Rosmah Mansor, wife of disgraced former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak currently in jail for corruption, would be fuming mad if people on the street could easily own and flaunt Hermès Birkin handbags. The Imelda Marcos of Malaysia owned hundreds of luxury bags, and her most favourite was the tote bag introduced in 1984 by French luxury goods maker Hermès, of course.

 

As the U.S.-China trade war gains steam, with U.S. President Donald Trump slapped a 145% tax on Chinese imports while President Xi Jinping retaliated with 125%, Chinese factory owners have decided to join the bandwagon. One Chinese manufacturer saw an opportunity in the ongoing tariff war, and decided to market Made-in-China Birkin bag for a fraction of the retail price.

 

Taking to the TikTok to “expose” how buyers (like Rosmah) are being ripped off by the Western fashion industry, he has shocked social media after breaking down the real cost of making a luxury Hermès Birkin bag. Apparently, the total cost was only US$1,400 while Hermes sells it for a whopping US$38,000 – a mark-up of 27 times or 2,600%. And he reveals the cost of every part of the bag.

In the video, the man says they use the same top-quality leather as Hermès – leather from Italy (Nuti), France (Haas), and Germany (Weinheimer). Just one piece of Togo leather costs US$450, enough for a single bag. It costs US$25 for high-end French thread called “Fil Au Chinoise”, US$150 for seawater-resistant stainless steel hardware, US$50 for imported Italian edge oil, and US$100 for the French lambskin interior lining.

 

Finally, the zipper costs US$10 while the labour costs for a Chinese artisan is US$600, much lower than a French Hermès craftsperson. In total, the price for a Birkin bag, including packaging, would be just about US$1,400 if you buy directly from the factory. The man explains that the only real difference is the logo and the country of manufacture – the factor that pushes the price up.

 

The man ended his video with the following message – “If you don’t care about logos, you can get the same materials, same quality, for less. Buy it for US$1,000 from our factory”. If his claims are true, the French designer house has been ripping off customers when all it did was to ship the bags back to Europe for Made-in-France labelling and logo installing, and laughs all the way to the bank. 

 

The real cost of #Birkin bag and what you are really paying for.🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/WQTHFL2jKD

— Humanbydesign (@Humanbydesign3) April 13, 2025

 

With Chinese manufacturers facing export issues the same way American customers do with imports, many are turning to TikTok to expose how much global brands greedily mark up their products – and hope to sell directly to consumers on fashion and beauty products at a fraction of their original price. However, when contacted, Hermès has denied that their luxury bags are made in China.

 

Of course, even if it’s true that 80% of the Hermès Birkin bags are made in the production line in China, before finishing the item in France, which allows them to legally label it “Made in France,” the company will never admit it for obvious reasons. In the same breath, the video, which has gone viral, shows that “Made in China” does not necessarily mean poor quality.

 

In reality, China, widely recognized as the world’s largest manufacturing economy and is often referred to as the “world’s factory”, can produce both cheap low quality goods as well as exclusive premium products. Apple iPhone is a classic example of Made-in-China premium goods, so much so President Trump had to make a U-turn by exempting Chinese made smartphone and computers from 145% tariffs.

 

China is definitely having their moment… The tea is steaming hot 🥵 pic.twitter.com/5OAYHeo5NG

— Meidas_Charise Lee (@charise_lee) April 12, 2025

 

Other Chinese suppliers have similarly taken to social media to market luxury designs ranging from Louis Vuitton to Chanel, Estee Lauder, and Bobbi Brown. A supplier revealed that while Lululemon may charge up to US$100 for a legging, the same item can now be bought for just US$5-US$6. Another supplier was offering to sell Birkenstocks, which retail above US$150 for merely US$10 dollars (including the 145% import duty).

 

Imagine a factory manufacturing BMW or Mercedes Benz is now selling the car directly to you for less than 10% of the price at car showrooms – without the logo that would cost an extra 90%. If the U.S., and Europe for that matter, decouple completely from China in an effort to suppress the rise of the red dragon, do you really think Beijing cares about trademark, copyright or Intellectual Property (IP)?

 

Regardless whether the Chinese factories were the legal OEM of European or American brands for the last 30 years, or were trying to sell “AAA” top quality imitation Birkin, Gucci, Prada, Coach or Vuitton bags, direct sales may soon become the only way to afford such goods if tariffs continue to rise. With Trump’s latest 245% tariff in response to China’s pulling back of Boeing orders, there’s more reason to consider them.

Even if you are not interested in cutting the “middleman” and get a US$1,400 Hermès Birkin directly from the Chinese factory, those videos have done enough damage to the Western luxury powerhouse. It exposes how the French, Italian, Britain and American capitalists are milking consumers, and if the Chinese factories could flood the market via direct-to-customer sales, it could cripple the “overpriced” Western luxury brands.

