After moving from Provincetown to Barcelona, Mr. Tonello made a successful living by serving as intermediary between the makers of overpriced status goods and people desperately eager to buy those items. He does a good job describing his successful techniques. The book may fascinate or amuse those hoping to cut him out as middleman but is a bit too cute for me. A middling read. ( )

This book is great, because it's dishy, but not in a bad way. It's mainly dishy about Michael, and there are very few celebrities, so it's a nice dishy. It's also HYSTERICAL. Michael's list of stock Hermes employees alone is worth the book. What I love is that he never takes the Hermes lifestyle as serious as his clients, which allows him to poke fun at the crazy ones, while at the same time singing the praises of the nicer ones. Michael's easy tone makes it seem like the whole story is being told over a lavish dinner with some good wine. I couldn't put it down.

see the full review here: http://www.jenrothschild.com/2008/04/... ( )

I received this book way back in March '08 as an advanced readers copy, read it right away, loved it, and somehow didn't get around to writing a review...until now (October '09). I started leafing through the book to remind myself of Michael's adventures, and his writing is so engaging that I ended up reading the entire book over again and enjoying it just as much the second time! I love his wit as he deals with Hermes obsessed buyers - I can only dream of ever owning a Birkin myself (although, even if I had unlimited funds, I probably couldn't justify it. $25,000 for a bag? Please!) .It was fun to get a peek at the lives of the upper ,upper, way upper class. I am glad that Michael took me along on his travels...twice! ( )

I liked this one. Cute and easily read. ( )

This was a cute and light read, but I'm with everyone else. It was hard for me to understand the obsession with the handbags. From this angle, it was hard for me to relate to the story. ( )

This was a cute book, but I finally tired of the "fabulous" people and their obsession over a bag, even if it is a great bag. It an easy read, and I liked the writer's style. ( )

I practically read this book in one sitting. It's light - but it's fun! Michael Tonello made me want to visit Capri (and pronounce it correctly!) and even though I'm certainly not in the market for a Birkin bag (or anything Hermes), every time I see one it makes me wonder just where it came from. Thanks for an entertaining & enlightening book. ( )

I, um, didn't have any idea what a Birkin was before reading this! Even starting from that disadvantage, the book was engaging and entertaining. A fun, fluffy, easy read. ( )

inspirational true story of a make-up artist who moves to Barcelona on a whim. To make money, he starts selling his belongings on ebay.
great memoir ( )

This memoir was quite fluffy but very fun, and I could barely put it down. Tonello balances out the extravagant with the down-to-earth in his amusing quests for Birkins. I do wish though that he might have tried to explain why these people have to have this crazy-expensive bag as I really don't understand the obsession.

If you’ve been dying to get your hands on a Birkin, then I suggest this book to you. I personally have never wanted one. I guess its one of those bags that I knew I never could afford so never lusted after it. You probably heard all the stories about how hard it is to actually get a Birkin bag, and that there is a two year waiting list, and even worse a waiting list for the waiting list. Well, Tonello dispels all the myths that surround this bag.

After moving to Spain, on the promise of a job, Tonello finds himself in a desperate situation when the position falls through. After selling his precious Hermes scarf on eBay, he discovers the sheer number of fanatics that will pay a small fortune to get their hands on anything "Hermes", especially the Birkin. And after a number of encounters Tonello discovers that the Birkin is where the money is at.

Getting his hands on one however, proves to be anything but easy. And in the beginning he hits a brick wall in the form of sales assistants. Then he discovers a formula and tries it out several times. He discovers this formula is the key and puts it in action.

I’ve tried not to reveal too much. What I will say however, is that after the first few chapters I was hooked and had a hard time to put the book down. I ended up reading it all on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Tonello’s writing style is very descriptive of the beautiful cities he visits and his brilliant sense of humour served for a very entertaining reading.

I am a sucker for a good memoir. I can't believe this man made a living reselling Hermes! An engaging read & trip. Michael Tonello brought home the fun--I consumed this book in a weekend.

