Ruminations

Non-Existent Fashion Scruples

"[The Crocodylus niloticus listed under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is] threatened with extinction."
"Trade in specimens of these species is permitted only in exceptional circumstances."
The Washington Convention

"Morally, one has to wonder whether it's appropriate to be selling an item that so much cruelty has gone into producing."
"[The right thing to do would be to give it a proper burial or to destroy it] rather than sell it off and promote the idea that luxury bags made from brutally killed endangered animals are something desirable for society."
Camille Labchuk, animal rights lawyer, executive director, Animal Justice

Interior view of the crocodile-skin Birkin bag up for auction by the government of Canada. Public Services and Procurement Canada

In 1984 actress Jane Birkin happened to meet Hermes chairman Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight, according to Hermes publicity material. The actress informed the man who headed one of the most prestigious producers of handbags in France that her search for a stylish yet practical bag with enough room to carry baby bottles had eluded success. "No sooner said than done, the empathetic, clever Monsieur Dumas designs a deep and supple holdall", claimed the Hermes website. Not only did Jane Birkin get a bag to her specifications, but the bag itself was named in her honour.

At some later date when she became aware of the endangered species designation given to the very animals from which her bag and others like it were produced, she asked that her name be taken off the bag's identity. What happened to her original bag is perhaps not known; whether it saw the use she contemplated when she travelled with her little girl, or whether she set it aside for a more utilitarian, less celebrated label that worked just as well or even better than the one produced for her.

However, one of these bags modelled after her own and produced by Hermes had been seized by court order, forming part of a forfeiture, which is how it came into government hands in 2014. It has been retained in storage up to the present time, but was recently put up for auction by an agency specializing in selling surplus government items. Potential bidders had to make appointments to view the bag: "Walk-ins will be turned away", stated the government auction listing.

And the potential of bidding for the French designer bag was of necessity limited to those who could or would attempt its ownership through a minimum bid of $26,289. A whole lot of money for anyone to slap down for possession of a mere handbag. It is by necessity a plaything and proud possession of the moneyed and the unscrupulous. Celebrity bait. The bag is advertised as in pristine condition, a minor scratch on the interior lining.

An authentication letter accompanies it from an executive of the manufacturer established in New York, certifying its market value; approximately $30,000 -- and up. In 2017 just such a bag was sold at auction for an astonishing $380,000 by Christie's auction house in Hong Kong, proving in action that old maxim that too many people have more money than brains.

Another, sold more recently in London at christie's went for $300,000. As far as legalities are concerned there is little of issue in selling such a handbag since the purpose of the the Washington Convention is to prevent trade across borders, not within borders; added to which a personal effects exemption applies, into which category a handbag would likely fall.

Still, since the Nile crocodile is listed at the highest level in the international treaty restricting trade in endangered species, the government agency overseeing the sale of this item warns that whoever becomes the successful bidder, will be unable to export the bag without a special government permit. This bag, produced in Paris in 2011, in government hands for the past five years should have, as Ms. Labchuk suggested, been destroyed, in reflection of its unethical moral status.