• Vanity Fair recently parted ways with ex-MAGA chronicler Olivia Nuzzi (as predicted here in Back Row) and I thought of her when I saw the magazine’s big two-part MAGA spread, featuring J.D. Vance, Karoline Leavitt, Susie Wiles, Stephen Miller, and more. In Trump’s second term, Condé is definitely leaning into normalizing this administration, from Vogue’s MAHA inaugural ball coverage to its glowing cover story about of Trump supporter Jeff Bezos’s wedding to Vogue’s new Head of Editorial Content Chloe Malle’s refusal to tell the New York Times whether she would put Melania on the cover or not. And now this.

• Here’s Lily Collins in Armani Privé at the season five premiere of Emily in Paris. (I’ll have more Emily in Paris/Rome AHEM coverage before the holidays.)

  

• Sydney Sweeney, who seems to perpetually be on a getting-photographed tour to promote her birthday or dating Scooter Braun or some movie or other, is currently promoting some movie or other: The Housemaid! I thought this was a straight-to-streaming thing but apparently it’s in theaters. Here’s the Galia Lahav gown she wore to the L.A. premiere.

  

• Now that I’m in my forties and core weakness has become abundantly apparent (hello, lower back pain), I’ve been getting really into pilates on a reformer, which is a core workout like nothing else I’ve tried. Those of you in NYC looking for similar: Monad Pilates is a new studio that offers very small classes on a reformer. It’s founded by Marine Corps vet Shaimaine Loiacono, who possesses the key quality I look for in people leading workout classes, which is that he is not messing around.

Retail Confessions: Ralph Lauren

One of the American business world’s great success stories — not only in fashion but in brand-building generally — is Ralph Lauren. So many fashion brands go out of their way to be strange and inaccessible, dressing models like balloon animals or 18th century French aristocracy. Or they wrap women in glorified dinner napkins and put socks over their faces and act like WE just haven’t gotten it yet.

Ralph Lauren notably does not do that, and that’s what today’s “Retail Confessions” interviewee, who worked in the Soho and Bleecker Street stores in New York City in the aughts and early 2010s, believed was the key to the brand’s success.

“There’s a very specific clientele,” the person said. “The brand likes people who want the tacky.” No one would ever accuse Ralph Lauren of being too trendy or high-minded. And the brand wanted everyone who walked into the store to feel comfortable there.

This former employee started working at the store fresh out of college, after a veteran executive convinced them to take a sales job over a corporate position elsewhere. They remembered the stores as “show pieces” more than cash cows, in part because they attracted a fair number of celebrities.

Ahead, their stories about Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, Guy Ritchie, and much more. But first, her Devil Wears Prada “get me the Harry Potter book early” moment with Anna Wintour.

When you reached out to me to chat, you said you had a story about Anna Wintour and I must hear it.

I’m just sitting there doing paperwork in the store, and she walks in. She says, “Hi, I would like U.S. Open apparel.” It’s before the Open started. She wants the swag. I tell her, “Well, it doesn’t exist yet. It’s in boxes in Queens, and it’s not even going to be in these stores.” She looks at me and says, “OK.” I say, “So do you want it?” She’s like, “Yes.” I say, “Do you know what you want?” She responds, “Well, you tell me.” I say, “Honestly, I don’t know what’s there.” This is lunchtime. She’s like, “I need gifts for two babies. Make them special. I need them delivered to the Carlyle by 5 p.m.” And I say, “OK.” She asks, “So you can do it?” And I just say, “Sure, I’ll make it happen.” I’m a doer by nature. I don’t like to say no. She says, “I’ll be there. You’ll see me at the piano bar by 5 p.m.”

So she gives me her credit card, address, cell phone number. And she says, “If you can’t do it, just tell me. Don’t promise it and not do it.” And I just say, “I’ll have it done.” And she says, “OK.” Then she leaves and I panic, I’m sweating.

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Loose Threads

• There’s no better way for the Olsens to follow up their viral sample sale than their win for accessories designers of the year at Monday night’s CFDA Awards. In their speech, Instagrammed by The Cut, they thanked their “amazing customers.” Maybe the line sitters will get a shoutout next year.

• Rihanna called the Alaïa look she wore to the CFDAs “postpartum forward.”I don’t know what that means but she makes the weirdest shit look cool.

• Magasin’s Laura Reilly alerts us to “30 substantially discounted items” on Italist from Phoebe Philo’s namesake line. A small Cabas bag is $2,447 (marked down from $4,500). Beige jeans are $789 (marked down from $1,540). A black double-breasted jacket is $2,240 (marked down from $3,738).

• I’ll have more on this Thursday for paid subscribers, but Teen Vogue is cutting staff and folding into Vogue under head of editorial content Chloe Malle. The NewsGuild union condemned the move as “clearly designed to blunt the award-winning magazine’s insightful journalism at a time when it is needed the most.” Still, it’s amazing a teen magazine lasted this long.

• Michell Obama’s new book The Look is out today, prompting reflection on her high-low style as FLOTUS and how she created a sensation by wearing mall brands like Ann Taylor. The orange coat she wore is no longer on the site but there’s a similar style in red. (This camel coat is honesty giving Max Mara.)

Retail Confessions: The Neiman Marcus Flagship

Today’s installment of “Retail Confessions” is so juicy I couldn’t wait until Thursday to send it out.

If you’re new to Back Row: This column explores the psyche of luxury customers, through the stories of people working in retail, responsible for selling some of the most expensive fashion in the world. Today’s interviewee worked at a Neiman Marcus flagship in the U.S. until recently and pinged me because they thought the purchase amounts name-checked in a previous story on Intermix (RIP) were comically low by comparison.

This person’s clients spent “anywhere from $40,000 a year to upward of a million and a half a year.” The store is enormous and attracted a high number of wealthy shoppers who have homes all over the world and therefore basically live nowhere.

“There was so much money,” the former employee said, “and a lot of people just don’t know what to do with it.” After starting out on the sales floor, they were promoted to the personal styling suites, where sales were done by private appointment, sometimes accompanied by caviar and Champagne and — if it was a celebrity — stealth trips to the floor in a private elevator.

Ahead, we chat about shoe-throwing customers, getting clients into fashion shows, one person who spent seven figures on holiday gifts, and much more.

How much was your biggest sale?

One of my first clients was this Russian oligarch. I dealt with one of his many assistants. We sent him fabric samples, catalogs, everything from [brands that did made-to-measure suiting]. It sounds crazy, but he ordered 28 suits and tuxedos. I think the cheapest one was maybe $6,500 to upward of probably $18,000. Then the assistant says, “We need eight of each because he can’t pack when he travels, and we need to keep all the homes fully stocked.” He spent over $800,000 on the phone.

That’s wild but that sounds like an easy sale. Were clients difficult?

A man threw a shoe at me to get my attention.

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Loose Threads

• Well, this has been a long-fought battle by the Humane Society and anti-fur activists: Condé Nast has announced it will no longer feature fur in its “editorial content or advertising.” The Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade has been waging a campaign for nine months that involved, CNN reports, picketing the residences of Vogue editors; demonstrating outside magazine events; and protesting at the American Girl store because Condé CEO Roger Lynch is on the board.

• Vogue released three November covers, featuring Nicole Kidman in brown Saint Laurent evening wear; Ayo Edebiri in brand new Matthieu Blazy Chanel (she’s a brand ambassador); and Greta Lee in costume-y men’s Dior by Jonathan Anderson (she’s also a brand ambassador). So advertisers are happy, and Vogue gets a, “We photographed this Chanel before anyone even knew it existed” flex. The covers are meant to promote this year’s Vogue World, which has a Hollywood theme.

