Handbag Designer 101: The Stories Behind Handbag Designers, Brands, and Industry Icons

The Birkin Playbook: Inside Handbags as an Asset Class | Emily Blumenthal & Dana Auslander

• Emily Blumenthal • Season 1

Share episode

What happens when a Birkin is treated as an asset instead of a trophy? In this episode, Dana Auslander, founder of Luxus, breaks down how she built a private investment fund around Hermès quota bags—where discipline, data, and liquidity drive returns, not hype. Drawing on her background in law and finance, Dana explains why diversification can outperform a single headline purchase, how institutional-grade sourcing and third-party authentication make handbags investable, and why exit strategy matters more than chasing rare exotics. She also challenges viral myths about Birkin appreciation, shares what actually sells (size and neutral colorways), and makes the case for why Hermès is the only handbag brand that meets an investment standard.

Key Takeaways:

• Discipline over hype — Data, diversification, and timing matter more than rarity.
 • Liquidity creates returns — Exit channels define success more than acquisition.
 • Hermès is singular — Quota bags are uniquely positioned as investment-grade assets.

🎧 Listen now for a clear-eyed look at luxury handbags as a serious alternative asset class.

Our Guest:
 Dana Auslander is the founder of Luxus, a private asset fund focused on Hermès quota bags. With a background in law and finance, she built Luxus to bring structure, transparency, and rigor to handbag investing—treating iconic luxury not as fashion, but as a portfolio strategy.

Host Emily Blumenthal is a handbag industry expert, author of Handbag Designer 101, and founder of The Handbag Awards. Known as the “Handbag Fairy Godmother,” Emily also teaches entrepreneurship at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is dedicated to celebrating creativity, craftsmanship, and the art of building iconic handbag brands.

Find Handbag Designer 101 Merch, HBD101 Masterclass, one-on-one sessions, and opportunities to book Emily Blumenthal as a speaker at emilyblumenthal.com. 

Youtube: / Handbagdesigner101-ihda | Instagram:/ Handbagdesigner

TikTok: / Handbagdesigner | Twitter: / Handbagdesigner

SPEAKER_00:

I decided to do this because in 2024, when I was listening to the acquired podcast, and I've been an Hermes client for 20 years, and I know the value proposition, and I've been watching their rise really since COVID and following the analyst calls and seeing that they're just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. But I also felt like you can't really invest in Hermes the equity if you're smart because they're trading at 60x. They're very, very expensive stock. So, what is the next best thing to doing that? And I really, it was a problem I wanted to solve. After the acquired podcast, I got a real flavor of what it is that kept them at the top of their game for so many decades.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi, and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast with your host, Emily Blumenthal, handbag industry expert, and the handbag fairy godmother. Each week we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love, from the iconic brands and top designers to creativity, craftsmanship, and culture that define the handbag world. Whether you're a designer, collector, or simply passionate about handbags, this is your front row deep to it all. Welcome, Donna Oslander from Luxus to Handbag Designer 101 the podcast. I'm super excited I was able to grab you as a result of how hot you are right now within the market, as a result of what you've done, which I can't even take credit for it because we didn't know each other, but I've been saying for months that someone should do what you have done. What have you done, Donna Oslander from Luxus?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I just created a fund. It wasn't just me. It's a product of it of our teams. We created a fund that is just dedicated to Ormez products. So it's a private asset fund. It's not a hedge fund. Let me just clear that up. All the headlines call it a hedge fund, but there's no leverage, there's no shorting. It's just a private asset fund where we buy and sell Ormez quarterbags, Berkins and Kelly's. All the activities are happening in the resale market. And it's pretty simple. It's just buy low, sell high, all within a certain time frame. So fund one is within a 15-month time frame. Fund two is a little bit longer, two and a half years. Fund three is to be confirmed, but really, really exciting. And then fund four will probably be a reopen of the US fund, fund two. So we are really, really excited. As far as I know, it's the first product of its kind, which is crazy. But it's had an unbelievable reception.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, to be a pioneer is, you know, you gotta throw in that extra layer of time value of money to educate, right? Because to those who get it, it makes so much sense. To those who don't, they're gonna say, wait a second, there's plenty of, well, not plenty, but there's plenty of Airmaz Birken's Kelly bags floating around on the resale market. What is this different? How is what you're doing different than me going on hypothetically the real real and finding a bag and buying it myself? How does that differentiate? Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So you're not when you're investing in the Luxus fund, which is called Luxus Funds Armes Edition One and Ormaz Edition Two, you're not investing in one bag. You're investing in a portfolio of, in the case of fund one, 43 bags. In the case of fund two, it's gonna be up to 75 bags. And you're gonna be essentially diversifying from whatever it is you're own in your closet. So when people say I want to buy an Armez bag, it's an investment. It's not really an investment because you're buying a bag for even on the secondary market for what,$15,000,$20,000. It's sitting in your closet. It's not really making you any money. If you want to sell it for more money, then you got to go to the real real or you got to go to a rebag. They take 20, 25% consignment fees. And by the time it's sold, you go, you have a couple of months pass you by, and then you sell it and you may or may not break even. Uh, but between all the said and done, you're actually kind of losing money. So we really wanted to create a product where people would make money the way that fund investors in asset management institutionally make money. And that's really the genesis of the funds. It's investing in a portfolio of bags that are constructed by us, by Graham Westberger specifically. And then the portfolios are actively managed by us. So it's not really just about buying the bags at very attractive prices, but also selling them and selling them more quickly across various channels. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, I'm just trying to make sure that anybody who's listening would be like, Yeah, okay. So the way in which they would get the profit or the return on investment would be what? After those bags, then all go, whoops, all of those bags then go to auction, hypothetically.

