Overview

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

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9780061473333

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The one-step, one-stop shop guide to buying a Birkin. -- Huffington Post

The one-step, one-stop shop guide to buying a Birkin. --Huffington Post

Boston Globe bestseller--No Source

The one-step, one-stop shop guide to buying a Birkin. --Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post [Tonello] reveals the key to scoring that Holy Grail of handbags in a clever memoir. --Boston Herald A witty and engaging retrospective on [Tonello's] long career traipsing the globe as a purveyor of the Birkin bag. --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette In his peppy, addictive memoir . . . [Tonello] details the comical lengths to which he's gone to snag hundreds of Birkins that he then sells (with a steep mark-up) on eBay. --moderntonic.com The perfect, fluffy and fun beach read. --glamour.com Tonello recounts the strange and serendipitous tale of how he went from cleaning out his closet to being one of the busiest Internet resellers of Birkin bags in the world. --The Globe and Mail Funny, whip-smart. . . . Both a hilarious raid on fashion's strongholds and a memoir that satisfies like a novel. Fashion die-hards, and many others, will be delighted from beginning to end. --Publishers Weekly (starred review) [A] memoir of . . . madcap travels, triumphs and humiliations. [Tonello] peels back the layers of pretension at the eminent design house. . . . Anyone who's ever stepped into a luxury boutique and felt the sting of the doorman's disapproval will find a hero in Tonello. --Miami Herald [A] sunny memoir. . . . The prose is vivid, the tone lighthearted. Mr. Tonello comes off as the fantasy gay best friend immortalized in contemporary women's fiction: sassy, plucky, optimistic--oh, and he can get you a Birkin. --Wall Street Journal

Periodically charming but fluffy comic memoir.Semi-bored Massachusetts-based hairstylist Tonello had spent most of the decade trigger-happy with a can of hairspray and a powder puff and was ready for a change. A temporary gig in Barcelona convinced him that Spain was the place he really ought to be and that having too much shit to move wasn't a good enough reason to stay put. He took the plunge and happily relocated. Once settled across the pond, Tonello drifted into a new business venture: reselling Hermes products on eBay. The most exciting pieces of merchandise he dealt with were the infamously high-end Birkin handbags, and eventually he became obsessed with them. Can the average reader relate to a several-hundred page search for personal and professional Birkin Nirvana? Probably not, but the primary problem with Tonello's debut is bigger than that. The in search of subgenre is just about played out. Considering how many of these books clog the shelves, chances are good that a title will blend in with its brethren unless either the object sought or the author is utterly compelling. Despite Tonello's deft sense of humor, sharp observational skills, an appreciation for the absurd and some positive energy, his confessional travelogue/how-to is relatively undistinguished and indistinguishable.Clever yet unremarkable. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Originally from Massachusetts, Michael Tonello traveled the world as a makeup artist and hairdresser before resettling in Spain to become an eBay luxury reseller of all things Hermès. He resides in Barcelona with his partner, Juan.

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