I read this book as part of the Early Reviewers Group, and I thought it was a fun read. It was light and charming! I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a quick read...it's like candy for your brain. :) ( )

I stumbled across a review of this book and thought it might be fun. Not being in any way a fashionista I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It was absolutely fun, and endearing, and playful, and the author kept me interested in his successes both business and personal. Michael Tonello has a real knack for writing and I hope he may find something else to write about in the future. ( )

Not at all my usual kind of book, but a huge amount of fun. I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program and had it on the shelf for a couple months, then saw the New York Times review and bumped it way up the reading list. It's a perfect summer book, entertaining all the way through but episodic enough to be easy to read in small pieces. Of course, that requires that you put it down - not so likely to happen.

Michael Tonello details his career in buying (and reselling) luxury Hermès goods with irresistible breeziness. He's detached enough from the brand obsession to be an amusing observer, though attached enough to his high-flying lifestyle that I occasionally had "fish doesn't see the water, does he?" moments. Still, as a tour guide he's top-notch. Reading Tonello's description of Barcelona ("Doorknobs stylishly adorned doors rather than simply opening them...."), I immediately started considering how soon I could visit. Here's hoping he'll keep writing travelogues.

Bringing Home the Birkin is a great light read, focusing on settings and characters (customers, salespeople, designers, and more) and with authorial voice to spare. I'm loaning it to my mother next - she'll get a kick out of the mild insanity of the fashion world. ( )

Can't imagine anyone not having fun reading this book or not reading most of it in one sitting. The Birkin bag...for anyone with some clue about fashion, is the known Holy Grail of many fashionistas. Notoriously hard to obtain but even harder to afford. I mean $20k+ for a croc Birkin. Come on. Tonello demystifies the whole Birkin quest but it's not really a strategy that your average woman can use to snag her own Birkin, unfortunately. You still need a bit of dosh to start off with which is what he has. Wonder if his strategy still works? He was found out by Hermes by the end of the book, though. It's a crazy journey that he has had as an eBay reseller. A welcomed bit of frivolity in the days of the credit crunch. ( )

Michael Tonello never planned to start a business selling Hermès on eBay; he stumbled into it when he began offloading his own designer duds to raise cash after he found himself jobless in Barcelona. This memoir about how his personal closet-cleaning lead to a lucrative career procuring and reselling Hermès' elusive Birkin bag is a highly entertaining, funny, and unexpectedly exciting read.

Though the book got off to something of a slow start for me, by the time he got to writing about sticker shock on his first visit to Hermès (on comparing a $4,770 leather jacket to his own "investment quality" Prada, he writes "…what more could this one do? Take out my f*ing trash for me? Shine my shoes? Maybe it doubled as a parachute…") Tonello had my attention and wouldn't let it go. Anybody who has ever gotten caught up in the thrill of an eBay auction will easily relate to Tonello's growing excitement as he discovers American Hermès collectors will pay big mark-ups for merchandise he can easily access from his new European location. He has a nice little business hunting down back stock scarves for his wish-list customers when he gets his first request for a Birkin, the ultimate designer handbag that has a waiting list of two years. Though it takes Tonello some time to crack the Hermès fortress, he eventually stumbles across "the formula" and soon finds himself the Birkin bag it-boy.

Though not written as a how-to manual, Tonello's book showcases the recipe he used to become such a big success in his luxury niche. Luck, and being in the right place at the right time, clearly had a lot to do with it. But it was Tonello's business savvy that really catapulted him into the big time; he took the niche he'd stumbled across and ran with it, learning everything he could about Hermès in the process. Reading about the strategies he employed to liberate the elusive bags from their gilded prisons is detective story fascinating, and only becomes more so when one of his $22,000 croc bags suddenly becomes the subject of what he referred to as an "international hostage situation."

