On the 22 October call, Éric du Halgouët, Hermès's finance chief, said every leather good they make is being sold: the Kelly, the Birkin, the other bags, in every region. The quarter around that sentence was 4.1 billion euros, up 4.3 percent once currency is taken out. Analysts had written down 5.2 percent. Reuters called it the slowest quarter since the shops closed in early 2020. The percentage sounds like a stall. The leather does not.
The bags people already queue for are only part of it. The release names the Double Longe, the Besace Attelée, and the Bride de Jour, and says leather quickened a little in these three months. In April the house opened a 25th workshop, in Loupes, in the Gironde. Capacity this year is up about 6 percent, and he told analysts no single region was carrying it. They made more, and what they made still left.
What slowed is everything you might add once you are in the room. Ready-to-wear and accessories are more than a quarter of sales, and together they fell 2 percent. He told Reuters the clothes themselves were still up, China included. The hole is gloves, belts, hair clips, shoes. Watches, counted alone, were down 6 percent. Fewer people came through the door, and the things that need a busy Saturday felt it. Come in for a bag, or for jewellery, and the spending held. Fine jewellery was still moving, including the collection that showed in Shanghai in September. The middle of that case got quieter, and he put the quiet on Greater China.
A lip mask is a smaller yes, and it behaved differently. Perfume and beauty was 128 million euros of the quarter, up 7.5 percent. The house said a new mask and balm sold straight away. You finish it and you buy another. A bag can sit on a list for a year. China's Luxury Consumer Is Trading the Handbag for the Beauty Counter had already found affluent Chinese clients much more willing to spend more on prestige beauty than on leather. That survey predates this release. The small counter agrees with it.
I can hold two stories about the Birkin in the same week. Resellers told Reuters it is easier to find second-hand, and that some of the fever has cooled. Du Halgouët says the desire is intact, and that production is still meant to rise about 6 percent a year. A bag can be a little less mythical on the resale sites and still be the thing someone will not postpone.
Deng Qi exports ceramic building parts from Beijing. On 9 October he told Reuters he expects to spend about 20 percent less on luxury than he has been spending. The people who owe the new tax, he thinks, will keep buying.
"I don't think wealthy people who are subject to taxes on offshore trusts would stop buying luxury, they are not short of that few tens of thousands of yuan."
Deng Qi, to Reuters, 9 October 2026
What worries him is everybody else, the ones who heard about the tax and got careful. Alexis Bonhomme, who advises these houses from Shanghai at Trinity Asia, described the cash version. Until the payment date on 22 October, some clients were short of ready money. He thinks they will buy again. He also thinks the mood, for now, is gone. The rougher August and September store checks are in Hermès and Cartier Lose Their Steadiest Client in China.
Flat, for Asia outside Japan, is a blended number. Korea was solid. Singapore and Thailand picked up in the quarter. Japan rose 9.6 percent, and over the nine months the house credits an 11 percent gain to people who live there, not to visitors. South Korea Is Luxury's Bright Spot While the Rest of the Market Hesitates is the longer Korean half. Greater China only looks level if you squint. It was a little ahead at the end of June, the summer gave some of that back, and Hong Kong improved just enough to hold the line. He told journalists the Chinese market was very difficult. Asked about October, he said nothing had turned.
The same pattern shows up where that tax does not apply. In the Middle East, traffic through the stores fell by about 25 percent, and leather and jewellery made up part of the gap. Six stores in the region, three of them the house's own, in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Fewer people came. The ones who came still bought the expensive thing.
The 2 percent on clothes is easy to overread, and I would not clear out a wardrobe over it. Sell-through is high enough that stores had to reorder. If the coats were sitting, the stores would not be reordering. Ready-to-wear grew in every region except China. The comparison is harsh for another reason: that business is up about 80 percent over four years. Axel Dumas is already talking about January, Grace Wales Bonner's first men's collection and couture from Nadège Vanhée. He wants those categories back. July, August, and September did not wait for the shows.
In the Americas, sales rose 8.8 percent and every category grew. More people came in, and they spent more once they were inside. A quiet Saturday in Chengdu tells you about that door. Singapore, which the company said sped up, is another Saturday entirely.
Francis Belin is staffing for the awkward version of the visit. He runs Mytheresa, and at the end of August he told FD, the Dutch paper, that he was adding personal shoppers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Middle East, and more of them in Shanghai. They already had about a hundred people whose job is the client. I have not seen what those clients asked for. What I trust is the hiring. In the cities where this quarter split, someone thinks the purchase now needs a person on the other end of the message.
If an associate offers a belt on the way to the bag, remember what those objects have been. Reuters described gloves, belts, and hair clips as the way a less wealthy client often starts here. This quarter they are also the lines that fell. Buy the belt if you want it. The shoes you did not plan on, and the watch you noticed beside the case, are the same choice. I would call the boutique and ask what actually went out in August before I booked the flight. The bag, if they will sell you one, is the purchase this quarter still supports.
