STYLE : Hermes Boutique Brings O.C. Highly-Prized Scarfs, Purses : Accessories: Newly opened shop has three-year waiting list for the ‘Kelly’ handbag, a $3,250 item.

As a child, Victoria Nevinny would lie in bed, sick with a sore throat, wearing an expensive Hermes scarf her mother had wrapped around her swollen neck.

“It’s one of my earliest memories. I guess I inherited a love of the scarfs from my mother,” Nevinny says.

Today her mother has 40 or 50 Hermes scarfs, which sell for $195 each and are prized for their richness of color, hand-stitched hems and fine-quality silk. Nevinny isn’t far behind--she has 25 Hermes scarfs.

Now it’s easier than ever for Nevinny to add to her collection. Orange County’s first Hermes boutique recently opened in the Barneys New York store in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, where Nevinny works as merchandise manager.

Since it began as a saddlery in Paris in the 1800s, Hermes has evolved into an upscale boutique famous for its silk scarfs and $3,000 “Kelly” bags, classic leather purses once toted by Grace Kelly.

“The merchandise is for a certain clientele, and Orange County has people interested in this type of quality,” Nevinny says. “It’s a perfect marriage of client and product.

“One man bought $1,200 worth of ties the second day we were open.”

Until the boutique’s opening, Orange County residents had to travel to Beverly Hills to visit the Hermes shop on Rodeo Drive.

The Costa Mesa boutique, which opened July 11, occupies a corner of Barneys that has been decked in gleaming, hand-polished, ash wood cases filled with merchandise that has made Hermes world famous.

After 10 days in business, the boutique already had sold two of its three Kelly bags.

The remaining bag, a smart, black, triangular purse made of hand- stitched leather, costs $3,250.

“It’s a high price point, but it’s timeless. You’ll have it forever,” Nevinny says.

Despite the Kelly bags’ price tags, the company has a three-year waiting list of people wanting the purses.

An assortment of Hermes’ silk scarfs, all measuring 36 by 36 inches, are kept under glass. Fine hand-sewn stitches are plainly visible on the scarfs’ rolled hems.

“That’s how you can tell the difference between a real Hermes scarf and an imitation,” Nevinny says.

Each scarf is made of a heavy-weight silk and dyed in rich jewel colors. A typical design requires no less than 35 individual silk screenings, according to Nevinny.

Artists design 25 to 30 different styles each year to add to the more than 800 Hermes scarf patterns in existence. Some draw inspiration from the early scarfs on view at the Hermes museum in Paris.

“Les Plumes” is festooned with 176 feathers plucked from assorted birds. “Astrologie”--the perfect gift for Nancy Reagan--features the signs of the zodiac and an artist’s rendition of a 400-year-old celestial charting tool used by ancient astrologers. “Equateur” is adorned with brilliant-colored members of the wild kingdom.

Other scarfs come decorated with perfume bottles and gemstones, presumably the kind of trinkets the Hermes client prefers.

Some customers find the patterns so fine and rich in color, they frame the scarfs like fine art.

The wearer of a scarf can treat it as a belt, a bustier, a bandeau, a turban or a sarong.

“I love these things,” says Nevinny, admiring the neatly folded squares in the glass case. “They’re a wonderful accessory. You can dress anything up with these scarfs.

“You can wrap them around your waist or put them in your hair. In Vogue, the models wear them as headbands.”

While some Hermes boutiques carry only scarfs and ties, the Costa Mesa boutique also has men’s and women’s fragrances, watches, belts, gloves, bathrobes and clothing. Men’s ties cost $95 and feature many of the same patterns as the scarves, as well as fine geometric prints.

For women, there’s an ivory-colored silk cardigan adorned with the “Poste et Cavalerie” scarf pattern for $1,300. The pattern bears the images of the ornate leather pouches worn on the belts of the cavalry and officers of the 19th-Century French military. A quilted silk bomber jacket and silk print vests come in the same fabric.

“Hermes has always been associated with the sporty, gilded set,” Nevinny says.

Here, one can pick up a pair of garden shears for $450.

“Hermes figures the type of person who rides horses and skis would probably like to garden.”

Among the few inexpensive items in the shop: a Hermes barbecue mitt for $25.

Much of the merchandise has an equestrian theme, in keeping the boutique’s origins.

In 1837, Thierry Hermes began the company by making harnesses in Paris. In 1879 he moved the business to 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris, where the company still is operated by Hermes’ descendants.

Throughout the 1900s, the company has expanded its line of merchandise. Hermes watches first appeared in 1920, scarves arrived in 1937 and neckties in 1954.

“They still make saddles,” Nevinny says. “If you custom order them they can go up to $10,000.”

Reason enough for making do with a Hermes barbecue mitt.