Tariffs could also be rattling the retail world, however they aren’t stopping New York’s wealthiest ladies from dropping $15,000 on luxurious purses — even when they’re secondhand.
Madison Avenue Couture is a discreet enterprise that operates behind thick glass doorways on an higher flooring of a nondescript tower on West 57th Road. The Midtown Manhattan showroom is accessible by appointment solely, and solely after a rigorous vetting course of.
“We make sure they are legit,” chief govt Judy Taylor advised The Publish, when requested how guests are verified. “This isn’t a store where you can just come in and browse.”
Nonetheless, enterprise is booming.
Whereas a lot of the style world struggles, MAC — which focuses on pristine, beforehand owned Hermès, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton luggage — is on observe to develop 30% this 12 months. Final 12 months, it bought $50 million value of luggage, a 35% leap from 2023.
Many of the quantity occurs on-line. Final month, throughout a 90-minute go to with The Publish, MAC’s VP of gross sales, Alexis Clarbour, was interrupted twice by a money register ringtone on her telephone. The primary was an alert for the sale of a $4,500 Chanel clutch. The second was for a $5,450 Hermès Picotin.
On April 29 alone, as Taylor and Clarbour had been busy opening a brand new boutique in Palm Seashore, Fla., Clarbour stated her telephone ka-chinged 5 occasions earlier than midday – netting the corporate $265,000.
“We could finally relax on the beach for an hour,” Clarbour joked.
The luxurious market, which exploded throughout the pandemic, has cooled for giants like LVMH and Chanel. However MAC continues to thrive, with a shift towards lower-priced stock serving to drive gross sales.
Paris-based Hermès – whose coveted Birkin and Kelly luggage can value wherever from $20,000 to $500,000 relying on supplies and rarity – not too long ago warned of worth hikes in response to tariffs, though it declined to say by how a lot.
MAC is uniquely well-positioned to capitalize, in accordance with Taylor. She notes that sellers seem like motivated of late. Consumers, fearing but greater markups to return, are scrambling to snag offers now.
“We’re in a sweet spot,” she stated. “A lot of our sellers might be feeling some economic pressure, while our buyers are concerned prices will go up.”
In the course of the large inventory market sell-offs after Liberation Day on April 2, “there was a shock factor” when bag gross sales paused, Taylor stated. Nevertheless it solely lasted “for a couple of days and then people were buying again.”
Earlier than the pandemic, MAC’s common sale was $26,000; now, it’s $14,000. Smaller gadgets — like Hermès Picotin luggage for $3,600, Evelyne luggage for $3,750, and even wallets below $1,000 — are flying off the cabinets.
“We decided to go into smaller, lower-priced bags, and that’s driven more sales,” Taylor stated, including that these things are more and more arduous to seek out at Hermès shops.
As for MAC’s showroom, it’s positioned in a district the place smash-and-grab robberies terrorized posh Fifth Avenue boutiques throughout the pandemic – so safety is tight. Potential shoppers should undergo background checks, LinkedIn vetting and authorities ID verification.
As soon as upstairs and buzzed in by the thick glass doorways, shoppers nonetheless face surveillance cameras and associates are armed with bank-teller-style panic buttons.
The precautions aren’t deterring consumers. Since April, MAC’s two new showrooms in New York and Palm Seashore have been totally booked, serving 15 personal appointments every week. Friends are pampered with Veuve Clicquot whereas they examine luggage they’ve pre-selected on-line – often round 5 throughout a given go to.
Equipment are introduced in for purchasers from a close-by facility that evokes an overgrown, lavishly stocked, walk-in closet on Park Avenue – albeit one which’s impeccably organized, well-lit and housed in an workplace constructing. Shelf after shelf of uncommon purses — lots of them carrying five-figure worth tags — lurk inside neatly arrayed packing containers in varied dimensions. The black packing containers include Chanel luggage and the orange, in fact, are Hermès.
“Pre-owned Hermès Birkin 35 Argile Swift Gold Hardware,” learn the label on one massive, orange field turned on its aspect, surrounded by dozens extra. As of final week, the $16,000 merchandise was marked “out of stock” on MAC’s web site.
For the actually privileged, the expertise is seamless — however not everybody makes the reduce.
“It’s a very high-net-worth clientele,” Taylor stated. “A lot of them work for investment banks, hedge funds, law firms — and they’re active in philanthropy.”
Each purse tells a narrative — generally actually.
When MAC acquires a bag, its authenticators often discover private notes tucked inside: Valentine’s Day love letters, Mom’s Day notes, and birthday greetings. Essentially the most touching ones are memorialized on MAC’s kitchen fridge.
“Happy Birthday! May this bag go on many new adventures with you,” reads one be aware. One other says merely, “To my dear friend and bestie.”
They’re reminders that whereas luxurious luggage could change fingers, the sentiment — and the worth — endures.
And regardless of tariffs, crime fears, and a rollercoaster financial system, the ka-ching of Clarbour’s telephone is proof: New York’s urge for food for luxurious is as insatiable as ever.
