The Crazy and Elusive Hermes Semi-Annual Sale Experience! (And Reveal....!)

Love this #purseboppicks Boptalk challenge and should have done it earlier in the week!! I have been wanting to share my experience with the Hermes semi-annual sale in Paris and this is the perfect opportunity! My husband goes to Paris often and this summer he found out when and where the sale was (beginning of July usually). He decided to go and see what the fuss was about. He woke up at 4am and was one of the very first people in line! Everything is separated into rooms by category – scarves, shoes, pret-a-porter, belts, etc. There are no bags ever there as I understand it. No enamel or leather bracelets, either. Everything is offered without boxes (except the shoes, which is amazing)! The prices vary from 40-60% off retail, the majority being 50%. Most items are marked on their tag with an “S” to indicate “sale” and so resellers cannot claim something that it isn’t. The items available are from the previous season, so this time it was A/W ’14/’15. The merchandise is often not 100% perfect, or are colors that obviously weren’t as popular, etc. It’s fairly organized he said and you are supposed to have a ten minute limit in each room and then they kick you out and you can move on to another room if you want. He said that was definitely not enforced as people were lingering in front of mirrors trying to decide what color way in scarves they wanted….. There’s not a limit, however, on how many items you can buy, which we both thought was a shame. People seemed to swarm to the scarf section and grab everything in sight. He didn’t even try that route and went to shoes first – nothing in my size though! Someone had already gotten there first and stacked a ton of boxes up without looking at them at all and immediately got on their phone to call for help in getting the boxes out of the building. So, that was sad ??. That’s why I think they should have an item limit in each category. He said the pret-a-porter room was hardly busy with people the whole time he was there and if he had known specific things I wanted I’m sure he would have found some amazing pieces. Everything was merchandised really well and he said the employees were really nice despite most of the tourist frenzy taking place at 8am ??.

He really wanted to go to see what the fuss was about and felt neutral about it. It wasn’t really about the prices or anything as we obviously shop at Hermes anyway, but more what items were there he didn’t catch sight of before and getting them half price is just a bonus. Both of us like the actual orange box itself so not getting that is a total buzzkill! There was a beautiful pair of black croc boots that was possibly in my size but he didn’t want to be stuck with them in case they weren’t a good fit. I did get two lovely pieces, though! (Top two photos!). He is truly amazing and wonderful for braving the crazies and getting up so early! ❤️??

During this trip he also picked up a goody for me at Colette and something he had transferred into FSH in my size we finally found….. (Next photos)

I also got some bonus late birthday items from our stores here in the U.S. we got on random shopping trips one weekend….. (Bottom two photos!).

Thanks for reading this far and I would love to hear your stories about the Hermes sale if anyone has been or any opinions at all, positive or negative! ???? @sapphiresandscotch