“Forget shares, just get a Hermès bag”. That’s the title chosen by The Times, and it’s not for nothing. The accessories made by the French luxury brand in 2020 grew in value by 17%: more than any other luxury item and stock market indexes. The number was provided by the Wealth Report 2021 by real estate agency Knight Frank. Simply put: no other investment was more profitable than the purchase of a Hermès handbag.
The index
2020 was the second year in a row during which the performance of leather goods surpassed that of other luxury items. At least according to the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index, which included vintage cars, diamonds, watches, jewelry and wine in its research analysis. The value of handbags had increased by 13% during 2019: in 10 years the growth is equal to +108%. As shown in the table reported by Yahoo Finance, while in 2019 and 2020 the item was the fastest growing of all, if a 10 year-period is considered than handbags are fifth in line, behind rare whiskeys +478%, vintage cars +193%, and wine at +127%.
Hermès’ handbags
According to the report published by the real estate agency, the great performance of Hermès’ handbags is due to a “consistent presence in online auctions”. In addition, also due to the “demand and desire for luxury items that are relatively accessible and convenient to get, during the pandemic, most of all in Asia, where many collectors are located”. Knight Frank had stated last summer that, since about 90% of the collection handbags can be bought online, the lockdown didn’t stop buyers from continuing purchasing.
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