Hermès, The Original Birkin Crafted For Jane Birkin, 1985
The original Birkin bag sold for world record €8,582,500 at Sotheby’s in Paris today. The black leather bag was made for Jane Birkin in 1985 after she spilled her belongings while sitting next to the Jean-Louis Dumas, head of luxury fashion house Hermès on a flight. She asked why they didn’t make bigger bags, so he sketched out the design for a new, more practical but still highly desirable item on the aeroplane’s sick bag. The Birkin bag became a modern icon and the most coveted bag in the world.
The prototype he made went to a private collector from Japan after a ten minute bidding war between nine collectors. Birkin, who died in 2023 at the age of 76 was a British and French singer, actor and designer whose steamy 1969 hit “Je t’aime moi non plus” with Serge Gainsbourg became a classic.
The price crushed the previous auction record for a handbag — $513,040 paid in 2021 for a Hermès White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Retourne Kelly 28.