  

• If you’re not ready for those big Chanel statement earrings, how about $349 14K gold baby hoops?

• Brands really aren’t wasting any time getting these new runway clothes out on celebs — Mia Goth wore Anderson’s spring 2026 lace armpit cutout dress to the Frankenstein premiere.

• Well, it was controversial for comedians to travel to Riyadh for a comedy festival, but the fashion week beginning there October 16 doesn’t seem to be all that polarizing (yet?). Women’s Wear Daily reports Vivienne Westwood will show there for the first time.

• Timothée Chalamet buzzed his hair, and fans are UPSET.

And now, today’s big story…

Retail Confessions: Selling $100,000 Brunello Cucinelli Suits to Tech Bros

Before Brunello Cucinelli became synonymous with quiet luxury, it was the go-to brand for the tech elite. Prior to his glow-up involving, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “gold chains and Gen Z curls,” Mark Zuckerberg was known for wearing gray custom Brunello Cucinelli T-shirts. When those tops had a news moment in 2018 (when Zuckerberg wore an uncharacteristic suit to testify before Congress), they cost $300. Now, one will run you $375. If Zuckerberg wanted to enter a collar-popping era (apologies for the mental image) he could get a silk Cucinelli polo for $1,400.

Today, the brand transcends the tech elite and is mostly synonymous with the elite generally (see: Succession; Gwyneth Paltrow wearing a Cucinelli suit to her ski crash trial).

For today’s “Retail Confessions,” we hear from a former employee of a Seattle area store who’d worked for other luxury brands, including Chanel. Brunello Cucinelli’s stock recently slid following reports of alleged violations of Russian sanctions. Whatever’s going on, “There’s so much oligarch money,” says the former employee. “The prices were so astronomical. I was on a call with Brunello, and he was saying, ‘Please aim to sell four pieces.’ If you could sell four pieces, it’s about $20,000.”

The brand lives up to its quiet reputation. “I have a friend who worked at the corporate office and he told me, ‘I can’t have anything on my desk. Everything is all white. You eat lunch alone at your desk, you don’t talk to anyone. It’s a very quiet office.’”

Ahead, the former employee talks about flying with clients for custom suit fittings, selling to rich teenagers, and more.

Who were the clients at Brunello Cucinelli?

A lot of tech people. Most people shopping there were over 55, 60. Surprisingly, I was also getting 18-year-olds who had made money through stocks.

Oh, like, nepo babies?

It’s a very nepo city. There’s a lot of wealth. It’s where all the Microsoft heads live. They would come in and ask, “What’s new?” And then just be like, “That one, that one, that one.” Try it on. Just in and out very quick.

They were not very social people but they would love to meet other clients. They were very like, “What did this person buy? I want what they got.” If they saw each other come in at the same time, it was a competition of like, “You have this piece on and this piece on — I have that piece too.” They didn’t want to say they were wearing Cucinelli, but they were all looking at each other like, What piece do you have on?

Were clients demanding?

Oh, yeah — they were demanding of services.

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Loose Threads

• Melania Trump’s inauguration hat got a sequel: she wore the second wide-brimmed statement hat in plum to Windsor Castle, where she and her husband are visiting with King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William, and Princess Catherine. Dior made both her hat and couture suit. New Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson will debut his first women’s collection in a couple of weeks. If you’re just here for the memes, here you go.

• Melania also attended a white-tie dinner wearing a yellow Carolina Herrera dress with a belt that looked sometimes purple and sometimes pink. WWD confirmed the belt is “bright lilac.” (It’s unclear to me if this is a custom look.)

• Vogue World will stream on October 26 at 6 pm PT.

• Nocturnal Skincare, which is known for its serum, has new styles of its knot bags. I know they’re for the product, but you could really take these out for a night or to lunch — added value in a crowded category.

• I am fascinated by Anna Wintour’s commitment to Starbucks. Here she is holding not one, but two Starbucks gift boxes at a recent Starbucks x Fashion Week event.

  

And now, today’s big story!

"been subscribed to the free email for a while and feel I'm missing out by not being a full subscriber!" —Paid subscriber Ams

Retail Confessions: Loro Piana

Loro Piana is more than a hundred years old, but became part of the zeitgeist around the time of the pandemic as the stealth wealth trend exploded. The characters of Succession, the HBO show based on the Murdochs, gave the brand a new platform and new customer base. “I saw it go from an empty store to a huge line of one percenters waiting to buy things at Loro Piana,” said a former employee of the Rodeo Drive store in Los Angeles who worked there during the pandemic. The brand hired more staff to accommodate the increased demand and steadily increased prices like the rest of the luxury industry in its quest to become the next Hermès.

The heightened interest in the brand was both good and bad for the sales staff. While more customers were coming into stores, not all of the new clients were the uber-wealthy sort who could drop $20,000 — if not much more — in one visit.

Ahead, the former employee talks about how they avoided the most difficult customers and how he sold $3,000 polos to some of the richest people in the world.

Who was the old client versus the new client?

The old client was the 1 percent that's been shopping with the brand forever. Extremely conservative and older. Very international. Everybody's Google-level — you know exactly who they are, what they do. They invented the cell phone or run a major AI health company. The new client is tech for sure. There's also the new client who's the shoe person. This was stigmatized because they were the people who were looking for the aspirational price point and didn't really care to understand the brand on a deeper level.

Tell me more about the shoe client.

The shoe client is the same person who's into New Bottega, or trends they've seen online, and they want to be part of it. You always hope that the person you're working with is your $20,000 sale — and then you get $1,000 sale in shoes.

Did they ever talk about the show Succession?

That’s the shoe client. In Rodeo Drive, you would get people who are doing the Hollywood tours, and they’re fans of the show, and they would just come in to see where the character would shop. That’s why we saw more than a 300 percent increase in our hat business. After the guys from Succession wore the black cashmere baseball hat, everybody wanted the cap and we went from having 20 caps in the store to hundreds.

How do you work with a client who spends $200,000 a year versus the baseball cap client?

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• Is the Cannes red carpet having an identity crisis? The festival banned naked dresses and excessive trains and Bella Hadid, one of the naked dress’s most famous adopters, showed up in a simple black gown looking like she was on her way to a D.C. fundraiser. The puffy straight hair and makeup were Melania-esque. Halle Berry had to change her dress at the last minute due to the dress code.

• Speaking of identity crises: Burberry will lay off 1,700 people, or around 18 percent of its global work force. (I would love to do a “Retail Confessions” on Burberry so if you have worked there or know someone who has, email me at amyodellbooks (at) gmail (dot) com.) Burberry may have moved too far from its plaid and trench coat roots — which is what I see on the sales floors of its stores — in its shows and branding. Like, if you wanted a trench coat, would you be able to justify a Burberry version over, say, one that’s much less expensive and looks great from Banana Republic?

• Kim Kardashian arrived to court in Paris to testify about her 2016 robbery, wearing, Page Six reported, a vintage John Galliano blazer dress with a long slit up the side, Alaïa sunglasses, and six-inch Saint Laurent slingback heels. She’s taking down those who allegedly robbed her and, perhaps, stealth wealth along with it. A guard reportedly groused, “Is this a courthouse or the Cannes Film Festival?”

• Kering chief François-Henri Pinault on the decline in demand for luxury goods in the U.S.: “The drop in consumption, which has been going on for several weeks now, is quite strong.”

• Finally, news you can use: Olivia Rodrigo keeps cheese in her purse.

