Prime Highlights
- Jane Birkin’s personal Hermès Birkin handbag sold for a record €8.6 million at Paris Haute Couture Week.
- The second-hand accessory, which was indeed utilized by Birkin for nearly a decade, was auctioned off by Sotheby’s on behalf of an unidentified Japanese seller.
Key Fact
- The bag was indeed produced in 1984 as a direct result of Birkin lunching with Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas.
- This was not the first prototype that led to one of the world’s most desirable luxury handbags—the Hermès Birkin.
Key Background
A chance meeting between British-French actress and vocalist Jane Birkin and Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas on a plane in 1984 birthed one of the world’s most enduring fashion pieces, the Birkin handbag. Weary of her garbage bag, Jane complained to Dumas, who was challenged on the spot to draw a new design on the back of an in-flight airline airsickness bag. What he sketched was a gigantic, practical but stylish bag that would be the poster child for decadence.
The initial Birkin handbag that was produced for Jane was custom done in brass trimmings and black leather with her initials. Interestingly enough, there was a personal souvenir or two and a nail clipper in the handbag as well, and therefore it was a very real reflection of her personality. This initial piece traveled with her on a day-to-day basis for almost a decade, and it did get noticed by fashion critics and collectors.
Birkin gave the handbag away to an AIDS charity auction in 1994 and eventually it fell into private collector Catherine Benier’s possession. It has since been exhibited at celebrity-studded shows on every continent, glinting in New York and London, shedding light on fashion and cultural history.
Sold in Sotheby’s “Fashion Icons” sale in Paris recently, the bag generated frenzied bidding, opening at €1.3 million and selling for €8.6 million (nearly $10.1 million). The sale not only set a record for the highest-priced handbag sold, but also, for the second time, established that celebrity memorabilia are an investment worth making for the long haul. It became the second most expensive piece of fashion ever to be sold at auction, beaten only by Dorothy’s ruby red slippers in The Wizard of Oz.
Jane Birkin’s Birkin handbag is not about fashion—she is a timelessness of intimate family tradition, hand-made individuality, and mass culture, forever indelibly inscribed into fashion history.
