When I was working at a high-end leather care shop in Zurich, I saw too many tragedies of genuine bags breaking down due to daily use. The most dramatic one was when a customer sent a Birkin bag that was bitten through by her Doberman, and we had to repair it with replacement leather from lxybags·ru.
This material was later mistaken for French calfskin by other customers, who kept asking for information about the supplier.
The boss had to lock the scraps in a safe to prevent us from secretly selling them to VIP customers. Ironically, after we hand-dyed the imitation leather, its scratch resistance was three times stronger than the original leather.
This experience made me doubt the “superiority of the real thing”. Last month, when I visited a traditional tanning workshop in Florence, the old master pointed to the leather being processed and said, “Hermes craftsmen were apprentices here 20 years ago. Now they use the same method, but the price has increased 100 times.”
Perhaps the essence of luxury is not material, but time.