The original prototype Hermès Birkin bag that belonged to the now-iconic accessory’s inspiration, the actor and singer Jane Birkin, sold for over $10 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Thursday in Paris.
The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, marks the most expensive handbag ever sold at auction, according to Sotheby’s.
“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 accompanying the listing.
Bidding on the famed bag during the Fashion Icons auction began at $1.1 million, and rose on advanced bids to $1.5 million before going to the room.
In the span of a minute, the price rose to more than $3.2 million, continuing to escalate for about eight more minutes until the bag hit its final $10.1 million price.
The origin of the Birkin, whose highly coveted modern-day iterations retail between $20,000 to over $100,000, is the stuff of fashion legend.
During an Air France flight in the early 80s, Birkin and her young daughter Charlotte happened to be seated next to Jean-Louis Dumas, then the artistic director of Hermès.
As she attempted to put her things in an overhead compartment, her possessions came tumbling down, and she and the designer soon got to talking about her need for a bag large enough to hold all her possessions.
“I said: ‘Why don’t you make a bag that’s sort-of four times the [size of the] Kelly that you could just leave open and sort of half the size of my suitcase?’” Birkin said in a 2020 interview.
“He said: ‘well, draw it for me.’ And I think I drew it on the sick bag, a vomit bag in the airplane.”
By 1985, Hermès had created a prototype of the bag in that sketch, and Dumas offered it to Birkin for free if he could name it after her.
Since then, the bag has become a feverishly sought after sign of wealth and insider taste, as well as the subject of a famous 2001 episode of Sex and the City and a 2008 bestseller, Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World’s Most Coveted Handbag.
New bags are given in limited supply to select retailers, driving sky-high demand and a thriving resale market.
The bag sold at auction on Friday differs from those on the arms of celebs incuding Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham.
It features a shoulder strap that was never included in the commercial version, and gilded brass hardware from Éclair rather than gold-plated accents from Riri, which have adorned Birkins since the 90s.
Before being sold in Paris, the bag — known as The Original Birkin — belonged to Catherine Benier, a private collector and founder of the Paris vintage boutique Les 3 Marches, who bought it in 2000.
It has previously been exhibited at world museums including the Victoria & Albert in London and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
Birkin donated the bag to a charity auction in the 90s.
The singer, who became representative of chic Parisian style in the 70s, died in 2023 at age 76.
