Mindy and the Birkins, Part 1

Or why I stopped watching Mindy Kaling's show 10 years ago

Over at the New York Times, there’s an article on the Hermès Birkin bag and how it’s considered gauche if someone carries around a pristine Birkin.

This article got my attention because of a 2012 post I wrote on my old blog related to Mindy Kaling’s show and all the Birkin bags her character carried. Today I’ll share the original post I wrote, with a few updated links and references noted in the content, and tomorrow you’ll get the followup post.

You Can’t Fool Me, Mindy Kaling

Originally written/posted on November 19, 2012

Last week I was catching up on my stories, by which I mean going through the shows in my Hulu queue and watching them. One of those stories shows is “The Mindy Project”, starring the fabulously funny Mindy Kaling. I was the one person in America who did not watch “The Office” (TV is supposed to be an escape from reality and “The Office” was never that for me), but I liked her. I may be biased because my cousin Susie* looks like her. So much like Mindy, in fact, that people have called her Mindy on the street and had their picture taken with her and asked for her autograph. I could be making that last part up. But I think she told me that once. In any event it’s a good story. (Update: Susie confirms this has actually happened on several occasions.)

Back to my point. I was watching [Season 1] Episode 2, titled “Hiring and Firing.” It starts with Mindy riding the New York subway with her colleague. She’s carrying a beautiful blue handbag, which in and of itself wouldn’t have been a problem if I hadn’t known what kind of bag it was.

It was a Hermès Birkin bag.