim Kardhasian have all been caught carrying the bag.

You can also bring your own fabrics and material and create / customize your own Birkin, like what Lady Gaga did with her studded black Birkin.

Kelly Originally named as Sac à dépêches, since its launch in 1930 the bag had been a classic favorite. However, it was not until Grace Kelly, the Princess of Monaco, was photographed carrying it to cover her pregnancy from the paparazzi in 1956 did the bag made international headlines.

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Since then, the bag is known as the Kelly bag. It takes up to 2 weeks for a craftsman to make a single Kelly bag. The model itself was made based on a saddle carrier. The bag has a top handle and a shoulder strap.

Kelly Flat: collapsible tote that can be worn as a tote or as a clutch.

Kelly bag comes in several sizes: 20, 25, 28, 32, 35, 40 and 50 (kelly souple). Two types of stitching are employed when crafting the bag, which are retourne, inside stitching that creates more supple structure, and sellier, outside stitching that results in more rigid and more formal look.

Kelly shoulder: Kelly with a longer top handle that can be carried on shoulder.

The Kelly bag is also made in different types of leather, including Togo, Epsom, Clemence and etcetera and in exotic leather such as ostrich, lizard and crocodile.

Other than the classic Kelly bag, Hermes also launched other types of Kelly such as: Kelly Lakis: Kelly with zipper closured compartments at the front size, very practical for traveling with a price tag similar to the calf skin Birkin bag.

So Kelly: the form resembles more like a bucket bag that can be carried on the shoulder.

The most recent addition was the Kelly Amazon, which is a Kelly with a wider shoulder strap.

In addition, you can also find Kelly in evening bag or clutch type such as: Kelly Pochette, Kelly Cut and Kelly Long.

Haut à Courroies This is the original shape of a Birkin Bag. It is slightly taller with shorter handle. Haut à Courroies means “High Belts” in French and the bag was originally made to carry horse riding and hunting equipments. It comes in several sizes: 27, 32, 28, 45, 50, 55, 60. This bag is also called the old Birkin as it is slightly taller with shorter straps. Often used by men and as traveling bags.

Constance

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Another house classic, this is a small sized bag that can be worn in the shoulder. The flap is embellished with hardware either in palladium or in gold in a form of the letter “H”. Jackie Onassis is a fan as well as Mary Kate Olsen. The bag comes in sizes 18 cm and 23 cm. Recently, Hermes also launched the Constance Elan which is the Constance in longer width and in the shape of a lean rectangular.

Jige A classic single flap clutch with H leather symbol as closure. Comes in large size, GM, that can be used as document folder or laptop bag, and PM, which is the standard size and the leaner size that is newly launched called the Jige Elan.

Bolide This is a classic framed bag that has a top handle and shoulder strap. This bag comes in various leathers and has been one of the most soughtafter vintage in the market.

Evelyne Hermes classic sling bag with perforated H letter symbol at the center. It is lightweight and very practical to be used.

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Garden Party One of the most affordable bags from the house of Hermes, it is shaped like a garden tote or a beach bag. Comes in leather and canvas leather combination. Very practical to be used and can be accessorized with scarf.

Picotin This bag is shaped like a bucket with double handle. Very lightweight with supple structure.

The New Classic: Lindy A very practical bag with a supple structure that is very flexible and light weight, it can be carried like a satchel because it has a double top handle and as a shoulder strap using the shoulder strap.

The name “Lindy” was taken from a dance category called Lindy Hop Swing Dance which was popular in the 1920s. Thus far, Lindy can be found in Swift, Togo, Clemence, combination of canvas and leather as well as Ostrich and Crocodile Niloticus Hermes Medor Clutch

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A clutch with spiked hardware similar to the one found in the classic Collier de Chien belt and bracelet. It is one of my personal favorite because it combines rocker style with luxury. Available in size 23cm and 29cm.

Toolbox A newly launched bag that has the shape of a Birkin and a Kelly combined. It has a top handle, padlock covered with clochette and a wide shoulder strap. Wide and supple structure makes the bag very functional to be used. Available in size 20cm and 26cm.

Jypsierre This bag is shaped like a Kelly, only that it is carried as a sling bag. Since it was launched in the year 2008, it has become one of the most desirable bags for those who prefers practicality without sacrificing luxury.

