MyQuotaBag

Hermès Leathers

Name: Hermès bag resale asking prices by leather
Creator: MyQuotaBag
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Every leather of the Hermès bags, compared.

Togo or Epsom? Clemence or Swift? Ostrich or crocodile? Each Hermès leather has its own story, grain, way of aging and price. This guide gathers what the house, regulators, tanneries, the press and collectors say about each one, says where they disagree and compares the resale asking prices of the same bag in each leather.

Watercolor of eight leather swatches, from pebbled calfskin to ostrich and crocodile, beside a camel Kelly bag — AI-generated image for MyQuotaBag.

Compare two leathers

Choose a leather on each side. Ratings are MyQuotaBag's view; resale versus Togo is measured.

Left Right

Criterion	Togo	Epsom
Scratch resistance	8/10	7/10
Holds its shape	6/10	9/10
Lightness	7/10	6/10
Rain and water	7/10	8/10
Easy care	8/10	9/10
Color depth	7/10	9/10
Patina	4/10	1/10
Visible natural grain	✓Yes	–No
Embossed grain	–No	✓Yes
Structured look	–No	✓Yes
Made for daily use	✓Yes	✓Yes
CITES paperwork to travel	–No	–No
Boutique price versus Togo	The reference	Same price (Kelly 25)
Resale versus Togo	The reference (1.00)	1.02 times Togo

Our take. Ratings out of 10 are our editorial view, built from the sources on each leather page and from collectors' experience. They are not laboratory measurements and a well-kept bag in any leather can last for decades.

All Hermès leathers

Resale versus Togo: median asking price of the same bag, size and condition, divided by its price in Togo, snapshot of October 19, 2026. Share of listings: part of the listings whose leather is named.

Calf and cowhide leathers

Leather	Grain	Since	Boutique versus Togo	Resale versus Togo	Share of listings
Togo	Natural, pebbled, with visible veins	1997	The reference	1.00	19%
Epsom	Embossed, small and regular	2004	Same price (Kelly 25)	1.02	19%
Clemence	Natural, large and flat	1992	Not published	0.87	31%
Swift	Smooth micro-grain	2004	Same price (Birkin 25)	1.07	9%
Box	Smooth and glossy	1920s at Hermès	About 37% more (Kelly 25 Sellier)	0.99	2%
Evercolor	Fine embossed grain	2012	Not published	0.97	2%
Barenia	Smooth saddle leather	1970s	About 12% more (Faubourg)	1.08	under 1%
Taurillon Novillo (bull calf)	Tiny, even grain with a satin touch	2015	Not published	–	–
Fjord	Large, flat, matte grain	Not published (bags from 1990)	Not published	–	under 1%
Madame	Fine embossed grain	2018 or 2019	Not published	1.13	under 1%
Tadelakt	Smooth, semi-shiny, marbled	2007	Not published	1.24	under 1%
Doblis (suede)	Suede	1930s	Not published	–	under 1%
Vache Hunter (cowhide)	Smooth, slightly satiny cowhide	1998	Not published	–	–
Vache Naturelle (cowhide)	Smooth or grained, vegetable-tanned	Not published (a house classic)	Not published	–	–

Goat leathers

Leather	Grain	Since	Boutique versus Togo	Resale versus Togo	Share of listings
Chèvre (goat)	Fine natural grain	1990s (Mysore), 2018 (Chamkila)	About 7% to 9% more	0.87	2%

Exotic skins

Leather	Grain	Since	Boutique versus Togo	Resale versus Togo	Share of listings
Ostrich	Raised quill follicles	1920	About 78% more (Mini Kelly 20)	1.24	2%
Alligator	Regular scales without pores, matte or shiny	Not published	About 4 to 5 times	2.62	2%
Crocodile Niloticus	Larger scales, matte or shiny	Not published	Not published	2.04	under 1%
Crocodile Porosus	Small symmetrical scales, each with a pore	Not published	About 4 to 5 times	2.10	1%
Lizard	Very small scales	Not published (bags from 2001)	About 2.3 times (Mini Kelly 20, 2025)	–	under 1%

What the data shows

At the boutique, calf leathers cost much the same: in January 2026, price trackers reported a Birkin 25 at the same US price in Togo and Swift. A Kelly 25 was reported at the same price in Togo Retourne and Epsom Sellier. Exotic skins do not: alligator and crocodile Birkins were reported at about 4 to 5 times their Togo price.