 

There’s a reason why Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, briefly became the world’s richest person in May 2024 through excessive profiteering. The 75-year-old French billionaire once said – “As long as I’m not the richest man in the world, I won’t really be happy”. Operating the world’s biggest luxury conglomerate worth nearly US$400 billion with 6,097 stores worldwide, the company has been aggressively gobbling up real estate and luxury brands.

 

Some said the videos could be a coordinated strategy by Beijing, where influencers and Chinese manufacturers were working together to take the trade war directly to luxury brands loved by the Americans. But that doesn’t erase the fact that the Western companies have been happily overcharging consumers (besides Trump’s tariffs, the European Union has also imposed up to a 45.3% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles).

Last year, a court in Milan, Italy, was told how a US$2,800 Christian Dior handbag costs only US$57 to make – a 50 times profit. The costs, however, do not include raw materials such as leather. But even if the cost of the leather and hardware are included, it would add only another US$160. Of course, there were advertising fees, rental on the most exclusive shopping streets, head-office costs and other expenses.

 

The price increases didn’t stop there. A mini Lady Dior bag that cost US$3,500 in 2019 (before the Covid-19 pandemic) will cost consumers an arm and a leg as it skyrockets to US$5,500 today – a 57% increase. After deducting everything, the pure operating profit for a Dior handbag is at least 50% margin. Thanks to capitalism,excessive profiteering was just the beginning.

 

While the retail price for the goods of major luxury brands is typically between 8 and 12 times the cost of making the product, there is something worse. Workers were exploited to the extent that they were paid as little as US$2 an hour to make handbags. The stunning revelation of human exploitation was discovered after police conducted a series of raids on workshop and factories.

Yes, workers exploitation actually happens in Western nations. Some of Dior’s production was contracted out directly to a Chinese-run low-cost factory in Italy, where workers assembled the bags in unsafe conditions. For example, safety devices on machines were removed to increase worker speed, producing more goods even though illegally reducing production costs.

 

Not only the workers – Chinese migrants and other foreign workers – were forced to sleep in the workshops, they are made to work from dusk until dawn (24 hours a day), including on holidays and weekends. That was how the brand greedily makes a very high profit margin, according to a 34-page court ruling. But Dior was not alone in its quest for profitability at the expense of human rights.

 

Italian fashion empire Giorgio Armani, who has been struggling to avoid the fate like fellows Fendi, Loro Piana and jeweler Bulgari – all were swallowed by LVMH – paid contractors US$99 for a bag that sold for more than US$1,900 in stores. Armani outsources the manufacturing of its products to GA Operations, an in-house production company which has denied wrongdoing.

Overpriced or excessive profiteering is just part of the message from the TikTok videos unleashed by Chinese manufacturers. Luxury goods are a major source of soft power in the West, enhancing the desirability of countries like the U.S., and positioning luxury brands as the “gold standard of quality.” With revelations that up to 80% of these luxury items are made in China, it will challenge the supremacy of the West.

 

Tactically, by taking the trade war to a new battleground – America’s TikTok – Chinese suppliers are creating chaos by urging users to outsmart luxury companies and President Trump’s 145% tariffs on Beijing by buying directly from their factories. Like it or not, despite denials, many luxury brands will pre-assemble some items or hardware in China before assembling the final product in France and Italy. 

 

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• 50 Times Profit – Your $2,800 Christian Dior Handbags Cost Only $57 To Make, And Made By Workers Paid $2 An Hour
• Taylor Swift’s S$500 Million Economic Impact – How Singapore Cleverly Got An Exclusive Deal For The Pop Star
• 10 Years Jail & RM970 Million Fine – To Be Reunited With Najib In Prison, Rosmah Deserves Max 20 Years In Prison
• 3rd Time U.S. Says “No Saudi Donation” – FBI Confirms Najib Stole RM3.2 Billion, Riza RM1 Billion & Jho Low RM6 Billion
• Only In Malaysia – PM Najib Stole People’s Money, Spy Chief Stole His Money, Anti-Corruption Officers Stole Her Money
• Mahathir’s Sons vs Najib’s Stepson – Who Are The Real Thieves Or Crooks?
• Oh My Hermes Birkin Handbags!! – Najib & Rosmah’s 284 Boxes Of Handbags, 72 Bags Of Cash & Jewellery Seized
• The Lifestyle Of “Rich Kids Of Tehran” Fuels The Fire Of Protest In Iran (Photos)
• New World Record – Himalaya Hermès Birkin Handbag Sold For $377,000
• One Big Family Of Crooks? Najib’s In-Law Took Hermes Bags Without Paying
• Greatest Daddy – US$77 Million Blue & Pink Diamonds For 7-Year-Old Josephine

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April 17th, 2025 by financetwitter

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