THIS ISSUE'S DRAWING
A black Picotin 22, awarded to one completed entry.
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The two greatest houses in handbags are, this season, doing precisely opposite things - and watching them in stereo is the most useful exercise a collector can undertake right now.
Methodology
The PL20 Index tracks real resale values from the leading luxury platforms, weighted across the 20 most sought-after Hermès and Chanel bags — the way the S&P 500 tracks America’s 500 largest companies.
This spring, Hermès whispers and Chanel sings. Both, in their own way, are telling you to buy now.
The two greatest houses in handbags are, this season, doing precisely opposite things - and watching them in stereo is the most useful exercise a collector can undertake right now.
Hermès is going quiet. Boutique allocations have tightened further this spring, and waitlists for the Birkin and Kelly are stretching into a third year for clients without deep history. If you have been told "next year" recently, you have not been forgotten - you have been counted. The house is doing what it always does when the global mood softens: selling a little less of itself, on purpose. Scarcity, refined.
Chanel, meanwhile, is doing the opposite. It is making noise - joyfully, deliberately, expensively. Matthieu Blazy's debut Spring 2026 collection arrived in March, and for the first time in years there were genuine queues outside Chanel boutiques. The 2.55, redrawn in crinkled leather. The Maxi Flap, suddenly the bag everyone seems to want. The new Chanel 25, freshened in bicolor calfskin. Three weeks later, on April 2, prices on the heritage range went up two to five percent. Blazy's brand-new pieces, tellingly, were untouched. Refresh the desire, then reprice the heritage. We are watching a masterclass, and our clients are watching their wishlists get more expensive overnight.
Driven by Birkin 25, Kelly 25, Mini Kelly.
Classic and mini bags remain strongest.
The most liquid bag on the secondary market, and the one piece a serious collection is incomplete without. Togo or Clemence, palladium or gold hardware, the warm honey-tan that flatters every wardrobe from camel cashmere to navy tailoring — this is the Birkin every Birkin client eventually ends up owning.
The most allocated, least available, most coveted Hermès of the moment. Epsom or Chèvre, virtually any neutral colorway, and you have a piece that is functionally impossible to walk into a boutique and buy. The Mini Kelly II's appreciation curve has been the steepest in the Hermès catalogue for two years running - driven by a younger collector who wants the silhouette without the weight, and by social-media visibility that has turned the bag into a true cultural object.
Once the cool-girl alternative to the Classic Flap, the Boy is the piece most exposed to the Blazy effect. The new creative direction at Chanel has redirected demand decisively toward the 2.55, the Maxi Flap, and the Chanel 25 — and the secondary market for the Boy has softened in response, with average resale prices easing roughly nine percent over the last two quarters.
PreLuxe provides market insights based on historical resale data, demand trends, and pricing observations. This information is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered financial or investment advice.
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