First Lady Melania Trump’s beloved Birkin bags will become more expensive starting next month thanks to her husband’s trade war.
Hermès is raising the prices of its goods starting May 1 to compensate for President Donald Trump’s 10 percent tariffs on European imports, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
The company’s chief financial officer said prices would go up “across the division of the business,” though the exact amount is still being calculated.
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Trump announced on April 2 that he was applying a 10 percent universal tariff to all imports—plus “reciprocal” tariffs on products from some countries based on their respective trade deficits with the United States. The duties are an import tax paid by American companies with the costs typically passed on to consumers.
China quickly retaliated, and after several rounds of back-and-forth negotiations, the U.S. imposed 145 percent tariffs on Chinese products. China responded with 125 percent duties on American products.
Trump had also announced an additional 20 percent “reciprocal” tariff on products from Europe before pausing the duty for 90 days.
Trump doubled down on his “Liberation Day” tariffs even as markets plunged, consumer confidence dropped, and investors expressed alarm. With the world’s two largest luxury goods markets locked in a heated trade war, analysts predict a prolonged slump in demand for high-end handbags, according to the Financial Times.
Analysts originally expected the luxury goods industry to grow by 5 percent this year, but now they’re forecasting a 2 percent decline thanks to economic uncertainty and the increased likelihood of a global recession, the Times reported.
A slowdown in Chinese demand has already hurt the company’s first-quarter sales, according to Bloomberg.
But Hermès is betting its ultra-wealthy client base will still be able to afford its bags, and that its traditionally high demand will outstrip supply, according to the Financial Times.
Customers like Melania Trump are particularly enamored of the company’s Kelly bag and its Birkin bag, which the company has turned into the ultimate status symbol through clever marketing and manufactured scarcity.
Birkin buyers must have a purchase history with the brand, and boutiques can only order a limited number of bags each year, according to Sotheby’s. Stores can’t order specific styles, so most buyers have to settle for whatever they can get—unless they’re willing to buy used. And customers have to work their way up to the more exclusive models, according to Style.
Used bags on Sotheby’s ranged from about $20,000 for a goat skin bag to $135,000 for a matte white bag made from Nile crocodile skin.
Melania Trump seems to own—or have owned at various points—at least a dozen bags worth $10,000 to $100,000 each, Style reported.
During Trump’s first term in office, a viral video showed the president repeatedly trying to take his wife’s hand while they exited Air Force One in 2020. Melania kept pulling her hand away and clutching a brown Birkin instead.
While Trump was on the campaign trail last summer, Melania was photographed running around New York with a $33,000 white bag, the New York Post reported.
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