Original Hermes Birkin bag designed for British actor and singer Jane Birkin has been sold for over $10 million in an auction in Paris on Thursday, this makes it the most expensive handbag to ever be sold at an auction. . Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
The original Hermes Birkin bag sold for more than $10 million at auction in Paris, the Sotheby’s auction house announced Thursday.
The bag, designed for actor and singer Jane Birkin, sold for $10.1 million to a private collector from Japan, making it the most expensive handbag ever sold.
Sotheby’s did not provide any additional details bout the bag’s new owner.
The bag sold after 10 minutes of “heated bidding” among nine collectors, Sotheby’s said.
“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,” Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said in a statement.
The original Birkin bag is different from other versions; it has a different handbag size, metal rings, and a shoulder strap, according to Sotheby’s.
Then-Hermes Chairman Jean-Louis Dumas designed the bag specifically for Birkin after they happened to meet on a flight in 1984 when Birkin, who was a young mother at the time, complained she wasn’t able to find a bag that could hold everything she needed to carry daily.
Hermes said that Dumas quickly drew up a sketch for the bag that included space for baby bottles.
“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 and will most likely continue to be so for many years to come,” Halimi said.
Birkin used the bag nearly every day from 1985 to 1994 and joked to CNN before her death in 2023 that the bag would serve as her lasting legacy.
“Bless me, when I’m dead … (people) will possibly only talk about the bag,” she said at the time.