Retail Confessions: Agent Provocateur

“You’re familiar with doms, right?” a former retail employee of Agent Provocateur said on our call this week.

The question goes to show the brand’s secret sauce was never basic underwear. Founded by Vivienne Westwood’s son Joseph Corré and his then-wife Serena Rees in 1994 in the U.K., Agent Provocateur sold in 2007 to investment firm 3i, which expanded the brand globally. It started struggling in the mid-2010s and entered administration in 2017 before finding a new owner. According to Vogue Business, the brand is experiencing something of a renaissance. Creative director Sarah Shotton, who started her career on the sales floor and worked her way up and witnessed the brand’s highs and lows, said, “Buyers would buy deeply into something [basic] and I would think, ‘You’re not going to sell that.’”

In today’s “Retail Confessions,” Back Row’s series where luxury retail workers talk about what selling the world’s most rarified fashion to the world’s wealthiest people is really like, someone who worked at Agent Provocateur stores in Boston and Los Angeles remembers the brand’s heyday in the early 2010s. While many clients would just go in for underwear, the stores also offered accessories like handcuffs, whips, and collars.

“The thing that I learned when working at AP was that, really and truly, you should never judge a book by its cover, because the people in Boston were these buttoned-up professors, and they were buying the kinkiest shit with their doms. And then the women in L.A. would come in wearing crazy L.A. outfits, and they would buy a really romantic set,” she said. Like other luxury retail stores, her work involved clientele-ing — building up a base of regular shoppers and going back to them again and again when new items came in.

Ahead, she talks in detail about the particular skill of selling intimates, dealing with demanding clients, keeping the fitting rooms PG, and more.

Who would shop at Agent Provocateur?

In Boston, some of the clientele would be Harvard and MIT professors. This never happened at the L.A. store, but at the Boston store, I did have one or two professors come in with a dom. We knew the dom because she would bring her clients to the store and they would pay for her. She was like a professional dom where she had a dungeon and everything. I think that was part of the experience is she would bring them in, and then they would go presumably back to her dungeon.

What would they buy?

Occasionally paddles or whips or handcuffs, but mostly lingerie.

What was popular generally?

It depends on if you are talking about men or women.

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Now, if you want to eat at the painfully Instagrammy Blue Box Café (raises hand), you basically can’t get a reservation (again, raises hand).

In this installment of “Retail Confessions,” Back Row’s signature column in which luxury retail workers talk about what it’s really like to sell the world’s most expensive fashion, we revisit Tiffany’s pre-LVMH days. Ahead, the former employee talks about what it was really like to work in the store, selling picture frames to Nick Jonas and seven-figure diamonds to very important clients.

If you worked in luxury retail and want to confess for a future column, send me a note at amyodellbooks (at) gmail (dot) com or DM me on Instagram.

Earlier in Back Row:

How was Tiffany doing when you worked there?

You could tell that they were looking to capture younger shoppers because older people weren't coming in and buying the big pieces they used to. I got the feeling that the Upper East Side ladies who had private appointments would come in every now and then, but that kind of demographic was dying out and there wasn't something that made the younger people want to spend money. No one wanted the Schlumberger stuff.

Who else came in?

We had so many celebrities. Alec Baldwin and his wife used to come in back when they had no children. We were always like, don’t acknowledge that he’s famous, just treat him like a normal person. The Jonas Brothers used to come in all the time. Kelly Rutherford from Gossip Girl.

What did they buy?

Nick Jonas came in very often to buy housewares. He walked away with picture frames one day. He came in without any bodyguards, just him in the elevator with a bunch of girls. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen. It was really embarrassing because the store manager called on the elevator and was like, “Stop Nick. I want to tell him how much my granddaughters loved his little movie.” He tried to stop him on the way out and Nick ran.

What were the private appointments like?

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• How much clients have to spend to become a VVIC (very very important client).

• How Dior and Chanel pamper their best clients (airport concierge, anyone?).

• What a Dior couture wedding dress really costs.

Luxury fashion has long been a service industry for wealthy people. Today, high-fashion brands are leaning into that role harder than ever as they court the 2 percent of spenders that account for 40 percent of luxury fashion sales. Brands now provide 360-degree concierge service in way they didn’t 20 or 30 years ago. It used to be that luxury clothing buyers found out about new styles in Vogue, then went to a boutique and bought a slew of dresses for that year’s charity fundraisers.

But today, no one really discovers new styles or hot brands in the pages of Vogue, the charity gala circuit has diminished, and everyone dresses much more casually. This has left fashion brands to market directly to their best customers, while also creating events like fashion shows and dinners so that these clients have a place where they can wear these clothes. Clients used to buy these pieces to go to fundraisers and parties — now they buy this stuff to go to brand activations that exist in part to get them to buy more fashion.

To get a window into this new world, I talked to a stylist at Bergdorf Goodman in New York about how the store and brands court the world’s biggest fashion spenders, otherwise known as Very Important Clients or VICs.

If you work or have worked in luxury retail and want to confess for a future column, reach out at amy (at) amyodell (dot) com, or reply to this email.

What is it like to receive personal styling services at Bergdorf?

You go to a private, beautiful wing of the store. There's a private bartender, there's a waiting room. You come in, everything's your size. You don't leave the fitting room. All of the catering is delivered, your alterations come to you. You have caviar and champagne in the fitting room. You order lunch to the fitting room. I like to order caviar for the table so it looks pretty. A lot of clients aren't sitting down and eating everything, but they'll take little bites of things.

What’s the average that people spend when they come in to shop with you?

If I haven't seen the client in a while, around $50,000 to $60,000 for an in-store appointment would be pretty standard. We get really fixated on how much clients spend when honestly, they’re not thinking about prices.

Bergdorf is the only store I’ve interviewed people about for this column where the clientele doesn’t come in shopping for mistresses. Did you see that at your past jobs?

Oh my god, all the time.

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Turns out, around 30 years, maybe longer if Gap hadn’t started messing with it.

The boutique was founded by brothers Khajak and Haro Keledjian in 1993, and sold to the Gap in 2012 for $130 million. In 2021, private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners bought it for an undisclosed amount. In 2022, it was acquired by another private equity firm, Regent. Having been subjected to the PE meat mallet, the stores are gone, as though they were always a mirage, and Intermix remains little more than a website pushing Golden Goose and Ulla Johnson.

Ahead, someone who worked at the Boston store in its heyday in the 2010s talks about how changes implemented by Gap started alienating the “club girls” who liked to shop there. “All of a sudden, we started just getting all these silk rompers and all of these silk tops from the Intermix brand, and a lot of our core customers — they didn't want those things,” this former employee said.

The Boston store was located on Newbury Street, by an Aldo and the restaurant Stephanie’s, where people would flock for brunch even though the food was bad. As a result, the customer mix included people who would spill in from there, drunk, and parents of local college students.

If you are a former luxury retail worker who wants to confess for a future column, reply to this email or write me at amyodellbooks (at) gmail (dot) com.

I never understood Intermix. I’m surprised its still around. Why did people shop there?

The story they told new employees was we have all the brands of Saks and Barneys, but instead of having to go through all these floors and departments, we have just the best of the best. At the Boston store, we sold Alaïa. We were only one of a few stores in the company that sold Alaïa. We had Rick Owens, but only a couple of stores sold it. We had Narciso Rodriguez, Pucci, YSL shoes and accessories, all the Proenza Schouler bags, Stella McCartney ready-to-wear and handbags. Then all the contemporary names. Veronica Beard was starting to get really big toward the end of my time there.

