The sight of THAT orange bag is enough to make me send quiet squeals of excitement into the universe, and when the orange box is brought out of it, wrapped in chocolate ribbon, I can hardly contain myself! Because Hermès is true luxury. Grown-up luxury. The real deal.
The Evelyne was designed by Evelyne Bertrand in 1978 as a way for horse groomers to carry their tools, with the perforations intended to be worn against the body, allowing the tools to breathe and aerate. Of course the design has been flipped and now we all wear the logo facing out to the world, because who of us would want to hide that beautiful logo?!
Sadly, along with beauty and innovation come copycats. Here's what to look for in a real Evelyne TPM...
First of all, as with all Hermès bags, look at the overall quality. Hermès bags are a level above the rest, they are made by craftsman and artisans, and they will be flawless. With a preloved bag there may be signs of wear but there will never be signs of manufacturing fault.
There are 4 sizes of Evelyne, the TPM (tres petite model) is the smallest. The TPM has not undergone some of the generation changes that the other sizes have had.
As we said before, it was designed as a work bag and the edges have casing with reinforced stitching, making the bag very durable. The stitching will be tiny, neat and perfect.
The perforations will be evenly sized and spaced. They will have raw, unfinished edges. There will be 63 perforations in total, 40 for the oval, 9 for each vertical arm, and 5 for the horizontal arm. And the oval is a beautiful, gentle oval. It is not a circle, nor does it have pointed sides.
The snap fasten may be plain or it may have some markings on it, depending on it's age. But whatever it's age it will not have Hermès on it. On the underside of the pull through will be the craftsman and date code stamps. On the main bag under the fasten strap it is stamped with Hermès.
The crossbody strap is not adjustable on the TPM. It is made of superior quality webbed canvas. At both ends it will have leather tabs, one of which will stamped. On newer models both of the attachers have Hermès stamped on one side.
Cover image from https://www.instagram.com/nnattallii/ via https://www.instagram.com/hermes.addict/