Tonello's witty storytelling, combined with the addictive nature of quests and auctions, made this book particularly hard to put down. I can't say it made me want a Birkin, though. ( )

As one who has been on those wretched waiting lists, this book flew off the shelf into my arms. Ever wondered about the authenticity of those Createurs de Luxe bags? Ever thought Hermes sales staff had a type? All my questions were answered and I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson. Tonello is the sort of author you want to invite over for drinks, then make him promise not to talk about Birkins. Yes, the bags are pretty. But you can tell he is more interesting than that- and fortunately, in the end, we all get over those waiting lists. We stop waiting. Period. A fast and witty read, and a great book. ( )

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

So are you familiar already with what's known as the Birkin bag? It's the product of Hermés, one of those European "designer boutiques" that exists for no other reason than to severely overcharge rich people with self-esteem issues; you know, one of those places that sells hundred-dollar handkerchiefs, $500 t-shirts and the like, eagerly bought up by the wealthy and idle so that they can prove to strangers that they too can afford to waste $500 on a t-shirt. (Yeah, I don't get it either.) But of all the ridiculously overpriced merchandise that Hermés sells, perhaps none is more infamous than their Birkin handbags; named after a famous French singer and habitual Hermés customer, these bags cost a minimum of $10,000 new from the store, and depending on the type can run you upwards of $75,000 or more. And human nature being what it is, of course, it's nearly impossible to get one's hands on an actual Birkin, with there being an infamous two-year waiting list at most stores to even be given the opportunity to blow that kind of money; needless to say, the self-imposed scarcity drives all these upper-class women with self-esteem issues crazy, with some of them willing to go to almost any lengths and pay any price to get ahold of one of them themselves.

And thus enters witty gay entrepreneur and Huffington Post columnist Michael Tonello, whose new memoir Bringing Home the Birkin is a doozy of a book; it's the purportedly true story of how Tonello managed to get his hands on literally hundreds of Birkins himself over just a few years' time, always done legally and with Hermés employees fully aware of his existence, making himself a fortune in the process by reselling them on eBay for insane markups. And I'm telling you, this is exactly what you want a personal memoir to be -- funny, thrilling, chock-full of great cocktail-party stories told with the flair of a natural raconteur, following an overall storyline as tight as any fictional project, one whose ending is not necessarily something you can guess beforehand. It's one of those books I just absolutely love coming across as part of maintaining CCLaP -- one of those books I would never naturally pick up myself, but that turned out to be a real delight, one that makes me happy and glad to be in a position to recommend to others.

So how did Tonello do it? Well, for starters, it helps if you don't buy into the hype of brand-obsession yourself; although a longtime collector of fine clothing (usually in the service of his former day job, providing hair and makeup services to various east-coast media shoots), Tonello admits that he doesn't share the religious devotion to certain designers like his clients do, and finds it emotionally easy to give up ownership of high-ticket items. In fact, that's what brought Birkins to his attention in the first place; after impulsively moving to Barcelona in the early 2000s, then having his prearranged job fall apart once arriving, Tonello found himself selling off big portions of his back wardrobe to the various designer consignment stores around the city, amazed that certain decade-old scarves of his would still be snatched up at nearly the original price by certain crazed collectors. This led him to eBay (of course), where he found that he could actually make a profit off of certain items depending on what they were; this then led to certain customers emailing him with "wish lists," certain old and new boutique items that Tonello would keep a specific eye out for while traipsing across Europe in his travels. And this, of course, is what led him to Birkins for the first time, and for developing the same kind of obsession over their fake scarcity as so many of us do when first hearing about them.

Because that's the smart thing about Tonello, and why he became so good at being a Birkin broker; he realized quite early on that this so-called exclusivity is simply a shell game on the part of Hermés, and that if you could just break their code it shouldn't be hard to buy a Birkin anytime you want, simply by walking into a store and asking for one. This led Tonello to trying out different things at the various Hermés stores he visited across Europe, trial-and-error style until he was able to notice certain things working over and over; and then this realization inspired the expansion of Tonello's globetrotting shopping sprees, to the point of finding himself traveling to places like South America and Russia on a regular basis, just to hit up the stores that rich old white women usually don't make it to. And when all is said and done, really, the winning equation to getting a Birkin turns out to not be that complicated at all...

1) Dress the part -- never walk in a store wearing less than a quarter-million dollars in clothes and jewelry.

2) Identify which of the half-dozen "Hermés employee types" you're dealing with when you walk in, then cater to their weaknesses. (So if it's a "Grandmother" type, act like the pleasant courteous son they never had; if it's an "Incurable Romantic," act like they have a chance of having sex with you later that night.)

