Glamorous liaisons

It's THE world's fastest handbag.

Meet the Bugatti Veyron Fbg par Hermes, a $2.4-million, 253-mph, 1,001-horsepower hypercar, a collaboration between Bugatti and Hermes' elves on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore.

Go ahead, inhale the excess: the two-tone, ebony-and-brick bull calfskin interior; the saddle-stitched steering wheel (requiring 30 hours of handwork); the wheel locks branded with the signature "H"; the door handles borrowed from an Hermes valise; an Hermes wallet fitted to the glove box; and special luggage for the trunk.

Now this, this, is how to accessorize.

Unveiled at Geneva's auto show in March, the Veyron par Hermes will be available by special order to no more than 15 customers worldwide by the end of this year. And yet the wait is still shorter than for a Birkin bag.

The Veyron Fbg par Hermes is the latest and most lavish of a recent slew of low-volume fashion-automaker collaborations -- Lamborghini and Versace; Cadillac and Bulgari; Mercedes-Benz and Armani; Alfa Romeo and Costume National -- that celebrate the awesome power of rich people to get anything they want. Call it car-ture.

"Even with a car as special as the Veyron, some customers have expressed a wish for even greater personalization. The Hermes allows us to give it to them," says Alasdair Stewart, sales and marketing director for Bugatti.

You see, high net-worth types have a problem. Some of the world's most prestigious brands -- Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Dior -- have sunk into mass-class ubiquity, so it's hard to tell who's rich and who's just overextended. Another problem for the rich: There are just too many of them. In 1986, Forbes magazine identified 140 billionaires around the world. The 2008 survey listed 1,125 billionaires. The growing ranks of ultra-wealthy have put pressure on prestige brands to be ever more exclusive and more distinctive. "These people say, 'I want the best. I can afford the best. I want it to be mine and . . . I want people to know it,' " says Wes Brown, principal of the Los Angeles marketing research firm Iceology.

With regard to cars, one of the most gorgeous signifiers of class, the problem is particularly acute. There was a time when a white Mercedes-Benz convertible was the ultimate in swank, Beverly Hills affluence. Now you can't get arrested in one, unless you are Britney Spears.