Herbag This is a canvas bag which body can be interchanged between two colors. The top handle and shoulder strap is made of leather. This is also a more affordable alternative to the Kelly bag.

Since it is made out of canvas, I advise to prevent

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using it with dyed clothing material and jeans.

Types of Hermes Leather Birkins and Kellys come in a variety of leathers.

Usually the leathers are made out of cow or goat hides; however Hermes also uses exotic leathers such as crocodile, alligator and lizard for its bags and accessories. It even used whale skin and other animals before.

In Jakarta, the most common types of leathers you can find are Togo, Epsom or Clemence.

The reason why these leathers are so popular here is because they are durable and have high resistance towards water and scratch. Conversely, the Europeans and Americans prefer box leather because they believe that it is made of the softest skin of calf.

Before you buy any Birkin or Kelly (and this is true with any bag), check whether the leather described on the tag matches the actual product.

This is especially critical when you’re buying from a reseller. I have encountered several resellers who describe Clemence as “Togo with smaller grains” or Ford as “stiffer Togo with larger veins”. It is important for a reseller to give

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the actual details when selling a bag to avoid misunderstanding. Epsom leather is preferred by many because it is more lightweight and has structured and semi gloss finishing. However, this type of leather is often counterfeited. The reason might be because Epsom is a stamped or embossed leather (the grains at the surface is not real). To make sure your bag is authentic, please check carefully before buying. A little tips to authenticate the bags will be discussed later in this chapter.

Box Calf A classic leather that has been around since Hermes made handbags for the very first time.

Made of calf leather, the surface is shiny, glossy and smooth. It is one of the most sought-after leather in Europe and the USA. However, due to its susceptibility to scratch, few people in Indonesia desire this leather. The leather is also prone to marks and blisters that are caused by liquid. If being taken care appropriately, however, this leather can last for generations.

Barenia An original saddle leather that is naturally dyed using vegetable dyes, chrome and combination

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of special oils. The process will take up to 6 weeks. The special characteristic of this leather is that it will change its color gradually when it is being used. The surface of this leather is smooth; however it has high resistance to scratches and water.

Chevre de Coromandel Made out of goat hide, it has a spine pattern in the middle of the skin. It is lightweight, scratch resistant and has a sheen glossy finish that makes colors seem to appear to be iridescent.

Chevre Mysore The characteristic of this goat hide leather is that it has more refined grains and subtler spine than in Coromandel. It has a less shiny finishing effect. Scratch resistant, lightweight and able to produce vivid and intense colors. The structure is also less rigid than Chevre de Coromandel.

Chevre Manglore A new type of goat hide leather, it is lightweight, scratch resistant and absorbs colors very well, yielding a vibrant and vivid finish. The most supple of all goat hide, it also tends to slouch easily. The grain is medium size while the spine is

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light - almost invisible.

Clemence Its official name is Veau Taurillon Clemence. This type of leather is made from baby bulls. Some people mistake it for Togo, however Clemence can be differentiated by the broader and flatter grain on it. Besides that, Clemence has a tendency to slouch, unlike Togo which is more structured.

Some Clemence bag is prone to cracking on the edges due to the tendency of the grain to come to the surface.

Although it is scratchproof and durable, this type of leather is very sensitive to water. The surface will be plumped out if the fiber is penetrated with liquid.

Chamoix This is the matte version of box calf. It is more resistant towards scratches but more prone to rain or water due to the tendency to blister. The surface is smooth yet the finishing is not as glossy as box calf.

Crin du Cheval This is a fabric that is made with horsehair weave that is weaved with linen cords. It is normally

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used in structured bag like Kelly or Birkin. The material is usually lined with Chevre leather.

Crinoline This is another type of woven material that is used as a combination with leather in bags with rigid structures, such as Kelly or Birkin. It has a ribbed pattern and lined with herringbone linen.

When this material is made as a structured bag, it is very durable and less likely to damage.

Epsom The pattern or the grains on this type of leather is actually embossed. The process of embossing the leather result in rigidity, hence it is appear to be structured and does not slouch over time.

However, this type of leather is more lightweight than Togo or Clemence. The surface appears to be laminated and it is very easy to be cleaned.