The way they merchandised it at the time was very trendy. One of the managers joked she had seen some meme on the internet like, “Intermix is just Zara for rich people.”

How would you describe the Intermix customer?

Madison Avenue was, like, the flagship store. A girl who worked there on her own sold $4 to $5 million a year. The Boston store was not in that top tier, but I think we did maybe around $5 million a year in sales when I was there, so it was pretty busy. International students were a really, really a big group of customers. The Middle East, Asia, some Latin America — people from very wealthy families from these countries who would come to study in Boston.

Parents’ weekend coincided with the weather starting to change. So you have these wealthy students with their parents in town who had the credit cards. Everyone was out on Newbury Street, back-to-school shopping. For a lot of people it's very normal to be like, “Let me take my daughter back-to-school shopping and drop $6,000 at Intermix.” Maybe that was the mom who would buy The Row for herself, but she was like, Eh, that's a little expensive for my daughter, but a $1,200 Canada Goose jacket — that's reasonable.

Who were your best clients?

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• What it’s really like to work the sales floor at luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman.

• How sales people spot difficult customers.

• How much sales people earn.

• Loose Threads, including Tom Ford’s 0 percent sustainability score, Gucci’s very good sustainability score, and more.

A mood of uncertainty has been lingering at Bergdorf Goodman, the luxury department store owned by Neiman Marcus, since it started looking for a buyer. Last month, Saks owner HBC announced the acquisition of Neiman Marcus, including Bergdorf, for $2.65 billion, with the help of minority investor Amazon. A salesperson who recently left Bergdorf recalled, “There was one morning when we had LVMH in the store, and it wasn't anything connected to a brand — they were literally appraising everything that was in the building. So we thought, ‘OK, they might buy us.’ It was every day. It was like, ‘We don't know what's going to happen.’”

The stress of the sale, which could alter commission pay and a host of other things, exacerbated a tense environment during a time when luxury sales were clearly slowing down.

“Retail Confessions” previously featured people who had worked in Bergdorf Goodman’s personal styling suites. Ahead, the former sales floor employee talks about what the job — and customers — are really like.

The full “Retail Confessions” archive is available to paid Back Row subscribers, and features brands like Balenciaga, Prada, Hermès, and more.

Subscribe now

What were the most popular brands at Bergdorf?

The Row was, I want to say, one of the top five ready-to-wear brands in the entire store. At times, the salespeople stationed at The Row were so busy, you would have to take customers to other areas to try things on because the two fitting rooms that they have for that boutique weren't enough. Salespeople really gravitated toward that area, even if they weren't assigned to it, because you knew that that was going to be a good sales day.

What were The Row customers like?

Someone who works in art, for example. She's buying things like Margiela, Prada, and The Row. It's also maybe someone who likes Khaite.

One customer I had who bought The Row, anytime she would travel for business, she would stop by Bergdorf and just pick up a few things. The hard part is that sometimes I didn't have enough to sell to her. I would bring her things and she would say, “I actually already have the Gala pants in black and navy.”

What was the average purchase price for The Row customer?

Easily $10,000. You can get to it a few different ways — sell one big-ticket item or sell them a lot of different things. If you have a customer that's really devoted to one brand, then of course you're going to keep that momentum going, but it's always just figuring out, OK, add in the shoe, add in the bag — what else can you sell?

What else was popular?

The Row bags were just selling out like crazy. The Margaux we just couldn't keep in stock. There are waiting lists. I think that was on purpose. I think they can make more, but they want to create that scarcity.

How could you tell when a customer was going to drop serious cash?

Read more

• A Balenciaga retail employee talks about what it’s really like working at the store for the latest installment of Back Row’s signature series “Retail Confessions.”

• What Balenciaga did to help employees when sales tanked following the ad campaign controversies of late 2022.

• Do people really buy high-heeled Balenciaga Crocs? Towel skirts? Caution tape? Pantaleggings? Get answers!

• Loose Threads, including Dries stepping down, Gisele’s breakfast, American Riviera Orchard, and more.

“Retail Confessions” features interviews with people who have worked in luxury clothing stores. While retail workers are on the front lines of selling luxury fashion, we seldom hear from them. Their fascinating stories give valuable insight into both luxury customers’ shopping behaviors and the world of the ultra-rich. Don’t miss earlier “Retail Confessions,” featuring interviews with people who have worked at Gucci, Tiffany, Hermès, Chanel, and more.

Though not a high-luxury label, few apparel brands have generated the same intrigue, controversy, and spectacle as Balenciaga under the leadership of creative director Demna. As 2022 neared its end, the brand was riding high, having staged a show on a runway made of mud, featuring a custom scent meant to evoke decomposition. The previous show was attended by Kim Kardashian wearing Balenciaga caution tape, and featured models walking through snow, as though refugees fleeing war. Balenciaga items regularly went viral, including a shopper tote that resembled an Ikea bag and sold for $2,145 and high-heeled “Crocs Madame” that sold for $625. The brand seemed to always successfully toe the line of acceptable provocations.

Then, Balenciaga released two ad campaigns that resulted in enormous backlash. The first featured children holding plush toys dressed in what social media users called “bondage outfits”; the second featured the brand’s Adidas collaboration, and included as a prop printouts of a Supreme Court decision in a case relating to child pornography.

Early in 2023, an equity research report from HSBC said the brand was no longer in “hyper growth mode,” and could contribute to fourth quarter results that were “as bad as it gets” for parent company Kering. Kering then reported that sales had declined 2 percent in the period, acknowledging Balenciaga had had a “difficult month” in December.

However, a sales associate in a North America location told Back Row that sales are still not what they were. Part of it is the lingering negative association consumers have with Balenciaga after the campaign controversies. Part of it is Balenciaga’s effort to somewhat reinvent itself, which may not entirely be working. Ahead, the employee offers a revealing look into how Balenciaga customers are responding to the brand today.

Who shops at Balenciaga?

It’s very diverse in my store. We get a lot of foreigners, some locals, young people for sure. At the outlet, you get collectors who are interested in old pieces.

Young people meaning — twenties? Thirties?

Sometimes we get younger than that. We have a lot of kids shopping with parents, girls buying for prom. At some point in the evening, they switch their shoes to something more comfortable, and they're looking for sneakers from us, which is odd because our sneakers are extremely heavy. They don’t buy dresses or statement jewelry from us.

What kind of sneakers?

The Triple S. They're still so engraved in people's minds. They’ve launched five or six different sneakers already, but people still like those. And the Speed trainers, the sock-looking shoe, are still a top seller.

How do the parents react when their kids want this stuff?

Parents are already familiar with us. The majority of the people that come to our stores have an idea of what Balenciaga is, to be honest with you. Other people, they just come in — and I've seen it — to see in person, What is this about? So you see a lot of people just looking at the merchandise thinking, Who the hell wears this? Who will pay for this? What are these people thinking? Nearby is a Saint Laurent and Loro Piana. You see these people sometimes with Loro Piana bags who come in just to look at stuff, being nice and polite, but they're like, “What is this?” “Oh, this is our Croc Madame.” They giggle sometimes. Obviously this is not our target audience.

Who are the top spenders?

We have a lot of resellers who buy in bulk. A couple of professional athletes. A couple of guys who only buy men’s jerseys and T-shirts. As soon as I have an XL T-shirt, they just get it, it doesn’t matter what the season or color is. I have a mom in her late thirties or early forties who owns her own business and has two kids – she shops for her husband and kids as well.

Were Balenciaga stores impacted by the controversies with the ad campaigns?

