For more than 180 years, the luxury fashion atelier Hermès has churned out one iconic bag after another. These bags come with a rich legacy and remain one of the most coveted bags of all times.

A Styling Quest
Each Hermès bag is carefully handmade. Thus, based on the individual leather treatment and unique artisanship by the craftsperson, your Hermès offers you a rare opportunity to set out on a styling quest which takes you through time and seasons as you discover the intricate secrets of your prized bag.

Hermès is all about Making a Secret of It… Or Not!
Hermès Paris logo is embossed such that it is centered and exactly aligned with the bag. Apart from its luxurious style and iconic appeal, each Hermès is a treasure hunt for the fashion enthusiasts who love cataloguing.

Unlike other luxury fashion houses, Hermès is very transparent about the manufacturing details of its each product. The Blind Stamps, or the H Stamps indicate the year of make and serve as an authenticating tool for most Hermès lovers because the luxury fashion house doesn’t issue authenticity cards with its products.

Decoding the H Stamp
Want to know more about the colour of your Hermès Kelly? All you need is to search for the embossed stamp on your leather Hermès, and you can easily trace back the origin of your designer bag.

Each date stamp contains two vital pieces of information. The date of manufacturing and the craftsperson stamp.

The Date Code
The Date Stamp indicates the year of make. It comprises of an alphabetical character which may appear alone or may be contained within a shape.

The Craftsperson Code
The Craftsperson Stamp indicates the person(s) who was involved in the making of the bag. When Hermès receives a bag for repair, the fashion atelier can accurately place the craftsperson that made the bag based on the unique combination of symbols in the craftsperson stamp. Then, the bag is sent to the same person for further repairs.

Locating the Blind Stamp
Locating the H stamp is not as straightforward. As the name indicates, the Blind Stamp is quiet hidden. The stamp can fade/lift gradually due to the softness of leather.

Hermès Birkin and Kelly are stamped inside the inner pocket or on the back side of the plaques. The Constance bag is embossed in the middle interior panel. The placement of the Hermès Blind stamp depends on the bag model and thus needs a little more research. You can come across a blind stamp embossed in the interior panel or on the outer arm as well.

An Era of Superior Artisanship
Hermès dates its bags in alphabetical order surrounded by a shape. However, Blind Stamps for dating the bag were not used until 1944. The Hermès bags produced from 1922 to 1944 are not embossed with any blind stamp.

After 1944, Hermès bags produced from 1945 to 1970 were embossed with a single letter, and no shapes were used in the blind stamp. Once they ran out of alphabets, after 1970, the bags produced from 1971 onward were stamped with a single letter contained within a circle. Again, after 1996, the circled alphabets ended and dawned the era of the perfect square. The Hermès bags manufactured during 1997 to 2014 came with alphabets encased within a perfect square.

The New Face of Blind Stamp: Return to the Basics
2015 onward, Hermès once again did away with the use of shapes in blind stamps and instead introduced the new format of A AA NNN AA, where is A is an alphabet and N is a number. The first alphabet indicates the date while the ensuing alpha-numeric is the craftsperson stamp.

Breaking the Code
It becomes easy to decipher this intriguing date and craftsperson stamp by starting with D within a square stamp which indicates the year of make as 2000. You can then walk through your A-Z till you arrive at the actual year.
 
Going Beyond the Date
The Hermès creation fashioned out of expensive and exotic materials are embossed with additional stamps to mark their special make. Here’s how you can identify the material used in the making of your Hermès:

Alligator mississippiensis - The use of this material is indicated by a square (☐) stamped next to the Hermès, Made in France logo on the bag.

Crocodile porosus - The use of Crocodile Porosus is indicated by a caret (^) next to the Hermès, Made in France logo on the bag.

Crocodile niloticus - The use of Crocodile Niloticus is indicated by a double dot (··) next to the Hermès, Made in France logo on the bag.

Varanus niloticus Lizard - The bag fashioned from Varanus Niloticus is indicated by  a dash (-) next to the Hermès, Made in France logo.
 
Varanus salvator Lizard - The use of an equal sign (=) indicates that this bag is made using the material sourced from Varanus Salvator Lizard.

Hermès HSS (aka Horseshoe or Custom) - The symbol used is a horseshoe next to the Hermès, Made in France logo.

Incongruities in the Blind Stamps over the Years
There are a few discrepancies in the standard blind stamps, two of which are discussed below:

The Double Blind Stamp- Year 2011
Alongside the O Square blind stamp a peculiar J stamp appears in the bags styled in year 2011.

R Without Square- Year 2014
As Hermès transitioned to the new blind stamp system, the bags manufactured towards the end of 2014 often appear without any shape.

Have you decoded your Hermès Blind stamp yet? It can be an intriguing mystery to solve that places your bag in the rich tradition of luxury and craftsmanship which is the hallmark of the fashion house.