The Art of Wearing Wear

Making condition work for you, not against you

But, Is It Pristine?

When people talk about Hermès scarves, the first question is often about condition. Was it ever worn? Are the rolled edges plump? Is it pristine? Condition clearly matters, and is so often seen as a negative, but sometimes the pros can outweigh the cons.

A scarf with wear isn’t automatically worse. Sometimes they are my absolute favorites. A softer silk can knot in ways a crisp, new one can’t. It gives that effortless, I just threw this on look. A faint mark folded into the a center can make a dream design affordable. It may seem obvious when laid out, but it’s something you’ll never see when it’s on. And occasionally, the scarf with “issues” ends up being the one you reach for most. These are ones you can enjoy and don’t need to worry about.

This is one of the reasons why I built The Abigail Chart. Sometimes a scarf can look so different when it’s laid flat versus once it’s styled. It totally transforms. So much of it depends on how many areas of wear there are, where they are located, how much you love the motif and if the price reflects the balance between wear and collectibility.

I even bought a scarf with a cigarette burn because when I ran it through the chart, it still came out pro. Let’s take a look at that one (and another) to see how the math of wear really works because scarf math is my type of math.