We are still recovering from it. We are still in the process of trying to bring back certain clients who have completely dropped brand, who haven't come back after the campaign [controversy].

The Adidas collection is in outlets now and even there, it’s very, very difficult to sell. People still associate Adidas with the campaign, unfortunately. The second controversial ad campaign that came out with the legal documents [from a child pornography case] was advertising the Adidas collection, and people don’t want it. It is very difficult. Even now that it's discounted, we have been able to move the most basic Adidas jerseys, but all the accessories, especially the bags, especially the women's ready-to-wear — people are super-hesitant.

What was it like to work there around the time that the controversy was unfolding?

It was very difficult. It was our holiday season, right around Thanksgiving, Black Friday. We were expecting huge crowds.

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In this issue of Back Row:

• A former Tiffany client advisor talks about what it’s really like working in the New York flagship.

• The body language that gives away men who aren’t serious about proposing.

• What the security cameras can actually see. (Spoiler: A LOT.)

• Who really got access to purchasing (arguably regrettable) collaboration lines by Nike and Fendi.

If one store truly runs the gamut from aspirational luxury to the highest end of the category, it’s Tiffany. Shoppers head to the New York flagship for everything from $150 heart charms to fine jewelry that costs in excess of $500,000. LVMH acquired the brand in 2021, leading to a host of changes, including upping the frequency of price increases from yearly to quarterly, according to a luxury retail professional who recently worked in the store. Ahead, the former employee talks at length about what it’s really like selling jewelry in one of the world’s most iconic stores.

If you’re a luxury retail professional who wants to chat for this column, please reply to this email or send me a DM.

What changed at Tiffany after it was acquired by LVMH?

Tiffany used to be closed selling, which means you stay on one floor the entire time. So if you're hired for love and engagement, you'll only ever sell love and engagement. They got rid of that, and everyone gets scheduled on different floors, which was nice. I liked selling a $23,000 ring instead of being stuck on the silver floor and selling the $250 Return to Tiffany stuff for the rest of my time there.

Also, you get to touch the most beautiful pieces. I got to touch a $1.2 million necklace. If you go to a store like Gucci or Louis Vuitton, they'll have client advisors (CAs) who can do $4 or $5 million [in sales per year]. But the top seller for Tiffany in the entire company did around $24 million one year recently. But still, people can do $8 million, $10 million a year.

Do shoppers comment on the price increases?

Some clients remember what the prices used to be. Enamel bracelets from Tiffany’s Jean Schlumberger collection that ten years ago were $25,000 are now $50,000. No one buys them. They're beautiful, the craftsmanship is incredible, but it's hard to sell a $50,000 bracelet that doesn't have any diamonds on it.

What was the clientele like?

A lot of tourists because it was the flagship. A lot of people who were just looking. But then I had a guy come in who was on his way to dinner with his fiancée for her birthday, and he bought an $8,300 set of earrings and a $7,300 ring.

Could you distinguish between the lookie-loos and the people who would actually buy stuff?

It really depends on the floor. If you were scheduled on the main floor, you're going to get a ton of people who were just looking. On the second floor, which was the silver jewelry, you had a lot more people who were actually buying because it was the entry-level price point. Honestly, anytime someone came in and you heard a British accent, you knew they were going to the silver floor.

What was selling engagement rings like?

People think customers walk in and will sit down and buy an engagement ring. Maybe one in twenty people will do that. For the most part, it can be a six-month process.

A lot of people make appointments online for their initial consultations. It could be a couple who's seriously looking. It could be a girl who's single, but she and her friends want to pick out engagement rings for whenever they get engaged.

People who are shopping for an engagement ring are shopping around, they're not just going to Tiffany. When you're working on the engagement floor, if it's a couple coming in, you can tell by the body language of the guy whether or not they're actually looking or if it's just the girl who wants to see the pretty things.

Can you describe that kind of body language?

The guys are looking down. They have their hands in their pockets, and they're walking behind their girlfriend. The girl is excited — she's looking at everything, pointing.

So if you don’t think you’re going to make a sale to someone, what do you do?

If they make an appointment, you have to help them. It's really about getting them in and out as fast as possible, which can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half. If it's a walk-in and they're just looking around and you know that they're not engaged, the CAs would just completely ignore them.

How much did people spend?

You could have someone who spends a few hundred dollars in their entire lifetime. You could have someone who spends $30,000. You could have someone who spends millions and millions of dollars a year. The top client in the world does not look like she has money, but she has 20-carat diamond rings for each finger.

What kind of special shopping experience do high rollers get?

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• How fittings could become emotional and stressful experiences for brides.

• The sales staff’s trick for managing sweaty customers.

• Why bridal boutiques need to stock larger samples for brides who aren’t thin.

• What it’s like to be a high-school society client.

The typical Monique Lhuillier bridal client was a local career woman in her thirties, said a former employee of the New York flagship. Around 80 percent of the store’s business was wedding gowns, which are hand-crafted to order in L.A. Clients “were there for the experience. They weren't just there for the dress,” said the ex-employee, who worked there in the mid-2010s after spending a decade in the bridal industry. The rest of the store’s business was evening wear for society women. “Certain clients would come in and be like, ‘I have five galas next month, dress me up.’ That could easily be $25,000, $30,000.” But those women were less emotional than the bridal clients. “They're expecting these butterflies and all that, and it just doesn't usually go that way,” the former employee said. Keep reading for more on what working in the high-end bridal industry is really like, in this first-ever bridal installment of Back Row’s most popular column, “Retail Confessions.” For more stories like this, you can find the full archive of Retail Confessions here.

Was any dress style particularly popular?

Monique is known for lace dresses, so people were looking for that. At the time, horse hair trim was really popular. The go-to dress had a very sparkly bodice and a full tulle skirt and we could customize it. It cost somewhere in the $6,000 range.

Were clients demanding?

A lot of women think that you serve champagne at these appointments, but appointments are only one hour. We were very strict about sticking to that. We would say you can bring your own if you want, but people rarely did.

Did the staff have any concerns about maintaining the integrity of the dresses?

When you try on wedding dresses, the sales associate goes in the room with you to help you into the dress to make sure we're keeping our eyes on the merchandise at all times. Makeup and heavy foundation can get on the dresses. Also, sweatiness. Sometimes when a lot of people are trying dresses on, things just get stinky.

If someone is sweaty and trying on a dress, what do you do?

We have a fan in the room, but we would kind of let it happen. If it was bad, then the sales associate would bring it to our attention, and we would probably take the dress for cleaning if it had a lingering odor. We needed to make sure that other people who try them on aren't grossed out.

A common issue with shopping for wedding dresses is sizing. A lot of stores only carry small samples to try on. What did you have available at Monique?

The samples were very small, like eight or ten bridal [around a four or six in regular clothing]. Some brides would try to squeeze in and the sales associate might let it happen, and then the dress gets ripped.

Did sales associates get in trouble if that happened?

It was highly frowned upon. And if someone came in for that specific dress, it's tough. I can also see it from a business perspective — you can't have samples in every size. But stores like Kleinfeld will have size eight or ten, and then also a twenty.

How often did you see issues with fitting the samples?

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After working through the craziness of the pandemic, this person saw the luxury bubble balloon with stimulus checks and then burst before deciding to take a step back. “You do make a lot of money for a pretty easy, fun job,” they recalled. While they made a lot of great friends along the way and had an overall good experience, the job was taxing. “You kind of get trapped,” they said. “A lot of my friends who have recently escaped, they're in therapy weekly.” Ahead, our full conversation about their experiences selling luxury fashion.