Evercalf It has a similar characteristic with box leather, although it has a softer texture. Once it is scratched, it is impossible to be refurbished.

Evergrain This type of leather has a soft and silky finishing

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with very fine grains in it. This leather is prone to scratches like box leather but it is possible to rub the scratch away with fingers.

Fjord Made out of a vache or an adult cow hide. It is heavier than Togo and Clemence. The surface is flatter than the two previously mentioned.

The advantage of this bag is that it has a water repelling surface that doesn’t absorb water or liquid into the fibers.

Swift Formerly known as Gulliver, this leather has a soft texture and gentle hand and fine grain. This type of leather absorb dye very well, resulting in a more vivid and intense colors. It is more prone to scratch than Clemence or Togo, yet it can be refurbished into an almost-new condition at the Hermes spa.

Veau Tadelakth This relatively new leather has a similar structure and finishing as box leather. However it appears to be slightly more matte than box. Colors will appear iridescent and vivid in Tadelakth leather.

Togo This is a type of baby calf leather that has finer grains than Clemence. It may show veins or it may not. The leather is considered heavy, however many people love this type of leather due to its scratchproof property and durability. It can be refurbished at the spa into a new condition.

Vache Liegee Made out of adult cowhide and has grains almost similar to Epsom (smaller and flatter grains than Togo), however the grain is natural and not embossed like in Epsom. The leather is rigid and durable and also scratch resistant. The color in this leather appears to be two-toned as a result of the dyeing process. Although easily refurbished, the two tone effect will not be reversible if the scratch is too deep.

Vache Trekking It is similar with Vache Liegee. It is said that this is the new name of Vache Liegee. Although mostly found in men’s or travel bag, it is also found in Birkin. The price of this is higher than Epsom and Togo.

Vache Natural

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A naturally dyed matured cow leather that has similar characteristic with barenia leather. It will darken over time and prone to spotting. Although not very popular in Asia, this leather has been with Hermes since forever. It will age into a beautiful patina and also very durable.

Veau Miroir It is a super glossy, almost mirror-like box leather that is made out of calf.

Vibratio A layered pattern that is made by attaching layers of leather In different colors under high pressure. Vibratio is usually combined with other leather such as box or veau natural. It comes in bags such as Bolide, Kelly, Birkin.

Exotic leather Alligator This leather is made from the species Alligator mississippiensis, which is farmed in Florida, United States. You can identify this bag by the square icon near the Togo at the center of the front bag. The characteristic of this leather is

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that it does not have any pore that identifies the sense organ like those that can be found in crocodile leather. Alligator leather is available in two finishes, which is matte and shinny.

Crocodylus Niloticus The species of this crocodile is bred in Zimbabwe.

It is marked by two dots (. .). The pattern of this type of crocodile is larger than those in Crocodylus Porosus. Available in shiny and matte, note that the shine is a result of repeated buffing using stone. Because it is originally untreated, it is not very tolerant towards liquid. You may replenish it by glazing but it is recommended not glaze it more than twice due to the risk of the surface peeling off and flaking. It should come with a CITES certificate when purchased from the flagship store.

Crocodilus Porosus Occupying the highest hierarchy in Hermes exotic leather, this leather can be identified by the symbol ďƒ™. This leather is bred in Australia. The characteristic of this leather is that it has fine and symmetrical scale pattern. Also available in shiny and matte, just like other Niloticus and Alligator, the shine in this leather comes as a result of

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buffing instead of glazing. Therefore a careful treatment against liquid or rain drops is crucial in order to maintain the condition.

Ostrich This type of leather is made of ostrich or the species of Sturthio Camelius, which is farmed in South Africa. This leather is very easy to maintain although it can change color over time due to exposure towards light and contacts with hands. Ostrich leather will develop a patina over time creating a metallic sheer finishing on the leather. It used to come in larger size like size 40, however in recent years ostrich can only be seen at the biggest of size 28 for Kelly and 30 for Birkin.

Vache Natural A naturally dyed matured cow leather that has similar characteristic with Barenia leather. It will darken over time and prone to spotting. Although not very popular in Asia, this leather has been around in Hermes since forever. It will age into a beautiful patina and also very durable.

