Roommates, did you know the first Birkin handbag was sketched on an air sickness bag? Years later, the prototype of today’s must-have luxury accessory has been sold for a whooping $10.1 million (8.6 million euros). The Hermès price tag included fees, per the Associated Press. The sale makes the Birkin bag the second most valuable fashion item ever auctioned. Let’s get into the history made in Paris on Thursday (July 10).
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More Details About The Original Birkin Sale
The winning bid of 7 million euros drew gasps and applause from the audience. The price crushed the previous auction record for a handbag. In 2021, someone paid $513,040 for a Hermès White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Retourne Kelly 28.
Now, the original Birkin bag, named after the actor, singer, and fashion icon for whom Hermès created it — the late Jane Birkin — is in a new league of its own. Sotheby’s said that only one fashion item has sold at auction for more: a pair of ruby red slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ which sold for $32.5 million in 2024.
The Paris auction room buzzed with anticipation as the sale got underway. The auctioneer reminded the crowd that the bag was “totally unique” and “the most famous bag of all time.”
The bidding started at 1 million euros but quickly increased. At the end, the telephone bidders were fighting it out. With Sotheby’s fees included, the total price for the winning bidder from Japan was a cool 8.6 million euros, the auction house said. From the starting price, bids rocketed past 2 million euros, then 3 million, 4 million and 5 million, to astonished gasps. When the price jumped from 5.5 million to 6 million euros in one swoop, there were whistles and applause. The final bids were 6.2 million euros, then 6.5 million, then 6.8 million before the Japanese buyer’s last winning bid: 7 million euros. Sotheby’s didn’t identify the buyer. Nine collectors bidding by telephone, online, and in the room competed in the 10-minute auction battle.
Paris fashion house Hermès exclusively commissioned the bag for the London-born Jane Birkin in 1984.
Hermès Is Famous, Famous!
The handbag maker branded it with her initials, J.B., on the front flap, below the lock, and delivered the finished one-of-a-kind bag to her the following year.
It was born of an accidental encounter on a London-bound flight in the 1980s with the then-head of Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas. Jane Birkin recalled in interviews that they got talking after she spilled some of her things on the cabin floor. Birkin asked Dumas why Hermès didn’t make a bigger handbag. Then, on an airplane vomit bag, she sketched out the sort of hold-all she would like. He then had an example made for her. She was flattered and agreed when Hermès asked whether it could commercialize the bag in her name.
Years later, the commercialized version of Birkin’s bag became one of the world’s most exclusive luxury items. Aside from being extravagantly priced, there is usually a year-long waiting list.
“There is no doubt that the Original Birkin bag is a true one-of-a-kind — a singular piece of fashion history that has grown into a pop culture phenomenon that signals luxury in the most refined way possible. It is incredible to think that a bag initially designed by Hermès as a practical accessory for Jane Birkin has become the most desirable bag in history,” said Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s head of handbags and fashion.
The bag became so famous that Birkin once mused before her death in 2023 at age 76 that her obituaries would likely “say, ‘Like the bag’ or something.”
Jane Birkin Got Other Bags From The Brand
When Birkin chatted to Hermès’ Dumas on the Paris-to-London flight about her ideal handbag, she’d been in the habit of carrying her things around in a wicker basket. She felt handbags in the 1980s were too small, Sotheby’s said. She was traveling with her young daughter, Charlotte, and complained that she couldn’t find a bag suitable for her needs as a mother, Hermès says.
Hermès later gifted her four other Birkin bags. She kept the prototype for nearly a decade, before auctioning it for an AIDS charity in 1994. It was auctioned again in 2000 and has since been in private hands. The previous owner, who identified herself only as Catherine B., told journalists at the auction that the bag “has all the attributes of a star.” “The price is the price of the Hermès story,” she said. Sotheby’s called it “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.”
Associated Press John Leicester and Jeffrey Schaeffer contributed to this report via AP Newsroom.
