Melina Arnold: Hermes Clerk Recalls Her Birkin Meltdown
A clerk at the Hermes boutique in Monte Carlo described how Melina Arnold, formerly Galic and Dzinovic, reacted after a quota kept her from buying a Birkin bag.
Melina Arnold, formerly Galic and long known to the public as Melina Dzinovic, is once again the talk of Monte Carlo. A clerk named Irina, who works at the local Hermes boutique, gave an exclusive account of what happened when Melina was refused a bag she wanted. She gave the statement to the press, and Kurir published the story on August 27 at 8:04 a.m.
The incident happened when Melina tried to buy a Birkin, one of the most sought after models the house makes. The boutique enforces strict quotas on that bag, and staff explained to her that she had already exceeded her allowed purchases for that period, so she could not be sold another one. She married British millionaire Jeffrey Paul Arnold on April 18.
Irina says she knows Melina well, since Melina has apparently been coming into the boutique for years, as has her daughter, who is still a regular customer. Unlike her mother, Irina says, the daughter has always been polite and pleasant. The boutique, she adds, is also frequented by members of royal families and the international jet set, but she had never seen a scene like the one Melina made.
“That woman was so arrogant and rude at that moment that I have no words for it,” Irina told reporters, describing a scene she says is still being talked about around Monte Carlo.
Irina also shared details of exactly what unfolded inside the boutique:
“She had gone over her quota for that period, and that was that. The woman got so furious that she started screaming, which upset the other customers who were shopping at the time.”
According to Irina, the whole scene lasted around 15 minutes. Melina, she says, demanded to speak to the manager and asked staff whether they knew who she was and how much money she had spent at Hermes boutiques over the years. The other customers browsing at the time were, in Irina’s words, visibly shaken by the outburst. One employee, she adds, later took several days of sick leave because of the stress the incident caused.
Hermes keeps some of the tightest quotas in the luxury handbag industry specifically for the Birkin and Kelly models, and that applies to every customer, including big spenders, none of whom are exempt from waiting their turn. Irina also described what the incident did to Melina’s standing with the boutique.
“Since then, even though we have gone out of our way to accommodate her several times, she is not exactly welcome in our boutique anymore. You can have money, but you definitely cannot buy culture and style. That comes from your family, and not even a Birkin can fix it,” Irina said.
She also said that after the incident, Melina was unpleasant toward the boutique manager, who had tried to smooth things over with her. Melina had not responded to a request for comment by the time this story was published.
Lining up the dates, the boutique incident came a few months before the wedding, and Melina later returned to the same boutique for a bag to wear at the ceremony itself. Nine days before the wedding, she bought a Kelly for 6,400 euros, with no mention of any quota trouble for that model. She carried the bag on April 18 at her wedding to Jeffrey Paul Arnold, and again later at the celebration in Portofino.
