How to DIY a Hermès Birkin Bag

If you’ve wondered whether the hefty price tag is worth it, this DIY guide will help you decide if you would ‘Dismember It Yourself.’

1. Bend the nose of the crocodile down with one hand.

2. Using your free hand, take the knife and stab the base of the crocodile’s head.

3. Next, plunge the screwdriver into the crocodile’s brain and then—on an angle—into the spine.

4. Cut and peel the crocodile’s skin off their body.

5. Carefully measure two rectangles and cut them out of the crocodile’s skin.

6. Glue the edges together.

7. Saddle stitch once the glue is dry.

8. Pull tight!

9. Don’t forget to wash off the blood …

10. Show off your crocodile skin bag!

Would you dismember them yourself? It takes two or three crocodiles to make just one handbag.

PETA investigators found that crocodiles are crowded in concrete pits for years before workers kill them at one of the world’s largest exporters of Nile crocodile skins, which sold skins to Hermès. A facility employee confirmed that workers bend the crocodiles’ noses down, hack into their necks, stab their brains, and shove a metal rod down their spines before skinning them.

Footage by Farm Transparency Project also reveals that crocodiles are electrocuted, dragged, and mutilated at farms in Australia supplying to Hermès.

In their natural habitats, Nile crocodiles have an average lifespan of 45 years, but on factory farms, workers often slaughter them at around the age of three. Crocodiles are curious, sensitive individuals who want to swim, build nests, protect their young, and be left alone.

PETA’s spoof video proves a crucial point: if you don’t want to be directly involved in such abuse, don’t support it by buying these items. Instead, choose from the many luxurious vegan handbags available on the market.

More than a billion cows, pigs, goats, sheep, alligators, ostriches, kangaroos, and even dogs and cats are killed for their skins each year. Industry workers cut off the tails and horns of many of these animals without painkillers, and some are even skinned and cut apart while still conscious.

Because of the inherent cruelty in the wild skins trade, many major designers—including Chanel, Balenciaga, Burberry, Mulberry, Victoria Beckham, Diane von Furstenberg, and Vivienne Westwood—have banned the use of the skin of reptiles and other wildlife.

Please urge Hermès to stop selling items made from wild animals’ skin and switch to kinder, eco-friendly, vegan materials.