Varanus Niloticus This is leather made from the water monitor or

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commonly known as lizard, a species indigenous to Africa. This type of leather is marked with the symbol - . It has a glossy finish and currently due to the difficulties in finding lizards in large size, it is only made into Birkin size 25 or smaller.

It comes in matte or lisse. Because the skin is fragile, it is recommended to replenish it regularly at the spa. When the skin is dry it has the tendency to peel of.

Varanus Salvator Also coming from lizard or water monitor but identified by the symbol , it also has the same properties as Varanus Niloticus: glossy finish and reflects color brilliantly into vibrant result.

Currently the leather is produced for smaller bags such as Birkin size 25 or Kelly size 28, Jigge, Kelly Cut, Kelly Pochet, etc.as well as accessories.

Veau Miroir It is a super glossy, almost mirror-like box leather that is made out of calf.

Veau Tadelakht This type of leather has a smooth surface that is similar with Swift. However it has more shine than Swift, although not as glossy as box leather.

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The physical characteristic is similar with Barenia; however it doesn’t age the same way due to it being processed differently.

The Pronunciation: Hermès : er-mez Haut à courroies “ot ah koo(r)wah” Chèvre: shayv(r) (chèvre coromandel : shayv(r) coh-roh-ma(n)-del) Jag, Cyclamen: seek-lah-men Bolide is “boh-lead” Clemence : kle-mong Constance : kon-stang Lézard is lay-zar mysore= misooor souple : soup –leh sellier : se-lli-ay

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retourne : re-torn chamonix : sham-o-nay bolduc : bol-dook faubourg : au-burg cyclamen : ci-kla-men courchevel : coor-shuh-vel dragee : drah-zay vert anis : ver – anis Picotin : pi-ko-tang

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Acknowledgment

BY FITRIA YUSUF

BY ALEXANDER DEWI

I am a grateful person. Even if the world outside is crumbling down, I know I’m still very blessed and I thank God for that understanding. After all, He has given me a father, that always act as a mentor, a guardian and a role model for me. A mother that never misses a day praying for me. A husband that never fails to support and to teach me the value of life. A brother that always give me courage and another one that understand my quirks. A partner that always there when I need her support.

And nevertheless an amazing inner circles (you know who you are) who never judge my deeds.

I thank them all with all my heart for none would be possible without them.

I would also like to thank My dedicated secretary Indri I and Oty for helping me organize my overwhelming schedule. My hard working and trust worthy staff at Ivy. My wonderful followers @FITRIAYUSUF , your enthusiasm and support are the reason I keep on writing

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I thank God for the opportunity to share my experiences and hopefully an inspiration or two through yet another book. I thank God for the presence of my husband in my life, who loves me for who I am, and who, despite my sometimes hectic scheduling and activities, remain my most reliable and dependable best friend without saying too much. I thank God for my children, the loves of my life, whom I love so very much, and who love me back. I thank God for my family and friends, who have supported me over the years unswervingly. True friends are the real blessings in life, and I cherish you all with all my heart.

I thank God for all the people He has brought into my life, however brief it may be, because from each individual I learn, I feel and I grow. Each person has brought a special meaning into my life.

For those of you whom I don’t mention here, know that you are all printed in my heart forever. You know who you are.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ALEXANDRA DEWI Entrepreneur, writer and co-author of “I Beg Your Prada” (2007), “Queen of Heart” (2007), “The Heart inside the Heart” (2009) and “Little Pink Book” (2009). Alexandra has also penned numerous articles that went on to publication in various prominent magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, Clara, HerWorld, Grazia and Moore. You can also find her articles in www.andaluarbiasa. com. She lives in Jakarta with her husband and her two children. www.twitter.com/dewialexandra

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

fitria yusuf Fitria Yusuf is an entrepreneur, lifestyle writer and author. She is currently a managing director a fashion retail store and online shop : www.boutiqueivy.com And www.shoptwinkletwinkle.com a personalized swarovski crystal accessories Since 2006, she has been a contributor for several leading magazines including Dewi, Harper’s Bazaar, Eve, Grazia etc In 2009, she published her first book , Little Pink Book: Jakarta Style and Shopping book which she co-wrote with Alexandra Dewi.

More about the author can be viewed at her website : www.fitriayusuf.com And her twitter @FITRIAYUSUF

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