Natalie Portman's Vintage 1970s Hermès Cape Coat Proves the Brand Is So Much More Than Birkins

Here is a fact that will make you rethink your entire approach to luxury investment: Hermès has been making extraordinary ready-to-wear since before your Birkin was even a concept. And it took one very chic, very pregnant actress to remind the entire fashion world of that.

Natalie Portman was recently spotted — as reported by Harper's Bazaar — wearing a vintage 1970s Hermès cape coat while expecting her child with partner Tanguy Destable. The piece is the kind of archival find that makes serious collectors go very quiet and then very quickly reach for their phones. It is not a bag. It is not a scarf. It is not anything you can acquire by hovering near a quota system or befriending a sales associate in Paris. It is simply magnifique — and it has sparked a conversation that is long overdue.

Vintage Hermès ready-to-wear is one of the most undervalued categories in the resale luxury market. That, friends, is about to change.

The Moment That Stopped the Fashion World

Portman has always dressed with intention. This is a woman who wore custom Dior couture to the 2020 Oscars — embroidered with the names of snubbed female directors — and turned a red carpet moment into a cultural statement without saying a word. So when she steps out in a 1970s Hermès cape coat while pregnant, you do not file that under celebrity street style and scroll on. You pay attention.

The cape coat itself is the kind of piece that costume historians dream about. Structured yet fluid, it has the je ne sais quoi that only genuine archival fashion carries — the slightly looser cut of the era, the quality of the wool, the signature Hermès restraint that never tips into austerity. It is a masterclass in dressing for a body in transition without resorting to the expected. And it is a reminder that Hermès has been quietly producing some of the most beautifully constructed ready-to-wear in Paris for over fifty years.

The internet noticed immediately. Search interest in pre-owned Hermès spiked. Resale platforms saw increased traffic to their Hermès categories. The cape coat, of course, is not available anywhere — which is precisely the point.

Why This Matters If You Buy Luxury

The Birkin bubble is real, and everyone knows it. A new Birkin 25 in Togo leather retails at approximately $11,400 before tax — if you can even access one. The waitlist is mythological at this point. Prices on the secondary market for a standard Birkin 25 regularly exceed $20,000, and in exotic skins, can surpass $150,000 without blinking.

The conversation around archival luxury fashion has been building for several seasons now. Gucci's archive moments under Alessandro Michele, the Balenciaga archival references at every major fashion week, the hysteria around vintage Chanel bouclé jackets — the market has been telling us something. Clothes hold value too.

What Portman's moment does is democratise that conversation within the Hermès universe specifically. It signals to the discerning buyer that the brand's genius was never confined to a single category. The same extraordinary craftsmanship, the same maison heritage, the same Parisian savoir-faire that goes into every Birkin exists in Hermès ready-to-wear. And right now, that category is significantly underpriced on the resale market relative to where it is headed.

A Brief History of the House That Built Luxury

Hermès was founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès in Paris as a harness workshop serving the European equestrian nobility. The orange box came later. The silk scarf — the carré — arrived in 1937, exactly one hundred years after the house's founding. The Kelly Bag was formalized in 1956 after Grace Kelly famously used one to shield her pregnancy from paparazzi cameras. The Birkin followed in 1984, born from a chance encounter between Jane Birkin and then-CEO Jean-Louis Dumas on a Paris-London flight.

The ready-to-wear line has been part of the Hermès universe since the 1970s — the very era Portman's cape coat hails from. It has never been the loudest part of the brand. It has never needed to be.

Today, Hermès retains an extraordinary 138% of its retail value on the resale market — a figure no other luxury house consistently matches. That statistic is typically cited in the context of bags. Apply it more broadly, and the implications for archival RTW and accessories are significant.

Explore our curated pre-owned Hermès collection at The Reluxe

The Quiet Appreciation of Archival Hermès RTW

Here is what the bag obsessives have been missing. Hermès ready-to-wear from the 1970s and 1980s — cape coats, blazers, equestrian-influenced trousers, silk blouses — was produced in small quantities for a very specific, very wealthy clientele. It was never mass produced. The quality of construction is identical to what the house produces today, and in some cases the fabrication is arguably richer, given the era's more generous use of pure wool, heavy silk, and handfinished details.

On the resale market today, a 1970s Hermès cape coat in excellent condition might trade for between $800 and $2,500 depending on condition, provenance, and the current appetite of the buyer. For context, a new Hermès cashmere coat from the current collection retails between $6,000 and $12,000.

