Shops selling ‘pre-loved’ luxury handbags are on high alert after burglars stole more than £600,000 worth of products from two showrooms in London.
Dozens of second-hand bags from brands such as Chanel and Hermes – some which sell for upwards of £10,000 – were taken in the raids.
Dramatic CCTV footage shows masked thieves smashing their way into the stores before filling sacks with the high-end gear.
Police are not treating the robberies as linked but word has spread across the industry, with shops now on guard in the run-up to Christmas as the black market is in full swing.
On Tuesday, two crooks raided the appointment-only Eveyspreloved showroom in north London while an accomplice waited outside in a getaway car.
They kicked down the door and took just five minutes to steal the one-of-a-kind goods before disappearing. In total around 70 per cent of the showroom’s stock was taken, with a total value in excess of £100,000.
Distraught business owner Evey Amery, 57, said of the raid: ‘It was clearly targeted because you can see on the CCTV that the robbers knew where they were going and where the products were.’
Among the bags stolen were a blue-suede cowskin Chanel bag with champagne-coloured hardware, priced at around £2,250, and a vintage 1957 Hermes Kelly 28 Miel Crocodile bag, valued at over £11,000.
Also taken was a black Chanel mock alligator-skin bag worth in excess of £4,000 and an olive green Hermes Kelly costing £8,000.
Ms Amery added: ‘I’ve always been so worried about security and weirdly relocated the room where I store the bags just eight days before the burglary.’ It is feared the items will be sold for bargain prices on the black market by gangs determined to cash in on the festive season.
On November 13, three masked men used an axe and scaffolding to shatter the windows of the Sellier showroom in Belgravia. They grabbed £500,000 worth of designer goods in a robbery that lasted just three minutes. Among the stolen items were a Hermes vintage Birkin bag with gold buckles worth almost £15,000 and a pink tweed Chanel flap bag with a pearl handle valued at nearly £6,000.
Co-founder Ayaz Ibrahimov, 34, claims to have seen his bags for sale on social media app Snapchat. He says he handed the evidence over to police but nothing was done.
‘I put the identity of the person who robbed us under the police’s nose,’ Mr Ibrahimov said. ‘The forensics team have DNA evidence because the robbers injured themselves when they broke into the shop and left blood behind. But I haven’t heard a peep from the police in three weeks.’
In July, around half of luxury re-seller Luxe Collective’s stock – worth up to £500,000 – was stolen from the company’s warehouse in West Lancashire.
One careful owner but still premium prices
In an industry that deals in fads, seasonal trends and this year’s must-haves, the one item that never goes out of style is the designer bag.
It’s true that the era of the It Bag – when the most important element of your outfit was your handbag, whether it was a Mulberry Bayswater or a Fendi Baguette – ended decades ago. But in its place a market has emerged for pre-loved (previously owned but in excellent condition) designer bags that have a history of their own.
The idea now is not to carry the purse of the season but to own one of the classic bags with a name to prove how long they’ve been at the top. If yours has had one careful previous owner all the better; shaving a few thousand off the price makes them less eye-wateringly expensive (we’re talking about £8,850 for a new Chanel flap bag, but around £3,000 second hand).
The most covetable among them are the Hermes Birkin (named after its inspiration Jane Birkin); the Hermes Kelly (after Grace Kelly) and the classic Chanel quilted flap bags: the 2.55 (named for the date of its creation, February 1955) and the 11.12.
Then there are the relative newcomers to the pantheon of arm candy: Balenciaga’s Le City, Mulberry’s multi-pocketed Roxanne and The Row’s Margaux. Styles that are no longer in production are also in high demand. Dior’s Columbus, which dates back to John Galliano’s days as head designer in 2002 (£810 on eBay), has re-entered the hotlist since Rihanna was seen carrying one this summer.
And the puffy cushioned and padlocked Chloe Paddington bag, a star of Phoebe Philo’s spring/summer 2005 collection, is another early 21st century bag enjoying a renaissance with younger customers (for a relatively reasonable £600 on eBay).
For where once buying designer bags was a niche hobby of ladies who lunched, interest has exploded over the past couple of years. It’s now so mainstream that department stores Selfridges and John Lewis have their own vintage collections.
Pre-loved bags are typically indistinguishable from brand new, but their cheaper price means you stand a chance of owning something you otherwise couldn’t.
However, in some cases a second-hand piece can sell for more than its original price. To buy a new Birkin, Hermes requires the shopper to leap through hoops to prove their brand loyalty before they are permitted to part with their £9,000. This exclusivity means that pre-loved Birkins can sell for as much as £25,000.
Such bags are status symbols, luxury fashion statements – and they’re collectable in the way that fine porcelain used to be. Whether you want them to show off or to sell on at auction, they’re hot property.
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