Product Description

If you want an Herm's Birkin bag, be prepared to wait. And wait. And wait. After more than twenty years, the iconic Birkin remains the ultimate status symbol and probably the most coveted accessory of all time. The supposed 'wait list' is two years long, and when Herm's calls, they may not even offer you the Birkin you want. But this is not a buyers' market, and if you're like many women, you would jump hurdles in your high heels for the chance to own this ultimate symbol of luxury and style. "Bringing Home the Birkin" is the riveting story of how one man exposed the underbelly of the lucrative handbag industry.Michael Tonello's newfound career started with an impulsive move to Barcelona, the vanishing of a job assignment, no work visa, and a Herm's scarf sold on eBay to generate some quick cash. When, by happenstance, he stumbled onto the truth and walked out of Herm's stores around the world having bought millions...and millions...of dollars in Birkins, he became one of eBay's most successful entrepreneurs, and a Robin Hood (of sorts) to thousands of desperate rich women.Over the next five years, Michael's bag-buying forays took him around the globe, into the lives of celebrities and poseurs, even into danger: hiring thugs to rescue a bag held for ransom and eluding Herm's watchful eye. Although every bag Michael sold was genuine and every transaction legal, the company went to great lengths to keep Michael from buying bags, in an attempt to maintain the bag "and brand" exclusivity. Despite all his risky and enterprising globetrotting, Tonello found true love in the unlikeliest place when he least expected it. A thrilling expose and touching love story, Tonello's whirlwind memoir will surprise you, entrance you, and finally remind you that serendipity and true love have no waiting lists.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81676 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Review
Kate Moss has one in denim, Kelly Osbourne has one in classic black, and Victoria Beckham, of course, has one in every colour of the rainbow. Elle Macpherson, Lindsay Lohan, Sarah Jessica Parker and Naomi Campbell are A-list fans, too. Even Coleen McLoughlin has one in tan. I am talking about the Hermes Birkin: the ultra-chic handbag that is one of the most iconic fashion items of all time. The bag has even got its own kiss-and-tell biography: Bringing Home the Birkin, by former beautician, Michael Tonello. It has just been published in the US and has caused a bit of a flutter at Hermes HQ. The press office would issue only this statement: No comment. The book spills the beans on the luxury handbag business and details Tonellos formula for cracking the code to bypass the brand s famous waiting list. It explains how he managed to buy up Birkins in their thousands for his cash-rich, time-poor, zero-patience clients and make himself a small fortune. --Daily Mail, 28 April 2008

Customer Reviews

WITTY AND WINNING

Many of us probably have an idea of what a dream job would be. How about one that takes you to some of the most beautiful cities in the world where you stay in the finest hotels and dine only at 5-star restaurants? Plus, when you're not in Paris or on Capri you don't even have to go to the office, you simply work at home in your pajamas.

Sound too wonderful to be true? Well, it surely is for most of us but not for Michael Tonello who tells us all about it in the highly amusing, can't-believe-he-really-did-this memoir Bringing Home The Birkin. As the affluent know a Birkin is a handbag made by Hermes with retail prices in five figures and more than difficult to obtain. Evidently the two-year waiting list makes a Birkin even more desirable.

Tonello had already seen a good bit of the world as a beautician
who traveled about prettying up the already pretty for commercial photo shoots. He was happy with his current home but had grown weary of the unfriendly Cape Cod winters. A recent assignment has taken him to Barcelona where he found he loved the people, the food, the sunny clime. When an opportunity to take a job there surprisingly appeared, he packed his designer duds and moved to Spain.

His euphoria was short lived because almost as soon as he had unpacked his job vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. What to do, how to make ends meet and keep wine at table? On an impulse he listed one of his Hermes scarves on eBay and it sold - at a nice price. Further, he was the recipient of emails from those who had lost out on his auction and wanted to know if he had more. Tonello soon realized that these were "serious collectors," and that there might be a great deal of money involved.

As he writes, "I didn't let my ignorance get in the way of my avarice. I intimated that this was only the tip of the iceberg. Well, I've always been a strong believer in the power of positive thinking - I really wanted it to be the tip of the iceberg."

For Tonello wanting made it so. It wasn't a great leap from scurrying around, finding and buying older patterns of Hermes scarves for his burgeoning list of clients to buying and reselling (at a healthy profit) the extravagantly priced, impossible to get Birkins. How could he possibly climb to the top of the daunting two-year waiting list? Where would he find the funds to purchase these more than pricey handbags?

He is one dauntless, determined fellow and his story is a carousel of chuckles, costly cuisine, and luxurious lodgings. Michael Tonello really brought home the Birkins and lives to tell his fascinating story while still enjoying Spain where, as he puts it "excuses to celebrate include getting out of bed in the morning and the ability to breathe for long periods of time."

This reader doesn't need an excuse to celebrate the refreshing honesty, wiles, and wit found in this memoir .

- Gail Cooke

Can't Blame him for Trying!
This is a good book about how one individual just lucked out on EBAY. Mr Tonello's wild ride through Europe to collect the most coveted handbag is truly fascinating! Not only does he find Birkins through a flurry of Hermes scarves but he also has a great adventure doing it.
Perfect quick read for the weekend!