Would people literally snap their fingers at you?

Yeah, mostly men. And during holiday.

Because you get people who are not normally there?

And they think that’s how they should act.

Men also love to lie about their shoe size. They'd be like, “Oh, I'm a twelve.” We'd have to go down to an eight. And I would be like, It's a lot less embarrassing to just fit your size originally than have to try six different pairs of shoes.

Could you tell when they were lying?

Definitely. My boo is not tall, so no shade to the short kings. But if you're five seven, you're not a size twelve.

Did the Gucci and Chanel customers you had at Nordstrom differ greatly?

I'm still really good friends with a lot of my old Chanel clients, and with the obscene price increases, they're just going back into a more YSL, Gucci price point. They’re like, This is outrageous, and I already have 20 classic flaps. They'll get a different bag that's $5,000 or $6,000 instead of the $10,000, $11,000. And they have the money.

So you think there’s a ceiling on the price increases that these brands have been doing?

I do. A lot of people bring up the point that you're buying the same bag. It's not any different or any better. Sure, materials have gone up with inflation, but not at that astronomical rate to justify it, especially when people already have a collection. When I started, a classic flap was around $4,800.

How much would Chanel ready-to-wear customers spend?

With our relationship business, the show would happen, we would get the look book, then we would circle what that client wanted. It was like a reservation business. During Karl Lagerfeld, a lot of that stuff was so thematic. If somebody wasn't into that theme for that collection, they would pull back. Some clients would spend $50,000 to $60,000 on a collection.

And how much would they spend per year?

Annual spend could be $150,000 at Nordstrom, but that's across all categories, all brands. That was obviously top clients. I had people who would shop with me every day that I worked.

We saw big changes in the last year in spend.

Up or down?

Down 40 percent. Gucci, Golden Goose, St. Laurent, Louis Vuitton, across the board, it's down 30 to 40 percent in our market, based on what I saw and conversations I’ve had with other people in retail here.

I thought we were in a moment where there were so many uber-wealthy people that this boom would sustain for a while.

They're not coming into Gucci to buy a canvas GG bag.

So it's more the aspirational client that they’re losing?

I was at Gucci during stimulus checks. I didn't realize that people with kids were getting thousands of dollars. You could really tell when those checks stopped coming. It was a totally different clientele. We were selling a lot of slides, a lot of belts, introductory price points, but we were so busy, the line was out the door every day.

Did those customers strike you as different from the typical people who would come in?

Again, it’s the person who thinks they should act a certain way. One woman came in with six or seven kids and a French bulldog. I love dogs. And she was not paying attention to the kids or the dog. The kids were just running amok. Her dog pooped on the rug in the store. She's like, “My dog pooped.” And I'm like, “Let me get a towel and some spray.” I go to hand it to her, and she literally points at it. She wanted me to clean it up.

So did you clean it up?

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To read more stories like this, check out Back Row’s full “Retail Confessions” archive.

You never knew who would walk into the Louis Vuitton flagship in Dallas.

“It could be someone coming in with one-dollar bills that they made the night before stripping. Or cash that reeks of marijuana. And then your next client is a waspy Highland Park grandmother who's coming to buy a first Louis Vuitton for her two-year-old granddaughter,” said a former sales person who worked in the store leading into the pandemic. As with many luxury retail jobs these days, the store pushed clienteling, or curating repeat clients versus managing one-off shoppers. Data indicated that a client who spent $10,000 a year could spend $50,000, and enormous effort went into getting the $10,000-a-year customers to spend more, and spend across categories

 “All of the training was focused on the exceptional qualities of the brand, and less on psychology of sales,” the sales person recalled. Ahead, they talk in detail about what working in the store was really like.

Did you actually have people buying items for two-year-olds?

Yes. Not even two-year-olds — newborn babies. Guys would come in to buy push presents. They would buy a Never Full [handbag] or a diaper bag for their wife. They would also buy anything mini for the baby, like a pochette, which was around $1,000 or $1,200

What were the top clients like?

They shopped monthly. They loved Louis Vuitton and would buy across every product category. They weren't just buying bags, they were also buying shoes, jewelry, accessories, ready-to-wear. Our goal with those clients was to increase their spend and the categories they shopped.

Was it hard to do that?

Every client advisor would have, say, one or two go-tos. Anytime we'd have a new launch of anything, we could send them a picture and be like, “Oh my gosh, you have to have this!” And they'd be like, “I'll be there tomorrow.” Some people only wanted to buy leather, but we were always trying to get them to bump up, like, “Please buy this exotic leather bag” — that was always hard because exotic [skins] are really expensive. Louis Vuitton makes furniture and it's incredibly expensive, like $80,000 for one chair. We were always trying to sell the most extreme thing, and that was really hard.

No one wants to buy Louis Vuitton fine jewelry because Louis Vuitton's not known for fine jewelry. They want to go to Van Cleef and Arpels or Tiffany or Cartier.

Who was your top client and how much did they spend?

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Read every installment of “Retail Confessions” here.

Back Row’s previous “Retail Confessions” column featured a former employee of Gucci’s Soho store in New York City. Ahead, hear from a former Gucci employee who worked in Scottsdale, Arizona, where the clientele included professional athletes who lived there during spring training. The store also catered to wealthy people who earned their fortunes in tech, real estate, and finance, and often shopped wearing leggings and sandals.

This employee worked in the store for around five years following the Great Recession, when Frida Giannini was designing for the brand. Certain details have been anonymized to protect the source’s identity.

What kind of training did you have?

There was no training whatsoever. It's very much like, you're in the lion's den and you better know what you're doing. And if you don't know what you're doing, you'll probably get written up for not hitting your sales. I think the only training we ever got was when we would have new fragrance come out. The Proctor and Gamble people would come out, they'd talk about the base notes and the mid notes and the high notes.

And what kind of clientele frequented the Gucci store?

We helped a ton of athletes. We get the Super Bowl here a lot, spring training for baseball is here. A lot of things that happened in that store revolved around baseball players cheating and hooking up with people. One well-known player hit on a girl I worked with. He was like, “I'm not leaving here until I get your number.” And she's like, “Thank you, but no.” We actually had to have security come up to him and say, “Hey, she's saying no, you have to go.”

And he's like, “Well, I'm not leaving here until I get it.” So he threw this big stink. Later that weekend, he ended up coming into the store with his partner and his kid. We didn't know he had a kid. He’s looking at the sales associate that he had hit on, like, Please don't say anything. Just a terrified look on his face.

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The Gucci store in Soho was originally conceived as a utopia sprung from the brain of former creative director Alessandro Michele. Salespeople were hired not because they could move product, but because they felt like a natural part of the environment, sort of a modern day beatnick coffee shop, where artists and cool people come together, except instead of folk musicians, special guests included Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, and instead of coffee, the store offered sparkling wine.

“They wanted it to kind of be this Gucci museum,” said a former salesperson. Staff weren’t paid by commission in the store’s early days. “Most of my day I spent having people come in and talking about the brand, the product, how their day was going. It was supposed to be this heightened level of luxury, more of a relaxed environment instead of having things in glass cases. Everything was out for you to touch and try.” The brand didn’t want young, aspirational clients to feel too intimidated to come in and shop.

Since opening in 2018, the store has become more like typical luxury stores, including the introduction of a commission-based pay structure. “I am an Alessandro lover through and through. That's why I was there,” the former employee said. “I think that once they realized that the store was in one of the most populated areas where the rent keeps going up, they started to get more numbers driven.”