That gap is closing. Slowly, then all at once — as the saying goes.

Vintage Hermès silk scarves, another vastly undervalued category, can still be found in the $150 to $600 range for earlier editions, while rare or culturally significant carrés fetch upward of $2,000 at auction. The Hermès Constance bag, a 1959 creation that predates the Birkin by twenty-five years, is appreciating steadily in value on the secondary market as collectors begin to look beyond the obvious.

The Hermès Oran sandal — another perennial — trades reliably at or above retail in pre-owned markets and is routinely difficult to find in desirable colourways and sizes through traditional channels.

Expert Tips: How to Buy Vintage Hermès RTW

The difference between a brilliant vintage Hermès find and an expensive mistake comes down to a few non-negotiable factors. Here is what to look for.

Authentication markers matter as much on RTW as on bags. The Hermès Paris label has evolved significantly over the decades. Pre-1990s pieces carry specific label formats — typically a smaller, serif-font label in orange or cream, with Made in France printed beneath the brand name. Post-1990s labels shifted to a cleaner format. If something claims to be 1970s but carries a 2000s-era label configuration, walk away.

Condition is everything, but imperfection is acceptable. A cape coat from 1975 is fifty years old. Minor wear at the cuffs or a softened structure in the shoulders is expected and does not diminish value significantly. What does diminish value: moth damage, significant staining, structural alterations, or replaced buttons (Hermès buttons are highly specific and replacements are instantly identifiable to a trained eye).

Provenance elevates price and confidence. A vintage piece accompanied by any original receipt, a carton (the Hermès orange box), or documentation from a known estate sale commands a premium — and earns it.

Buy silhouettes that are structurally classic. A cape coat, an equestrian blazer, a wrap skirt in Hermès silk — these are not trend pieces. They were not trend pieces when they were made, and they will not become trend pieces when they age. They are wardrobe foundations in the truest sense.

Browse our authenticated vintage Hermès ready-to-wear pieces at The Reluxe

What Buyers Should Know Right Now

The window on undervalued vintage Hermès RTW is open — but not indefinitely. Every time a cultural moment like Portman's surfaces, a new category of buyer is introduced to a previously overlooked segment of the market. Interest rises. Supply, which is already finite, does not.

If you have been on a Birkin waitlist for two years and counting, consider redirecting some of that energy. The same maison craftsmanship, the same orange box heritage, the same house that makes the world's most coveted bag has been producing extraordinary pieces across categories for nearly two centuries. A 1970s cape coat carries the same DNA as a Birkin 30. It just carries it more quietly.

Pre-owned also means sustainable. Every archival piece acquired through the secondary market is a piece that does not require new production. For a brand at the level of Hermès, where single pieces require many hours of skilled artisan labour, that carries real weight. The most luxurious thing you can do in 2025 is wear something extraordinary that already exists.

And pre-owned means smarter. The value gap between a vintage Hermès piece and its new equivalent is, in most cases, substantial. You are not compromising on quality. You are gaining rarity, history, and a story that no boutique can give you.

Shop The Reluxe: Rare Hermès Beyond the Waitlist

You will not find a cape coat identical to Portman's sitting in a boutique. But The Reluxe is where the search becomes worthwhile.

Our curated pre-owned Hermès collection spans bags, accessories, scarves, and ready-to-wear — authenticated, carefully sourced, and presented with the detail and transparency a serious buyer expects.

If the Constance has been quietly on your radar, browse our Hermès Constance bag selection before the rest of the market catches up. If silk scarves are your entry point into the archive, our vintage Hermès scarf edit includes both investment-grade prints and wearable everyday finds.

And if you are looking for the kind of rare, structurally elegant piece that makes people stop you on the street — the kind of piece Natalie Portman is currently making very famous — our Hermès vintage clothing section is exactly where to begin.

Shop Hermès at The Reluxe

Every piece is expertly verified before it reaches you.

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The Takeaway

Hermès built its reputation on restraint, craft, and an almost stubborn refusal to be fashionable in the trend-driven sense of the word. A 1970s cape coat is not a trend. It was not one then, and it is not one now. It is simply a beautifully made object that has outlasted every season it has witnessed — and will outlast several more.

Portman understood that instinctively. The question is whether you will act on it before the rest of the market does.

The archive is speaking. The Reluxe is listening. Come find your piece.