SPEAKER_00:

And then you would get a distribute, they would get a pro rata distribution of their share plus the profits, just like any other fund investor does. So you invest in a fund, you fill out a subscription document, you wire the funds, and then a year and a half later, you get a distribution out of all of your capital back, hopefully, plus whatever you made on the fund, just like any other fund in the world of finance.

SPEAKER_01:

So, how is one determining which bags make it make the cut to the fund?

SPEAKER_00:

So that's Graham. Grammy's actually quite picky with what fund what bags end up in the in the fund. They're really the bread and butter bags, the bags that turn over the most, because we're not trying to go for the buy and hold mentality that a lot of the resellers do, right? Like we're not trying to capture 45 plus percent margins. We're trying to get velocity and get multiple exits in one time frame. So Graham is the one who sort of decides what he wants to buy for the funds. We then try and secure those bags at the most attractive prices. And then we immediately get them sent to our operational partner, which is my Gemma at this point. They photograph them, they authenticate them. Everyone makes sure that they're real, everything isn't where it needs to be. They're photographed, they're cataloged, and then they're being sent off to a whole bunch of different marketplaces, including Sotheby's, First Dibs, My Gemma's, Farfetch, wherever. And then we also incorporate them into in real life experiences, and people get to actually see the bags in different fashion shows and in investor events around the world.

SPEAKER_01:

So this is, I mean, again, I've been talking about this for years, years, about waiting for someone who'd be clever enough, i.e. you at this point, who could come up with this. To me, it's so obvious. Why do you think you're the one of one who put this into action? What was your moment where you were day jobbing and you were like, damn it, this is like, why is this not being done?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, in art luxury and collectibles, people have done funds before for luxury goods, just not handbags. Handbags. They, yeah, they've done them for watches, they've done them for jewelry, they've done them for wines and spirits, a ton of them. They've done them for cars. This is the only category that nothing's ever been done in because it is a leather good. It's not really an investment grade asset. I decided to do this because in 2024, when I was listening to the acquired podcast, and I've been an Hermes client for 20 years, and I know the value proposition, and I've been watching their rise really since COVID and following the analyst calls and seeing that they're just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. But I also felt like you can't really invest in Hermes the equity if you're smart because they're trading at 60x. They're very, very expensive stock. So, what is the next best thing to doing that? And I I really it was a problem I wanted to solve. After the acquired podcast, I got a real flavor of what it is that kept them at the top of their game for so many decades. Trump coming into office also motivated me to look a little bit harder at uh harder at handbags because I wanted to create a product around an ASA class that was not, I don't want to use gold as sort of like the benchmark, but it kind of was. I mean, gold is the primary use for gold, as we all know, is jewelry, but the the use case for it on the investment side is long established. Obviously, handbags no one's done anything like this before. But I really felt like our mez as a brand was the only one that can carry any kind of argument for for being investment grade. So we decided on this at the end of 2024, and then we really started putting our heads down, doing a lot of RD, talking to all the resellers, deciding what the best path forward was. And then, as you know, we we created the proof of concept in May for a million dollars. And, you know, it's a very institutional product. It's got an administrator and an accountant and legal terms and and everything. It's very, very top-notch. It's just that the AUM size is really, really small. So I really just felt like this was an Ormes related product. And the fact that it was handbags just, you know, was sort of a side, more of a side note to it.