With all the parties, things could get out of hand. But things could get out of hand at any point during the day, which seems to be what happens when you combine rich people, alcohol, and $45,000 handbags. Our full interview about what it was really like working in the store, edited and condensed for clarity, follows.

For more stories like this, check out Back Row’s full “Retail Confessions” archive, featuring Hermès, Chanel, and more.

What was the Gucci clientele like?

You have the locals and the tourists. A couple who lived across the street would invite me over to their house when they were having parties on Saturday night. They had the most stunning closets filled with Birkins. It was the most incredible apartment I'd ever seen. They’d pop in to say hello to me. Sometimes they’d say, “I saw this in a magazine. Get that in for me and I'll come in and try it on.”

Did you develop strategies for closing sales as that became more important at the store?

A few trainings really helped me develop my skills. And one of them was to understand what kind of person was shopping with you and what their needs specifically were. Some people wanted a pair of earrings and maybe the earrings were $300, but they wanted to spend an hour with you, just talking. Then there’s the person who came in and was like, “I need this bag, just give me a gift receipt for it.” And didn't even want to leave their name. Especially because this store was commission-free for about four-and-a-half years, I would always say, “I don't want you to leave with this if you don't love it.” They might say, “You know what, I don't love it. I'm not going to go home with it.”

It's actually less work for me. I don't have to wrap it and ring it up. Returns were a big hassle. And sometimes, if they return something damaged, it ruins the relationship. Because you're like, “I can't return these shoes because your cat scratched them.”

How much would people spend?

The introductory client usually went for maybe a card case, a fragrance, a twilly, which are those long scarves, or a piece of silver jewelry. The aspirational client spent around $195 to $350. Maybe they're 16 years old, they're coming from Long Island with their best friend, it's their birthday tomorrow, and their parents gave them money to pick something out, and they picked out a little silver Gucci ring. But I also had clients who would come in and spend $60,000 in one sitting. I feel like the middle ground was around $1,500, only because that was what a lot of the shoes were priced at.

What was the most anyone ever spent with you?

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“Retail Confessions” began in Back Row as a way to understand the mindset and shopping habits of luxury fashion customers. Earlier columns have covered Hermès (part two is here), Chanel (part two is here), and Harrods. Today’s London-based interviewee has worked in luxury retail for decades. They decided to enter the field because they loved fashion but couldn’t afford fashion school. Our discussion focused on Prada, where this person worked beginning in the late 2010s, but other jobs naturally came up.

If you have luxury fashion retail experience (or know someone who does) and want to confess in a future column, please reply to one of these emails or DM me on Instagram. (I am always open to non-Confessions tips as well.) Interviews are anonymous to allow sources to speak freely. This interview has been edited and condensed.

You’ve had a lot of luxury retail experience. How did Prada compare to your other jobs?

Tom Ford was very fun because we had a direct access to Mr. Ford himself. He was very present in the store on a weekly basis. I'm still in love with him. He's such a nice person.

At Prada, I focused on accessories, which is handbags. It's that what pays for the ready-to-wear shows. Say the handbag is £5,000 ($6,000), you sell one or two [in a day] and you're done, you make the [sales] target. Every single brand I've worked for, they really count on you on the floor to drive the accessory business.

Did you have any tactics to get people to buy?

You have to romance everything. Say, this bag is called the Galleria, it’s named after the first store that Prada opened. How can you embellish that? You really have to spend time with your clients and listen to them, try to grab what fascinates them about the brand and use it to your advantage. For instance, if they say, “Oh my God, I love Milan,” maybe we can talk about when Fratelli Prada [what Prada was called in 1913] opened the first store.

This is a double-edged sword, because the better you do, the more they want from you. If you do £5,000 one day, tomorrow it's gonna be £6,000, the day after £7,000. But you can’t force it. You don't want to call Amy every day, “Oh, Amy, we have, we have the bag today.” “Hi, Amy. How are you? How is your dog? Oh, every single new jacket…” During the pandemic, I was on my phone from 8 in the morning to 8 in the evening with tons of clients. But happiness is not measured in money, in my opinion, so I left.

What are the clients like?

Pre-covid, a lot of tourists. Some of them are very respectful, they will come in, they will ask a precise question. You need to show exactly what they ask, maybe give one or two alternatives, but don't overwhelm them because if you confuse them, they will run away.

The Americans are the loudest. They will come in guns blazing and then give you a lot of trouble because the way that customer service is in the U.S. is way different from here in the U.K. They expect silver service when they're purchasing a card holder for 100 pounds ($120). But you have to do it with grace and a smile, especially with the Americans, because they will complain.

Do they ask for Champagne and stuff like that?

Oh, yeah. They literally snap fingers. “Where's my Champagne? I always get Champagne in Rodeo Drive.” They love name-dropping. On a positive note, if you get the non-aggressive Americans, they're the best. But if you get the rich Americans, good luck to you.

Sometimes you, as the sales associate, snap. I once told this lady, “If you want me to help you, I will help you, otherwise there’s the door.” She was treating me like I was a servant, snapping fingers and being totally obnoxious.

One person was adamant on asking for fresh macarons from Lauduree and seasonal fresh fruits every time he visited so we had to prepare the fruit and all that, in a private area. He would never touch these things. The guy was amazing — lovely, super down-to-earth. But his assistant was asking for these things.

How do you handle all these personalities?

A client comes into a store for three reasons: they want something, they want attention, or they’re just curious. We are psychologists. The attention seekers for me is the hardest of the categories. They’re like wild horses because you cannot tame them.

In the past I worked with celebrities, another subcategory of client.

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When Taylor (not his real name) started working at a new Hermès boutique in the northeast U.S. around a decade ago, he was stunned to see the clientele lined up starting at around 6 a.m. on opening day. Women had made special trips from cities across the East Coast in effort to be the boutique’s very first shoppers. “They knew there would probably be a Birkin on the floor,” said Taylor, who had been a sales associate at a different luxury leather goods brand previously but never seen anything like this. These weren’t just casual Birkin admirers. They were the diehards, the collectors — the coveted and rarified clientele the brand methodically worked to attract. “They knew that there would be special limited edition product that was made specifically for that store opening,” said Taylor. “They knew they were probably going to wind up with something that none of their friends would have.”

I talked to Taylor at length about his experiences working in the store, the lavish lifestyles of the clientele, and what it really took to be allowed to purchase a Birkin bag. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What was your training like?

I shadowed a top handbags person. We would be walking down the street on Madison Avenue, and he was like a superstar. We could not go to lunch. We couldn't leave the store without someone recognizing him, stopping him, coming up to him, begging him for things. It was crazy.

Do you remember what they would say to him?

There were offers — cash money, trips. It was very friendly and very polite, but it was very direct. They knew he was the gatekeeper. You didn't have to spend $15,000 in silks or whatever [to get a Birkin]. It was really up to the sales associate to make your case to the store director [who approved the sale of every bag].

So women would come up to him and be like, “Do you want to come to the Hamptons this weekend?” Stuff like that?

Oh, yeah. I was invited on trips. A lot of these women, we became close personal friends. Some of them I still travel with, I still see. I haven't been at Hermès for more than 10 years. You become very, very important in a very small pocket of the world, you’re talking the top 1 percent. A lot of times, they’re not listened to at home. So you become their confidante, and they trust you in a weird way, and you become very close to them.

You're let into this world that is kind of obscene and insane. You're invited — “Come to my birthday party.” “Oh, sure. Where is —” “Well, we're going to St. Barts for the weekend, so just be at Teterboro [a private plane airport] on Friday.” I'd be like, “Well, I can't do that. I have to work.” And they're like, “Oh, no, don't worry about it.” And I'm like, “I have to worry about it.”

