No beating around the bush here. The straight answer to the question in the title is no. The videos you’re seeing making the rounds on the internet (as of April ‘25) are heavily overstating a point. I can’t say I’ve watched them all but I’ve seen enough to see they’re basically following a similar format. There is indeed truth in what they’re saying but the imagery is misleading. In many of these videos, they’ll state that “80% of luxury brands products are actually made in China” while showing images of Birkins. Is Hermès secretly manufacturing Birkins in China? I’m pretty sure the answer is no here. It would be absolutely disastrous for their reputation if this were true and also difficult to prevent this information from leaking. 

So what then is the truth in what’s being stated in these videos. Well, pretty simple, some luxury brands will absolutely be producing some of their products in China. Will they be finding some way to avoid labelling them as “Made in China”? Quite likely, I’d say, for some of their flagship products at least. The “Made in China” label just simply does not have the same cachet as say “Made in Italy” or “Made in France” for leather items. If it’s possible to do most of the labour in China then ship the items to Italy or France to be “finished” so that a more desirable label can be affixed then this will absolutely happen. At the end of the day. They are businesses that prioritise profit. 

You may think this is quite dishonest and I agree with you. Sadly though, this is most likely pretty commonplace nowadays. It has got to this due to reliance on an unspoken trust customers of these incumbent luxury brands have with them. I am writing another blog post right now that’ll cover this in more detail. For now, the summary is, these luxury brands built a reputation a long time ago but have diluted what they offer while hiking prices to the point where things are just ridiculous. The videos doing the rounds right now are very much pandering to the growing distrust customers already have with these brands.

There is a lot more to be said on this topic, for example, can “Made in China” ever be associated with a luxury standard? I’ll leave it at this for now though. My next blog post title will be “Big Luxury Brands Don’t Deserve Your Support”, keep an eye out for that one wink ????