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.

Now let's talk about today's show.

Today we're chatting with Rachel Koffsky-Parker, the 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 auction house category.

Since, she's helped build the handbag category from the ground up, growing it 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 $40 million in handbags worldwide last year alone.

Over the last decade plus, Rachel's brought the first single-owner handbag collections to market in both Milan and Paris, and 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 beautiful accessories, but as objects with collectible 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 100 bags a week, what actually drives value in the auction house world, the record-breaking lots that still give her chills to this day, and why a little wear and patina has gone from a liability to a badge of honor in the eyes of today's handbag collectors.

All that and more on today's show.

Let's dive right in.

Now let's talk about today's show.

Today we're chatting with Rachel Koffsky-Parker, the 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 auction house category.

Since, she's helped build the handbag category from the ground up, growing it 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 $40 million in handbags worldwide last year alone.

Over the last decade plus, Rachel's brought the first single-owner handbag collections to market in both Milan and Paris, and 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 beautiful accessories, but as objects with collectible 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 100 bags a week, what actually drives value in the auction house world, the record-breaking lots that still give her chills to this day, and why a little wear and patina has gone from a liability to a badge of honor in the eyes of today's handbag collectors.

All that and more on today's show.

Let's dive right in.