SPEAKER_01:

Is this the first time you've started your own company, your own brand per se? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I started Luxus in 2021, most really in 2022. I'm a jewelry collector, so jewelry is sort of my big passion. And I always felt like jewelry is something that people should invest in. And so I really, really kind of went wanted to go down the route of wouldn't it be great if I created sort of like a mini blackstone for beautiful things, whether it is jewelry or wines and whiskey or cars or handbags or whatever. So we started Luxus in 2022. It's my first experience as an entrepreneur. I wouldn't do it unless I felt very passionately about the sector, which I do. And so it's been a really crazy ride. I mean, it's very hard to be an entrepreneur, but I think now I'm kind of settling into it. And this is really the Hermes product, is the first time we really went viral with one of the offerings.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, when you're saying that you think Hermes is really the only brand per se that could within the handbag space that could get away with this. Did you go through Fendi? Did you go through Chanel? Did you do any kind of, or you were like, that's it? This is so obvious. I'm comfortable with what I've decided.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I mean, as a consumer, I know what's what, obviously. I also have a lot of friends in fashion. We have a lot of fashion advisors. Um, Christie's is our strategic, so you know, they're very, very involved and engaged. It was always gonna be only our run or mess, never anything else, never considered any other brand.

SPEAKER_01:

So I want to just go back back. So when you started day jobbing, what exactly were you doing?

SPEAKER_00:

So I was a lawyer back in the late 90s at a law firm called Chill Too Off and Zable that specialized in launching hedge funds. It was that was an emerging asset class back when I was when I was just graduating from law school. And I was there for a few years. I then went to Blackstone, which is a big private equity firm. I was the head of product structuring and development and legal on the hedge fund side, a company uh division called BAM, that's now called hedge fund solutions. I was there for close to 10 years. I was very involved with a lot of the strategic initiatives, then left, went to the hedge fund world directly, worked there for a while, but started, was on a non-compete for two years and really started collecting jewelry from Anita Co., Jennifer Meyer, from Irene Neworth, the Los Angeles-based jewelry designers in 2011-2012. And I really thought what they were doing was really fascinating and the way they used Instagram to compete with the Van Clefs and the Cartiers, it was very impressive. So I always wanted to kind of go back and do something in that vein, but with through an investment lens. And that was what led to Luxus, which happened during COVID.

SPEAKER_01:

If you ever wanted to start a handbag brand and didn't know where to start, this is for you. If you had dreams of becoming a handbag designer but aren't trained in design, this is for you. If you have a handbag brand and need strategy and direction, this is for you. I'm Emily Blumenthal, handbag designer expert and handbag fairy godmother, and this is the handbag designer 101 masterclass. Over the next 10 classes, I will break down everything you need to know to make, manufacture, and market a handbag brand. Broken down to ensure that you will not only skip steps in the handbag building process, but also to save money to avoid the learning curve of costly mistakes. For the past 20 years, I've been teaching at the top fashion universities in New York City, wrote the handbag designer Bible, founded the handbag boards, and created the only handbag designer podcast. I'm going to show you like I have countless brands to create in this in-depth course from sketch to sample to sale. Whether you're just starting out and don't even know where to start up again, or if you've had a brand and need some strategic direction, the handbag designer 101 Masterclass is just for you. So let's get started, and you'll be the creator of the next it bag. Join me, Emily Blumenthal, in the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass. So be sure to sign up at Emily Blumenthal.com slash masterclass and type in the code INCAST to get 10% off your masterclass today. So you've said we. Now, for most people, starting your own brand, starting your own business, even though you have the acumen and wherewithal, what to do once you've started, it's still very daunting, right? How did you find the person? How did you find your gram? How did that work out?

SPEAKER_00:

So we are by by we, I mean we have a lot of stakeholders. So we were venture-backed from day one by a little venture fund out of Texas called ATX Venture Partners. And they have always been really, really supportive of Luxis, giving me a ton of advice. Um Christie's is on our cap table, and we're very engaged, very involved with them. They help me a lot. Um, we have a couple of hedge funds that are invested in their personal capacity as a family office of the hedge funds, and they're very involved. So it's really always been a group of people. Like when you come from the deal world, like private equity, you work as a team. And so it's always really been with their feedback. Hiring's been the most difficult part. Graham, I actually met through my Gemma. He's one of the original employees, was one of the original employees at the Real Real. And I just felt like he and I both had very were very aligned on what we were looking for in terms of getting the results we wanted from the fund. And it's not easy to set up a brand new investment strategy, especially for somebody from the industry, but he's really, he's really come up just being really fast and has done an incredible job so far.

