 "A photograph shows the \"Birkin\" bag by Hermes which belonged to French actress and singer Jane Birkin at the Sotheby's auction house in Paris. Following its sale, it has become the most expensive handbag ever to be auctioned. AFP")
How much would you be willing to pay for a bag? A few thousands? What if it was the luxurious Birkin? Well, many would be willing to pay a few hundreds of thousands of dollars for it. But, one person just did the unthinkable; they paid €8.6 million ($10 million or Rs 86.23 crore) for a Birkin bag, making it the most expensive handbag to ever sell at auction.
But this wasn’t any Birkin; it was the Birkin that began it all — the original one which was created specifically for actor and French style icon Jane Birkin. It then went on to spawn a line of Hermès bags that are notoriously expensive and even harder to acquire.
Auction of the original Birkin
On Thursday (July 10), the first ever Birkin to be created by French brand Hermes, went under the hammer at auction house Sotheby’s. After 10 minutes of an intense bidding battle between nine individuals, which inspired gasps and awws, a private collector from Japan made the winning bid and acquired the iconic Birkin for a whopping €8.6 million.
This sale sets a new record for a handbag sold at auction. Incidentally, the previous title was held by a Hermès Kelly made with white crocodile leather and diamonds, which sold for $513,040 in 2021. It’s also now the second most valuable fashion item ever sold after a pair of Ruby Red Slippers from The Wizard of Oz, which sold for $32.5 million in 2024.
Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said the sale was a “startling demonstration of the power of a legend and its capacity to ignite the passion and desire of collectors seeking exceptional items with unique provenance”.
Notably, this isn’t the first time that the original Birkin has been auctioned; it was first auctioned in 1994 by Jane herself with the proceeds going to an AIDS charity.
Later, a woman named Catherine B acquired it in another auction 25 years ago for an undisclosed amount. On Thursday’s auction, she said that she was astonished by the result but also “profoundly moved by the way others have invested so much fervour trying to acquire what they desired beyond words”.
History of original Birkin
While the Birkin is today regarded as the ultimate status in luxury fashion and is revered around the world, it was born more out of practicality and a chance encounter.
It was in 1981 that famously French cool actress Jane Birkin boarded an Air France flight to London and was seated next to Jean-Louis Dumas, the then chairman of Hermes. As she went to stow her bag in the overhead bin, contents from her straw bag spilled over onto Dumas.
At that moment, Dumas commiserated with her, saying she needed a bigger bag — one with pockets. To which she responded, “The day Hermès makes one with pockets I will have that.” And he said: “But I am Hermès, and I will put pockets in for you.”
They then struck up a conversation in which Birkin told the Hermes chairman that she wanted a bag “half the size of my suitcase.” “He said, ‘Well, draw it for me,’ and so I drew it… one of those sick bags — the vomit bags — in the airplane,” Birkin recounted in the past.
The rest as they say is history. Four years later, Hermès produced a prototype and presented it to Birkin, requesting her permission to name the new style in her honour.
Distinctions that set this Birkin apart from any other
The original Birkin is unlike any other that is sold today. Firstly, it was deeply personal one — bearing her initials, JB, on the front flap. Unlike other Birkins, the OG featured a fixed shoulder strap for maximum practicality.
It was also unique in its size: The original measures up to the width and height of a Birkin 35 but the depth of a Birkin 40, and it has smaller bottom studs than its successors.
The bag features brass hardware (in-market Birkins have gold-plated details, although there have been a few iterations designed with special finishes) and a nail clipper attached to the inside zipper. The nail clipper is because Birkin preferred a natural look over long, painted nails. To keep her nails neatly trimmed on the go, she kept a nail clipper attached to a chain hanging from the base of the shoulder strap inside her bag for easy and frequent use.
Enduring legacy of the Birkin
After receiving her bag, Birkin was often seen photographed with it. Unlike celebrities today, who treat their Birkin bag as a valuable asset, the French actor used it all the time, everywhere. She even adorned her bag with stickers from Médecins du Monde and UNICEF.
As Marisa Meltzer, author of the forthcoming book It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin, told Wall Street Journal, “It was an everyday bag for her. Jane Birkin had a fairly charmed life in a lot of ways, and one of them was to get to casually own the most famous bag in the world that was named after her.”
In the subsequent years, the Birkin bag has become a superstar in the cultural world. It has been spotted hanging off the arm of countless celebrities including Kate Moss, Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, Victoria Beckham, and Lady Gaga.
Today, the Birkin has become more exclusive, waiting lists have started and it is notoriously hard to acquire. In fact, the Birkin’s hard-to-get reputation is part of its allure.
There’s also the fact that only a few Birkins are made each year; it is reported that each Birkin takes between 12 and 18 hours to create, at the hands of master craftspeople who have to undergo between two and six years of training before starting work in Hermès’ leather workshop. Additionally, the majority of the Birkin is sewn by hand using the brand’s signature saddle-stitching technique.
The auction house, Sotheby’s, summed up the bag perfectly. “It’s more than just a bag.”
“The Birkin has evolved from a practical accessory to become a timeless cultural icon,” it said. “Its presence spans the worlds of music, film, television and the arts,” it added. “It is a red-carpet staple, a fashion magazine mainstay, and a coveted piece in the wardrobes of celebrities, artists and stylists.”
With inputs from agencies