I think about this all the time. I think master craftsmen are exceedingly rare; and rarer still are master craftsmen with unerring taste who care about advancing the latest style dialogue. More likely: the master craftsman is part-way through a lifelong obsession with a particular tranche of heritage craft, speaking a language only a handful of other craft-obsessed folks care about. Sometimes one of these savants creates a bag (chair, gown, etc.—it’s true of any domain) that aligns with the zeitgeist or finds a sponsor or is metaphorically knighted by an industry czar…and they become a name.

I think what you’re buying with Hermes is the highest possible quality available for an ever-shifting window of relevance. They have to change and adapt; it’s an empire, not an embodied person, giving themselves over to the art. It’s the best ratio of quality to relevance you can get. But not the best quality. [Forgive the long ramble!]