> The Hermes bags are made in France, by leather artisans.

And yet ironically in the article,

> She echoed a number of women I spoke with who think authentic customers are the ones getting played. “These days, the reps just tend to be better made,” a Hamptons-based chief strategy officer tells me. “They last longer. There’s more attention to detail. You can tell that things have been done by hand.”

I remember reading an article about attempts to defeat counterfeiting of native American jewelry in the southwest. I guess people in Mexico were making their own versions cheaper and then shipping them in undercutting the people who made them on reservations. At first it was pretty easy to sort out the fakes but the Mexican manufacturers eventually improved their process so much no one could even tell the difference anymore. Which brought up some interesting questions about what authentic even is in this space.

The Chinese are just next level when it comes to the work ethic in learning every little detail about a particular product and applying techniques to improve. Their EV offerings will probably be very competitive once they hit the US.