On the resale market the gap is much narrower. In our snapshot of October 19, 2026, comparing listings of the same bag, size and condition, matte alligator was asked at about 2.6 times Togo, Nile crocodile at about 2 times and ostrich at about 1.2 times. Exotic skins keep a premium, but a far smaller one than at the boutique.

Among the calf leathers, asking prices stay close to Togo. In the same snapshot, Epsom, Swift, Box and Barenia were within about 8% of Togo for the same bag, size and condition, while Clemence and goat were asked about 13% lower.

Rarer leathers

Some leathers appear too rarely, or are too recent, for a full page. What the sources say about each:

Barenia Faubourg (2016): a Barenia with a tiny printed grain, softer and less prone to visible scratches, with the same patina. It is covered on the Barenia page.
Sombrero (Sombrero II from 2017): a smooth, matte calfskin used on rigid bags, which scratches easily.
Butler (2012): a natural, untreated calfskin with a Barenia-like patina, seen on the Sabot.
Négonda (2002): obtained by shrinking the hide, seen on the Garden Party.
Evercalf (2000): the smooth calfskin of the Ever family, which darkens and grows glossier with time. Hermès still lists it on its website.
Jonathan and Chéri (2019): supple calfskins; Chéri II followed in 2025.
Chèvre Coromandel: returned to the collections in 2019.

Retired leathers

Hermès does not publish the date a leather is withdrawn. These dates come from collectors and resellers:

Gulliver: a soft calfskin, withdrawn around 1999 according to collectors; auction houses list Gulliver bags from 1993 and 1998. Hermès confirms it is no longer made and says Swift resembles it.
Courchevel and Veau Grain Lisse: pressed-grain calfskins, withdrawn around 2003 and 2004, before Epsom took their place.
Ardennes: a thick, durable grained leather, withdrawn in the early 2000s.
Vache Liégée, Chamonix and Sikkim: withdrawn, dates unknown.
Caiman: seen only on vintage pieces from before the 1990s.

Exotic skins and the law

Crocodiles, alligators and lizards are listed by CITES, the convention that governs trade in wild species. Travelling with a bag you own is usually possible, but the rules depend on the species, its origin and the countries crossed. Each exotic page says what applies, with the date of each rule.

This guide is not legal advice. Before crossing a border with an exotic bag, keep its CITES document and receipt with it and check with the authorities of the countries involved.

How we rate

Ratings out of 10 are our take. We built them from the sources listed on each leather page: Hermès's own care advice and product descriptions, resellers' guides and long-running owner discussions. No laboratory test of Hermès leathers exists, so a rating is an informed opinion, not a measurement. Where sources are thin, we say so on the leather page.

Alligator, Nile crocodile and saltwater crocodile share almost the same ratings. No source we found separates the three skins on scratch resistance, shape, lightness, water or patina, so we do not invent a difference.

10 is always the best on the criterion. For lightness, 10 is the lightest; for rain and water, the most tolerant; for easy care, the simplest to live with. For patina, 10 means the leather changes the most with time, which some collectors love and others avoid.

Boutique price versus Togo compares US boutique prices of the same bag and size in different leathers, as reported by price trackers in early 2026. Hermès does not publish a price list, so exotic gaps are given only as an order of magnitude.

Resale versus Togo is measured. For each bag, size and condition with at least five listings in Togo and five in the other leather, we divide the two median asking prices, then take the median of those ratios. A ratio needs at least three such groups to be shown. These are asking prices, not sale prices.