If you've got Dh500,000 to spare, The Luxury Closet has a little something for you.
The online retailer of luxury goods is currently carrying one of the most valuable handbags in the world – an Hermès Red Porosus Crocodile 18K white gold and diamond encrusted Birkin 35.
The cadena lock alone consists of 68.4 grams of 18K white gold and is encrusted with 40 round brilliant diamonds, with a total weight of 1.64 carats. It took some 18 hours of work to produce this bag.
Brikins are notoriously difficult to come by and when they are resold, they are normally done so via auction. They have also been touted as a smart investment: in a well-publicised study released last year, luxury retail site Baghunter claimed that a Birkin was a better investment than gold. According to the site, the value of Birkin bags increased every year from 1980 to 2005, with an average annual increase of 14.2 per cent, including inflation. Over the same period, the average return on gold was minus 1.5 per cent per year.
So, if you do have Dh500,000 lying around, there are probably worse ways to spend it.
sdenman@thenational.ae