3) Blow a thousand dollars first, buying other stupid crap. Or if you're in New York, blow five thousand dollars. Mention items by their specific names, to prove you're a long-time educated collector.

4) When they're ringing you up, off-handedly ask, "Oh, and would you happen to have any Birkins in the back as well?"

5) Ka-ching!

But of course, I'm simplifying the situation for humorous effect; as Donello actually demonstrates here quite well, the real secret to becoming a Birkin regular is more complicated and ephemeral than that, a strange mishmash of sucking up, buying into the hype, and sincere friendships, a legitimate community of high-end haute-couture lovers that you must somehow ingratiate yourself into, if you want any chance of making an actual career out of something like this. And indeed, this is one of the big strengths of Bringing Home the Birkin, and what separates it from the endless similar chick-lit crap that HarperCollins desperately, desperately wants you to think of when thinking of this book (and seriously, HarperCollins marketing department, if you mention Sex in the City one more time in your promotional material I might just vomit all over myself); because Tonello shines a light here through the foggy haze of all that, and shows how the entire haute-couture culture is an endless house of cards that ultimately relies on peer pressure and catering to people's fears in order to work. It makes it a weightier book than the ones it will undoubtedly get compared to by others, a stronger tale that doesn't have to rely so much on you being an obsessive fashion-lover yourself in order to enjoy.

Now, that said, oh man does Tonello tell some great stories on the way to this disillusionment -- of flying into Rio just to visit a Hermés store, of attending star-studded European fashion events, of racking up half a million on a credit card in a single weekend. In fact, that might be the most enjoyable thing of all about Bringing Home the Birkin, is that Tonello is simply a natural storyteller and gifted raconteur; take for example what is easily the best story of the entire book, his uneasy relationship with a skeevy chickenhawk gay hustler he accidentally meets one night, who has various Hermés employees "eating out of the palm of his hand" and so can therefore get his hands on certain items that Tonello can't. Needless to say, things quickly devolve between the two, with Tonello eventually having to hatch a wacky noiresque scheme to steal back a $25,000 Birkin the hustler stole from him in the first place; there's not much funnier of a mental image in this whole manuscript, to tell you the truth, than that of Tonello sneaking around the streets of Paris with a group of headphoned goons in sunglasses, wondering if his hotel room is "safe" and asking himself just what he's gotten himself into, when first thinking it would be fun to sell a bunch of overpriced purses to a group of rich housewives.

This is what I mean by how wonderful this book is; it at once gives us all the great anecdotal stories that come with the highest end of the fashion industry, while still pointing out all the depressing realities that such an industry produces, all the various hangers-on in a community like that who swirl around the small amount of rich, beautiful and famous in the center. That after all has become the biggest problem with America's entertainment industry as well, that there is simply so much money being generated from it in so many different ways that it's become an almost unstoppable monster; it's no longer just about the actors and directors and producers in the middle of it, but all their yoga instructors and dog psychiatrists and personal shoppers, all the gossip columnists and publicists and people who get paid to convince celebrities to use certain products in public. That's what makes Bringing Home the Birkin so fascinating, because ultimately that's what Tonello's story is about as well -- not the fashion designers themselves, but those who game the fashion system in order to skim a profit off its top, the endless retail employees and eBay resellers and party crashers and blog owners and the rest, all of them taking their own little cuts from the massive amounts of money being exchanged in the middle of it all.

It's a fascinating book that tells a fascinating story, not the best-written thing I've read this year but certainly far from the worst, one of those fabled books about fashion that even non-fashion-lovers can enjoy. It gets a big recommendation from me, and I imagine will also be one of the winners of CCLaP's annual "Guilty Pleasure Award" at the end of the year.

Out of 10: 9.2 ( )

Tonello writes an almost perfect memoir. I love his tone and style. He whimsically sucks the reader into his crazy world of buying and reselling expensive Hermes Birkins. I am not a huge fan of travel memoirs, but I loved this one. I loved the way Tonello writes his travels. This book is highly recommended. It's a perfect, light beach read. ( )

I was a bit surprised to get a copy of Michael Tonello's Bringing Home the Birkin as part of the Early Reviewers program, but happy nonetheless. It's a light, enjoyable read that I finished in a couple days.

