The $10 mn bag: Original Birkin smashes records at Paris auction

PARIS (AFP): The first-ever Birkin bag designed by French luxury brand Hermes for celebrity Jane Birkin sold for 8.58 million euros ($10 million) at a Sotheby’s auction in Paris on Thursday, smashing previous price records for a handbag.

The modern design classic, owned by a well-known Paris-based handbag collector, sparked a telephone bidding war up to 7 million euros, with the final sale price set at 8.58 million with commission and fees, the Sotheby’s website showed.

The previous record sale price for a handbag at auction was set by a diamond- and white gold-encrusted crocodile skin Hermes Kelly 28 which fetched nearly $513,000 in 2021 at Christie’s in Hong Kong.

“After weeks of anticipation, the bidding opened at 1 million euros — prompting a gasp from the room,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.

Sotheby’s had advised that the Birkin prototype was expected to set records.

But the staggering price tag is in keeping with the fashion world’s recent flashy aesthetics.

After years of so-called “quiet luxury” dominating catwalks, designers have embraced more ostentatious looks in recent seasons that have been dubbed “boom boom” by some trend forecasters.

The identity of the buyer has not been revealed so far.

Fashion legend

The original Birkin has changed hands twice since being put up for sale by Birkin at an auction in 1994 where the proceeds went to an AIDS charity, according to Sotheby’s.

Thursday’s seller, Catherine Benier, who has a boutique in the upmarket 6th district in Left Bank Paris, told The New York Times before the sale that the bag was the “jewel in my collection”.

The birth of the bag has become a modern fashion legend.

During a Paris–London flight, the singer and actress — who died in 2023 — complained to a fellow traveller about not being able to find a bag suited to her needs as a young mother.

That fellow passenger happened to be Jean-Louis Dumas, then head of Hermes.

The result of their conversation was a spacious tote with room for baby bottles, created in 1984 and named the Birkin.

It is engraved with the initials J.B. and has several unique features, including closed metal rings, a non-detachable shoulder strap and a built-in nail clipper.

Its condition “reflects the many years of use by the actress and singer,” Sotheby’s said beforehand.

A slightly differently sized version of the original has become the flagship product of the immensely profitable family-owned luxury French leather goods maker ever since.

Produced in very limited numbers, the bag has maintained an aura of exclusivity and is beloved by celebrities from Khloe Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez to Victoria Beckham.

Frustrated fashionistas in America even sued Hermes in a class-action suit in California last year after they were refused access to the bags.