The World of Exotics - What’s In & What’s Out

Posted November 24th, 2008 by Edith

In the world of finance, I am the exotics salesperson. Some of you may have heard about exotic options or exotic derivatives. It used to sound intriguing to many of my non-banking friends. Not anymore I guess. Given the current financial crisis where investors including the institutional and the private, the sophisticated and the not-so-sophisticated are mired in leveraged losses stemmed from exotic investments.

On the other hand, in the fashion world we have witnessed an explosion of exotics. We are talking investing in luxury goods that come in exotic skins of pythons, snakes, lizards, ostriches and crocs. Hermes claims they have the best exotics. The Hermes salesperson proudly told me that Hermes gets the first choice of croc farms every year. For most of us, a Porosus or a Niloticus Birkin is quite an insane investment with prices starting from SGD40k and up. While I do lust after a croc Birkin, I prefer to savour exotics in smaller doses. I like them as details in the form of a thin belt or the strap of your watch, a strappy heel or the trimming of your purse or bag.

Welcome to my little world of exotics. Hopefully it will outlive the former!

P.S. My apologies for the lack of entries in the last 2 weeks. It was a little topsy-turvy but I have pieced it back to normality.

Tags: Bottega Veneta, Devi Kroell, Hermes, O'Lautre Chose, Ray Augousti