In a nutshell, Michael finds a solution to his money problems after selling his first designer item, an Hermes scarf, on ebay. He then perfects a "formula" for finding Birkins, one of the world's most coveted designer bags, and reselling them for profit. I'm not a designer girl in the least, but I think I got a little Birkin-envy reading this. ( )

I was so happy to get this book. I love fashion and I have been a handbag fanatic for years. I enjoyed reading the lengths some people are going to in order to score a Hermes Birkin. This book was pure fun! ( )

Loved this book. Honestly, when I first picked it up I had no idea 1. it was written by a man and 2. it was considered non-fiction! Both of these revelations made me enjoy this book even more. Reads like a chick-lit Bergdorf Blonde behind the scenes delicious tell all! Who knew? So sorry Hermès, you lose. ( )

I had the good fortune of getting my hands on an advanced copy of Michael Tonello’s Bringing Home the Birkin before its scheduled date of publication. I almost felt like the lucky recipient of a coveted Birkin bag itself – one of these advanced copies sold for $1,000 on ebay!

Bringing Home the Birkin by Michael Tonello is a fun and amusing true-life tale about a man who decides to do what many of us fantasize about: he packs his (bulging) bags and moves to Europe. Michael has a job lined up and finds an apartment to die for in the trendiest section of Barcelona. Everything is moving along swimmingly and he is living his dream until his job prospect falls apart. Now saddled with a five year lease and not a prayer of receiving a work visa any time soon, Michael is desperate for a source of income to keep his ex-pat dream alive. As he fills his days arranging his full to bursting armoires and closets, inspiration strikes: why not make a little profit while cleaning house? Michael begins listing his possessions on ebay and finds that he can turn quite a tidy profit. However, his real windfall doesn’t occur until he realizes that there is a not-so-tiny subset of Americans obsessed with all things Hermes and that living in Barcelona affords him a huge advantage in obtaining discontinued Hermes scarf patterns. Soon Michael is traversing every Hermes store in Spain and stocking up on thousands of dollars worth of the coveted scarves.

Then it happens…..one of his “customers” asks for the impossible: a Hermes Birkin bag. But this isn’t just any bag. Ownership of a Hermes Birkin takes years of patiently waiting for your name to arrive at the top of their lengthy waiting list. The Birkin is the bald-headed eagle of bags – rare and not often seen. Michael makes it his mission to crack the Birkin code and indeed discovers what he calls his “formula” on instantly obtaining Birkins from the clutches of the Hermes sales people. Armed with his profitable formula, Michael crosses the world snatching up Birkins for delivery to his Hermes-starved clientele.

Michael Tonello is an engaging and amusing narrator and I loved reading of his travels to Brazil, Chile, Paris, Athens, Belgium, Germany, St. Tropez, Madrid, and many other exotic locales. Tonello is also witty and comical, especially when describing his adventures in finessing the Hermes sales people. I laughed out loud reading his “instruction manual” on obtaining Birkins from the different types of salespeople – there is the most welcomed “Grandmother”, the frustrating “Ingenue”, the hard-to-crack “Nazi”, the annoying “Incurable Romantic”, and the dreaded “Farmer”. Oh, and if you are Birkin shopping in Italy, you might need to grease the palms of the “Godfather”!

This is the perfect book for those who love travel and fashion. Tonello sums it up perfectly himself when he wrote that those who don’t like it must not like fashion, celebrities, travel, entrepreneurial spirit, humor, fine cuisine, or true love. Enjoy! ( )

I was the lucky recipient of an Early Reviewer's copy of Bringing Home the Birkin by Michael Tonello. This book is the equivalent of all those mountain climbing, desert marching, storm sailing adventure books out there, but in this case the sport is shopping. (A sport I like to participate in myself, but my level is junior amateur in comparison.) It is also very similar to chick lit except that in this case instead of the typical spunky, unlucky in love, career, etc waiting for the big break heroine, this hero(ine?) is an openly gay man. who manages to turn a love and a knack for shopping into a business as well as quite a nice life for himself. ...
Complete review is available on my blog. ( )