Welcome back! <3
In today’s post, we will dive into a number of luxury items that I strongly recommend purchasing brand new. As an avid preloved market shopper, this is definitely surprising. Usually I advocate for saving a few hundred dollars, but in this scenario I find that purchasing these items new may be the way to go.
Luxury Item #1: Van Cleef & Arpels Jewelry
Van Cleef & Arpels has always been a popular fine jewelry brand. However, in the last couple of years their company growth has been exponential. This growth is mainly due to algorithms on Instagram and constant exposure in YouTube videos. My best friend introduced this brand to me on our first trip to Paris — prior to that I had very little interest in designer items. My first love was the Vintage Alhambra with White Gold and Chalcedony, but I never loved it enough to indulge.
Like many people, 2020 was a really challenging year for me. It was a year where isolation and loneliness really crept into the darkest parts of my mind. I tried to keep myself busy and even successfully dropped 30 pounds, but it was nonetheless incredibly hard. I came out of 2020 very reticent about verbalizing my experience.
In that same year, VCA launched this Vintage Alhambra with Rose Gold and Grey Mother of Pearl. Initially I had a lot of issues justifying the cost of this piece, but then I decided that this would serve as a memory of myself coming out of 2020 a stronger person. This piece was love at first sight. It was unique; it had all the textures, colors and imperfections.
Why You Should Only Buy This Brand New:
As much as I would love to start this paragraph with “the experience” as being one of the reasons, I felt that my experience was quite lackluster. It wasn’t a terrible experience, but at the same time I didn’t feel like an ‘appreciated client’.
I had considered purchasing this piece through online resellers, especially since I found one on Fashionphile for about $100 less than the retail price. So why did I decide against it? I spent some time reading up on the materials used in Van Cleef jewelry.
Van Cleef and Arpels’ Mother of Pearl:
The Mother of Pearl is actually quite fragile, when coming into constant contact with water the center piece can shrink and lose it’s luster. They apply a lacquer over the semi-precious stone that enhances the luster of the stone and protects it. Overtime this lacquer can wear down due to the chemicals in showering gels, lotions, and perfumes.
Van Cleef & Arpels is incredibly strict with their policies due to the immense amount of counterfeits in the industry. As of 2021, it only costs about $240 to replace the stone entirely if something were to happen to it. However, with their strict policies, they can and may reject to repair your item if there are discrepancies in their records. To spare myself the future issues that may incur, I decided to forgo the chance to save the $100.
My strong suggestion really only applies to their Mother of Pearl, but if you were looking at the Guilloche Alhambra or Frivole pieces going preloved may not be a particularly bad idea.
The Guilloche Alhambra pieces are hard to find in stores and in high demand. To satisfy any instant gratification needs, the preloved market is not a bad route. However, be aware of premium pricing. If you enjoy dainty diamond pieces, the Frivole range is definitely one to look at whilst saving a few hundred dollars.
Luxury Item #2: Tiffany & Co. Jewelry (Sterling Silver)
A recent addition to the LVMH family, Tiffany & Co. was sold for $15.8 billion. This classic brand has been in and out of trends for decades. Their latest successful launch was impart to Blackpink’s Rose who was the frontline ambassador for the Hardware line. These pieces are incredibly edgy, chunky and definitely in trend. It was like Chanel releasing their Boy bag for the first time. It was an introduction of edgy and ruggedness, from a classic ladylike brand.
Why You Should Only Buy This Brand New:
In this portion of the post, I want to focus exclusively on Tiffany & Co.’s sterling silver pieces. Sterling silver has a tendency to tarnish with wear and tear. Even though you can clean sterling silver, it is challenging to thoroughly clean through all the nooks and crannies.
Tiffany & Co. offer services for cleaning, repair, and altering. These amenities all cost of a fee. However, their services are incredibly thorough since they disassemble each piece to clean and repair thoroughly. After the service, the jewelry piece essentially looks brand new. Despite the preloved price savings, when combined with the repair fee, it essentially becomes the retail price. If preloved is definitely your preference, then I suggest looking at their fine gold pieces which will not have this tarnishing issue.
Luxury Item #3: Chanel Costume Jewelry
Every single Chanel season comes with a new launch of costume jewelry pieces. Chanel has six seasons every year which includes bags, shoes, RTW, and costume jewelry. This portion will focus primarily on the costume jewelry pieces that have crystals, pearls, and other loose bits that can fall out.
My first Chanel purchase was a quilted CC logo necklace. This was a solid piece of metal with an embossing of the classic quilted squares. It was then followed with a pair of CC logo earrings that had alternating pearl colorations. I wore these earrings to death for the next two years. However, overtime I started to lose the pearls, one by one. When I took these earrings into the boutique to ask for a replacement of the missing pearls — the SA had wanted to charge me an exorbitant amount of $120. I usually don’t argue about repair costs, but in this instance I indeed pressed for an explanation. When I had applied pressure, he quickly withdrew the fee and said that it would be comped this time around.
The repair took roughly 3 months to complete. I went to pick them up when I received the phone call. Upon arriving home, I unwrapped the packaging to find that the alternating colors were no more. The pearls were all replaced and all one unified color. When questioned, they simply answered with a ‘that was what was available at the workshop’. From that day onward I vowed to never purchase a piece of costume jewelry that had protruding loose bits.
The ones featured underneath this paragraph are the only exception to the rule. This collection was extremely hard to find and it was the perfect size for day to day wear.
Luxury Item #4: Hermes Bags (Certain Ones)
I currently do not own any Hermes pieces, but I still stand by this opinion wholeheartedly. The preloved market has loads of Hermes items, but a premium included in their pricing. Hermes bags on the resale market have seen obscene markups due to the effects of the pandemic as well as the Chanel price increases.
The first bag that comes to mind is the Hermes Evelyn in TPM, also known as the size 18. This bag comes in a plethora of colors and retails anywhere from $1800-$2000 depending on the color and strap combination. The resale market have these pieces priced anywhere from $2500-$3800. The second bag is the Hermes Garden Party 30. This bag comes in a number of colors as well as leathers. This tote retails for $3525, but the resale market tends to have these priced at nearly $4000.
The reason I am recommending you to purchase these bags brand new is because it will help to cultivate your buyer history in the boutique. Seeing as you are paying above retail pricing, you might as well use them to strengthen a relationship with a Sales Associate. This would render especially true if you want a Birkin or a Kelly from the retail stores eventually. The only exception to this recommendation is if there is a discontinued color that you really want in these particular bags. Hermes release colors seasonally and sometimes once the color has ran its course, they do not release that color again.
Final Thoughts:
I hope that these recommendations will be helpful in your next luxury purchase. It is incredibly hard to just indulge in something without doing additional research on the item. A lot of the times folks will jump on a good deal immediately since it’s so convenient to shop online. However, some of these recommendations are often hindsight recognitions. Aftercare services are not always the first thing that come to mind when making these purchases. Please feel free to let me know in the comment section down below if there have been any luxury pieces that you have been eyeing.
Warmest,
Li <3 xoxo