But sometimes you did travel with them.

Certain times. But there were certain times that would just be like, on a Thursday — “What are you doing this weekend?” “Nothing.” And they're like, “Oh, come here.” And you're like, “I can't go to Jakarta for the weekend.” I've summered in the Hamptons with people who were clients and who are now personal friends. You're out to dinner, you mention, “I want to go skiing in February.” And they're like, “Take my place in Stowe.”

And these were genuine friendships.

It's not always like, “I'll let you use my house in the Hamptons if you get me a Birkin.” You genuinely become friends with these people. Their kids call me ”uncle.” For me, it was never about selling anything. When you're at Hermès, you don't really have to sell. It's more about managing and developing the relationships. Hermès was very much a curated client, and you were selecting what you would sell them — and almost holding back.

So who was the ideal client?

You wanted them to be wearing the ready-to-wear and you wanted them to be wearing the scents and you wanted them to buy the homeware and the gifts and things like that. That was the culture that they spoke about at corporate, making sure our clients were living the life of Hermès and not carrying it for status. You wanted it to be, those who know know. They didn't want the only purchase you were making that year to be your Birkin and your H belt and then not see you for 10 years. If that was the case, they'd be out of business.

How did you decide what to sell to people?

You were allowed technically to buy two Birkins or Kellys a year. If you were at a certain level, you were offered a [custom order]. If that was offered to you, that didn't count against your quota and you were allowed one special piece, either croc, ostrich, lizard, or diamond.

Talk a little bit about diamond Birkins.

If you wanted a diamond in Birkin back in the day, you could get one if you had the money. There was usually one in every major boutique on display that you could buy walking in off the street. Back then, it was about $183,000. It's a crocodile Birkin with solid gold hardware, all of the hardware is pavéed with VVS1 clarity diamonds. It's usually about 10 carats of diamonds on the bag. I sold one to a celebrity athlete. I sold one to a doctor for his wife. I was like, You could buy a condo in Miami for this. What is happening here?

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When I first saw it, I was like, who the hell would spend this money? And then you wind up meeting these people. When you first see a pair of $25,000 crocodile gloves, you think, Who the F is going to spend $25,000 on a pair of gloves? And it's the person spending $60,000 on a crocodile handbag who wants the gloves to match.

How many diamond Birkins would you sell a year?

If your boutique sold two a year, that was a big thing. It was a different market then, but when I sold mine, the president of the company called me and congratulated me. It was a very big deal.

When you had random people coming in off the street to buy a Birkin, how would you deal with them?

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You can tell a fake Birkin, quite often, by the handles. “A lot of the handles are stretched really big,” said Liam, a former sales associate at the Hermès boutique in Manchester’s Selfridges. “But it's the leather as well.” Liam fell in love with Birkins when he was around 16 years old and started filling his camera roll with photos of the bags he’d saved from the internet. “I think anybody who loves Hermès could look at a bag and know if it's real or fake, just because in the Hermès world, you probably research it all the time.”

Today, he and his partner James document Birkins they spot in the wild on their popular TikTok feed angelllboys. They think they’ve seen nearly every type of Birkin, including the rare matte black crocodile one with the matte black hardware that retails for around £150,000 ($185,000). “If you know your Birkin bags, you can see it a mile off,” said Liam.

@angelllboys#hermessoblack #hermesnoir #hermes #hermesbag #handbag #handbags #bag bags #hermesbirkin #hermeskelly #hermeskellybag #hermesoran #hermesaddict #foryp

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“It's probably been at auction twice. It's just so rare,” interjected James. “And there it was in the street.” (The one bag they haven’t yet spotted is the Himalaya, made from crocodile and so named because the color gradation resembles the snow-capped mountains.) An authentic Birkin, James added, “is honestly perfection. I can't explain what it is, but when you see the stitching, it is so straight. It is even, there's no holes where the stitch has gone through the leather. It honestly is art.”

I asked Liam to share more about his experience working at Hermès around five years ago, and the kinds of customers who shopped there. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What’s the clientele like?

The clientele is super, super affluent and absolutely loves fashion. They've had everything — every Chanel bag, everything from [Louis Vuitton], they've had it all. And now they want something that nobody else has. This customer wants something super-luxurious, maybe that they can take to dinner with the girlfriends and they're the only one with that bag, while all the other ladies have the Chanel bag.

How much do people spend at one time?

We're talking about a client that really does not care about money. It doesn't matter how much it is, they just want it. And £60,000 later [around $74,350], they walk out of the boutique.

Were they demanding?

A lot of them would be a bit older, so they've probably had the times where they've been demanding in Chanel and been demanding in Louis Vuitton when they were younger. But by the time they've reached that stage, they know what they're after, so they're so generous. They bring in gifts, some cupcakes, and you really do have that amazing relationship with them. The SA is the gatekeeper. So if you upset the SA by being demanding, you are not going to get the bag. And probably a lot of clients know that they have to win over the SA ultimately to get the bag. So maybe that is why they're not so demanding.

What other gifts would clients lavish upon the SAs?

They used to take people out for dinner. A lot of them had private planes. They’d invite people on the private planes. You'd have to go through the boutique manager. I don't think the SA [who was invited by a client] was actually allowed to go on a private plane to the Cannes Film Festival — it was just too extravagant.

Did you ever go to dinner with anybody? What was that dynamic like?

I went to dinner loads of times to the best restaurants. People used to take me to London, the Ritz and the Savoy. Say if you got taken to London, you would stay over in a suite, a different room from the client. But it would all be expensed on the client's behalf. As you work there over a few years, you do really start to care about the clients. So you do see them as a friend, but there's always that professional boundary, which the client would always respect and you would always respect. A lot of the clients have built up amazing businesses, have a lot of disposable income. A lot of them could be widows, just looking for a companion where you both love fashion.

One of them actually I met yesterday and she was a really, really big spender in Hermès, and she's in the process of currently buying her own private plane now. So they have a lot of spare cash to share.

Did any clients have crazy requests?

There was one demanding client actually that I do remember very well.

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PS — I’m doing a signing and talk next week at Decades in Los Angeles for my book, ANNA: The Biography. Please come say hi! Seating is limited; reserve in advance.

“Retail Confessions” is a regular Back Row series where I interview retail workers from the most expensive, most exclusive clothing stores to find out what customers are really like and what they really buy. In the first installment on Chanel, we heard from an ex-Las Vegas store employee, who had the heartbreaking job of telling a woman that Chanel could not fix her $12,000 python shoes after her dog chewed them. In part two, we’ll hear from two more former Chanel employees. Both interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

The first interviewee worked at Chanel in New York during the 2010s.

What were the New York clients like?

When I started, it was more clients that had been shopping at Chanel for a long time. By the time I left, it was clients that would just show you their phone and say, I want this one thing — more transactional versus relationship-based clientele. And some people would just take selfies in the mirror and walk out.

A former Bergdorf Goodman employee told me their best clients had no problem coming in and spending $20,000 a week. Did you have people spending that much at one time?

Definitely. Clients expect a certain level, more than [anywhere] I’ve ever worked in my life. People buy one thing and expect to have it for their entire life. But you can't do that with anything.

What were some of the biggest purchases when you were there?

Some clients will spend, especially around the holidays if they buy gifts, like, half a million dollars. There were regular clients that were very high spend clients that would come in at least once a month too. Not many clients wore head-to-toe Chanel.

Did celebrities come into the store?

A lot of celebrities would come in.

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