SPEAKER_01:

What have been some of the pushbacks you've had in terms of presenting this? Or everyone you've spoken to is like amazing. I'm on board. Because it's, I get it, but I suspect there are some people who are very traditional. And yes, I know it's been done with other luxury-related items, but to say something physical and a handbag, like I've worked in handbags for so very long. And the amount of pushback I've had from people, whether it's industry or not, for a lot of great opportunities saying, Oh, my wife loves handbags. It doesn't really matter. Oh, it it doesn't necessarily translate to something that could somebody could perceive as a real long-term investment in that space. Have you had any pushback?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I mean, look, we are the the first couple of funds are tiny. They're really, really small. And it was very important to me that they would be that way because we really needed to test and we needed to see what worked and what didn't work. Yeah. And it was also very important to me that the people who participated in the funds really knew what they were doing. This is not a retail product. So the investment amount is high. And so that's prohibitive for a lot of people who want to invest because they can't come up with the investment amount. And we needed to only take accredited investors who really understood risk and that this is an emerging asset class and that the potential for loss was likely. So those two things were really sort of the big barriers to entry for a lot of people who wanted to invest. It's just not there yet for retail investors. It's not something I'm comfortable releasing to the full public at this point, maybe in a few years or in a year, but not now. But from the the people that did that do qualify, there's been very little pushback. A little bit of the pushback has been the fees because this fund is so small and it is an institutional product. We have to pay legal, legal, we have to pay accounting, we have to pay tax, we have to pay auditing, and those fees add up to be quite a bit. And our team obviously has to be paid a little. And a lot of folks, you know, balked a little bit on that, but it was really well, you either are gonna get an institutional product and pay a little bit more, or you're gonna get more of a loosey-goosey product. So you choose, and so it was a trade-off I was comfortable with. We didn't really get a lot of pushback from the people who ultimately ended up investing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I know that in these kinds of circumstances, people get it or they don't. And if it requires extra layers of explanation, it's better cut your loss, and we'll get back to you. Thanks for your interest. We'll watch and see. Sometimes that ends up being a lot easier. How, in terms of the product that you were picking for the bags within the bouquet that go within the fund, have you seen based on handbag trends like certain materials that some people get excited about, certain years, silhouettes, dates, anything specific that you're like, oh, this one people are jumping at?

SPEAKER_00:

It's definitely the more entry-level bags that people seem to respond to and the neutral tones. It's not the specialty bag. So when we first started doing the RD, I met a bunch of resellers who tried to push me to have the fund consist mostly of the specialty bags. Yep. The the exotics, the dollies, those bags don't really move. The sp the the bags that do move are the 35 and 30 centimeter golds, blacks. I'm I'm just gonna use regular terms, not our colors, but like the grays, the tone. The neutrals. The neutrals. Yeah, the neutrals and the warm colors. It's not what you think, and it's not what people try to push you to buy. It's what really, really what sells.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yep. Yep. It's so funny because the amount of designers with whom I work who are so it's like they're thinking they're splitting the atom with coming up with something bright and innovative. And it's like, honey bunny, that's not what sells. People want black, people want oxblood, people want the beige, the taupe, exactly the off-white, the cousins with white, the everything you'd paint your wall with is what sells.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. You know, there are some people that are not really in the US that want the specialty bags, the faubergs, the the really the blue box collections, but that's not what we really want to do with the funds.

SPEAKER_01:

I bet that was tricky when you started because you think a fund, well, specialty, because you and I spoke about this briefly. Like these exotics, they are really, really, really expensive. But there's a reason why there's limited quantity. It's not so much that yes, it's expensive to make, but they're harder to sell. They are much harder to sell.

SPEAKER_00:

They are. They're they're and they sit. And for us, velocity is really what matters. For us, the ROIs matter and they're important, but they're not as important as the days on the market. Yeah. So we're really looking to turn them over fast.

SPEAKER_01:

