Gotta Get 'EM ALL

The Kelly and the Birkin get top billing, but the Hermès family tree runs deeper than the Windsors’, and insiders are now shopping the lesser-known members of the royal line.

- BY MARISA MELTZER

On Manhattan's Upper East Side they are everywhere. They can be seen at the dog runs in Central Park, and at Sant Ambroeus picking up tuna salad. They are even found at Rumble, discreetly tucked away before class starts. They go by a single name, like Madonna and Cher.

They, of course, are the Kelly and the Birkin, the best and most popular handbags made by the French leather goods giant Hermès. There are many reasons for the breathless adoration they receive, starting with the craftsmanshipand the beauty of their design. And then of course there's the X factor, the difficulty of scoring one, which only tantalizes shoppers more. But there's a certain kind of customer who doesn't wish to have the bag everybody else is after, she wants to telegraph superior knowledge of the label. For that woman, there is the hermès deep cut.

The Kelly and the Birkin are the blockbusters in the catalog of the house founded by Thierry Hermès in 1837, but the cognoscenti know there are around 50 styles to choose from, bangers of underappreciated quality and endurance. For every “Like a Prayer?” there’s a “Secret Garden.”