In response to the rising wave of U.S. import duties, luxury house Hermès has announced it will fully offset the impact by raising prices across all product categories in the U.S. starting May 1.

“We are going to fully offset the impact of these new duties by increasing our selling prices in the United States,”

— Hermès CFO Eric du Halgouet

No cost-cutting. No restructuring. Just higher price tags — and total confidence that demand won’t flinch.

This tells us three things about the state of luxury retail:

1. Brand power trumps inflation: When customers are willing to wait years for a Birkin, they’ll absorb price hikes without hesitation.
2. Pricing is a shield: Luxury isn’t volume-driven — it’s margin-driven. Tariffs hit margins, and Hermès is defending them with surgical precision.
3. Tariff resilience is a new competitive edge: In a fragmented, protectionist world, brands that control their pricing narrative stay in control of their growth.

For Q1, Hermès posted €4.1B ($4.66B) in sales — a 7% rise at constant currency. Not despite price hikes, but possibly because of them. Scarcity still sells. Exclusivity still wins.

The lesson?
In the high end, pricing isn’t just reactive — it’s strategic storytelling.