S10 Ep13 CHRISTIE'S: Rachel Koffsky Parker, International Head of Handbags and Accessories – on building the auction house's luxury handbag category and what drives value at auctions.

Today we're chatting with Rachel Koffsky Parker, Senior Vice President and International Head of Department for Handbags and Accessories at Christie's auction house — one of the most recognized voices in the global luxury handbag market and, an auctioneer herself, having taken handbag sales in New York, London, Geneva, and Hong Kong.

After internships at the Met and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Rachel found her way to Christie's in 2014, just as handbags were becoming a formalized auctionhouse category. Since, she has helped build the handbag category from the ground up, growing into what is now one of the most strategically important departments in the house — responsible for bringing in 12% of all new Christie's clients and selling in excess of forty million dollars in handbags worldwide last year alone.

Over the last decade plus, she's brought the first single-owner handbag collections to market in both Milan and Paris, set world auction records for Hermès, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci, and helped transform the way an entire generation of collectors thinks about handbags — not just as accessories, but as objects with history, rarity, provenance, and serious investment value.

On today's episode, we get into all of it: how she built her expertise by cataloging up to a hundred bags a week, what actually drives value at auction, the record-breaking lots that still give her chills, and why a little wear and patina has gone from a liability to a badge of honor in the eyes of today's collectors. All that and more!

Let's dive right in!

DISCUSSED IN THE EPISODE:

• [4:00] Rachel grew up obsessed with Lucky Magazine, loving all things fashion and handbags. 
• [6:35] How her love of luxury handbags led to a career in the auction house. 
• [9:16] The first Christie's auction to include handbags was in 1978, but it wasn't until 2014 that handbags became a formalized category at the house. 
• [10:25] Handbags now bring in 12% of all new Christie's clients, making it one of the most strategically important departments in the house. 
• [12:20] Christie's customers began to understand handbags as an asset class. 
• [18:06] What drives pre-sale estimates, and what provenance means in the auction world
• [23:55] Christie's world-record handbag auctions
• [31:43] Current trends on the secondary luxury market 
• [36:17] The upcoming Christie's luxury week sale with over 250 lots 
• [38:10] What goes into producing an auction 
• [40:32] Rachel's Holy Grail lot 
• [42:22] The personal pieces Rachel will never part with 

EPISODE MENTIONS: 

• Christie's
• @christiesinc
• @christieshandbags
• Yayoi Kusama x Louis Vuitton pumpkin bag 
• Hermès Kelly Doll 
• Upcoming Handbag auction: 28 May to 11 June. 

LET'S CONNECT: