The luxury handbag world is as exclusive and expensive as it gets.
Led by Hermès, which produces the coveted Birkin, fashionistas and collectors alike jockey for position on the waitlist for the privilege to buy bags, which cost five figures and often six.
Now, the Birkin originally made for its namesake, Jane Birkin, is coming to auction for the first time since 2000 — and bidding is expected to set all-time records.
While on an Air France flight from Paris to London, Birkin’s trusty basket-style bag began spilling out her belongings — wallet, cigarettes and diapers suddenly filled the first-class cabin. As luck would have it, her seat mate was Jean-Louis Dumas, Hermès CEO. Discussing how she needed a new type of bag that could meet her needs, and supposedly even sketching out an idea on one of the plane's sickness bags, the Birkin bag was born.
The first and original prototype Birkin commissioned especially for Jane was delivered in 1984, and kept in her possession for the next decade, before she sold it in 1994 to raise money for an AIDS charity.
It sold again in 2000 to a collector named Catherine Benier. It has been in her collection ever since, with stops at exhibits in museums, including the Museum of Modern Art.
Benier has not disclosed how much she paid, other than telling the New York Times, “Twenty-five years ago when I acquired it, it was already the most expensive bag in the world.”
“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,” Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said in a statement.
The current record for the most expensive handbag ever sold is the Hermès Kelly Himalaya, which sold for more than $500,000 in 2021.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.