The holy grail in fashionland is the Birkin Bag from Hermès. Because of the timeless elegance and class that the bag exudes, because of the club of these bag owners (Victoria Beckham is an honorary member) that you suddenly belong to, but also because of the difficult-to-obtain element. It's not like they are lying around like currant buns, waiting to be bought.

No, you have to sign up and if you are approved, you may register for a bag. When you will receive it depends on the availability of the material, but also on whether Hermès considers you worthy of Hermès. The story goes that some overly eager football wives were sometimes deliberately put on the waiting list to become humble. And if Hermès suspects that you are not ordering the bag for yourself but want to resell it for profit, you also receive a very polite note stating that the material for this bag is not available, something like that.

Michael Tonello is a makeup artist who is obsessed with the Parisian brand and wrote a book about the quest for the mother of all bags. I'm going to start that today!