And um like a house on the like a house on the market. Yeah, like and they just don't move. Yep. So where do you see, you know, you're saying fund two, three, four, five, six? Where do you see this going? You know, you said you had started out, obviously, with a very as an attempt to be risk averse to do a thoughtful, smaller fund. They're getting bigger, your time is getting longer. How do you see this growing? You've obviously gotten a lot of attention on this, which I'm so happy and it's so well deserved. But where do you see this going?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think this can scale ever to a point where we would be like, oh my God, like this is all Luxus is gonna do. We do have some exciting plans for scaling it this year that I'm gonna leave quiet for now. But I definitely think that for us it's always gonna be about horizontal integration and adding on other sub-verticals and other luxury kind of other assets. We have Christmas. Diversification, diversification, if you will. Yeah, with yeah, diversify. I mean, we're we're with fund two because it's double the size of fund one. We're gonna start testing a few other of the within the Armez universe. For instance, fund one only had new in the box bags. Now we're gonna start buying some exceptional quality bags and going down a little bit in condition just because that's what people do want. People want the beater bags. Personally, I want I would want a beater bag if I was buying on the secondary market. So we're gonna start testing a little bit within Armes, and then we're gonna really focus on other horizontal integration of watches, probably the most likely um cars, exotic cars, jewels, which is always my passion. And it'll be always be thematic. So perhaps, you know, something in the 1930s and 40s, Bulgari, Cartier, Fan Cleef, Art Deco would be really, really nice for me to do. And then kind of just like aggregating AUM that way. But this year we're just focusing on Armes and just getting the strategy to be right. We're taking our time a little bit on the funds this first quarter. And then what we're gonna do is you you'll hear some more stuff from us around March, April.

SPEAKER_01:

Overall, just as we wrap up, what has been the thing that has surprised you the most that all of the data research prep was so far off once you got into it, being like, oh damn, I didn't realize this. Because as an entrepreneur, especially within the handbag market, you can prep, organize, do as much research as possible, but until you're actually in the thick of it, sometimes the response you're like, I had no idea this is how people would respond. What was something that happened that was similar?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I think the morality of it really, really surprised me. I think that I knew we we didn't seek out to get a lot of press. We want, obviously, for people to buy the bags. That's how we create the exits. Right. So I said, why don't we just add a little bit of press just so that we could get people to look at the portfolio and buy the bags? And I think the virality of the announcement is something that will always shock me. I just nobody expected it. We didn't expect it. Christie's didn't expect it. I did. Well, good for you. The the fact also that you know everyone called it a hedge fund when it's not, it was surprising that people don't really have a lot of financial literacy around this stuff that are in the financial literacy business. The other thing that surprised me, I would say, is the supply. I shouldn't be saying this because it then it makes the scarcity value not as high. But since you have your audience is mostly industry people, yeah, yeah, there's a lot more supply than people think there is. It's just at what prices. And I think that was really surprising to me because even though I was, I've been an Armes client for 20 years, I have a whole bunch of Hermes Birkins and Kelly's. I got them always directly from Hermes. I think it was surprising to me to see how accessible it is on the secondary market to get whatever really you want. And so, so I think that was really, really surprising. And it was very encouraging to be able to see that because I was like, you know what? Like, sourcing's not really the issue. It's reselling the resold bags that's the issue. And I think that's that's the problem that we still have to solve for. And not just us, all the resellers do. So they're probably not all that happy that I'm we're in the game because now there's another competitor for them. But right, you know, we're at the end of the day more of a B2B player, not B2C.

SPEAKER_01:

And the very final question what has your contact been with AirMez? Feedback, thoughts, anything, whispers, what what have you heard?

SPEAKER_00:

Nothing. I mean, they're they're unfazed by anything that's happening in the resale markets. Um if anything, I'm buying more from them, unrelated to this, because all of our LPs and everything, you know, I feel like like I just got everybody Christmas gifts from there, you know, because because we want to be on brand and there's no issue. They're all, you know, I'm I'm able to buy whatever I want, scarves, jewelry, whatever. But they're unfazed, and and I wouldn't have it any other way. I think their model of you know exclusivity and superior marketing, and we're not gonna address anything that doesn't directly concern us, is is very humbling and very impressive. And yeah, what we're gonna do also.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh. Donna Oslander from Luxis, thank you so much for joining us. How can we find you, follow you, get more information on your incredible portfolio to come?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, follow us on Instagram, LuxusAssets, and on LinkedIn. We're gonna do a whole bunch of financial literacy education materials all throughout the year, combined with a little bit of Ormez and Birkin porn. What's fun for me is, yeah, what's fun for me is to really, instead of the saturation of Birkins and Kelly, some real, some not, on social media is to also be able to present them through our lens, which is what's the investment value, which is no one else is doing. Exactly. So, you know, the stuff that you see out there about a Birkin bag's been up 14% a year or 5%, whatever, is such bullshit. It's not even true. So we're excited to correct a little bit of those myths. So follow us on social, on Instagram and on LinkedIn. And yeah, buy the bags, please. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's L-U-X-U-S, just so everybody knows. Correct. Okay. Donna, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to rate and review and follow us on every single platform at Handbag Designer. Thanks so much. See you next time.

Head Shot

Emily Blumenthal

Host