Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
There have been two occasions in my life on which I have touched a Hermes Birkin bag. The first time I was seven years old; a friend of my mum’s came over for lunch and around her wrist was a tan leather tote with stiff steep handles like two hills of a rollercoaster, and silver hardware centred around a simple lock closure. Throughout the lunch, she kept the bag in her lap, occasionally reaching down to pet it as though it were a puppy. At seven, I’d have been more excited if it were a little dog.
As the years passed, I’ve come to understand the significance behind a Birkin – why a woman in her thirties might be more excited by the prospect of a bag than a dog. Inspired by the French screen star and style icon Jane Birkin, the bag – which starts at $10,000 and runs upwards of $100,000 – was launched in 1984, but didn’t become truly famous until 2001 when an episode of Sex and the City chronicled Samantha’s ill-fated attempts to secure one (“It’s not a bag, it’s a Birkin!”). In 2008, Michael Tonello wrote a bestselling book titled Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World’s Most Coveted Handbag.
To this day, the Birkin is seen and namechecked in songs, TV shows and films ad nauseum. It’s become shorthand in pop culture for the mega-wealthy with taste. Now, Sotheby’s is auctioning the original Birkin prototype made for the late actor who died in 2023. The holy grail of bags, this one is black with brass hardware and will be sold as part of a Paris Fashion Icons sale held by the auction house on 10 July in Manhattan. “Obviously it is a one-of-a-kind piece, completely apart from any other handbag, or any other Birkin,” Morgane Halimi, the global head of handbags and fashion at Sotheby’s, told The New York Times.
“We are breaking records with Birkin bags on a regular basis at auction,” she said, comparing Jane Birkin’s bag to a jumper worn by Diana, Princess of Wales or a jersey from the NBA. “It has value because of what it is and what has happened because of that bag.” There is no public estimate for how much the bag will fetch, with figures only being shared at this stage privately to potential bidders.
The original Birkin itself varies in several ways from the Birkins available today. It is a different size for one thing. The strap isn’t removable, and the “clous” (the stud feet on the bottom to prevent scratching) are not the same dome shape that you get today. Embossed on the inside are the actor’s initials; even more personal are the pair of nail clippers hanging from handles that she had personally attached herself.
It was the first of five Birkin bags that the actor owned in her lifetime, one of which previously sold at a 2021 auction for approximately $160,000 (£118,000). This one, given it is the very first, will surely go for more. Birkin had sold it before at a charity auction for Aids in 1994, before it was sold again six years later to prominent collector Catherine Benier for an undisclosed price. Benier has chosen to sell it now, she told The New York Times, after seeing how many people visited it: “This bag is the object of a lifetime, it’s a legend, an icon. Does a legend have a price? Certainly.”
She’s right. Behind every icon, material or otherwise, there’s a good story. Legend has it that Birkin was on board a flight from Paris to London when she was upgraded to first class. Her signature handbag – a picnic wicker basket she had used for decades – started to come apart. Cards, cigarettes, glasses, wallet, keys and diapers (by then, she was the mother to three daughters) spilt out as her seatmate, who just so happened to be Jean-Louis Dumas, the then-chief executive of Hermès, watched on. They began speaking about the lack of practical bags available to women and together sketched out an early design on a vomit paper bag. The Birkin prototype was born, christened after its inspiration.
It’s a beautiful bag, obviously – exceptionally made using the best leather sourced at the finest tanners in France, and constructed by artisans who train for years in a process that takes a minimum of 18 hours to make a single bag. Some require 40 hours. It is practical, too, which was indeed the whole point. Roomy enough to fit a laptop and other essentials without being “ludicrously capacious”, a Birkin is the opposite of the itty-bitty It-girl purse of 2019: a Jacquemus purse measuring two inches long with scarcely enough space for a paracetamol and some AirPods.
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Style icon: Jane Birkin inspired the famous style on a flight from France to London (Mike Daines/Shutterstock)
So yes, it’s beautiful. It’s practical. It’s inspired by a heartstoppingly gorgeous icon of the screen. But more than any of that, it’s rare. Ridiculously so. You’d think the few people in the world who can afford to spend $10,000 on a bag would have their pick, but money is only half the battle. You can’t simply walk into a Hermes store and buy one – remember: it’s a Birkin, not a bag! Supposedly any prospective buyer has to build a relationship with the sales associates and go from there.
And if you are lucky enough to get through the VIP backroom – Birkins aren’t sold on the shop floor – don’t expect a vast array of options. You get what you get, and you say thank you. On the Reddit thread r/TheHermesGame, 43,000 members share firsthand experiences and tips for securing a Birkin. There, they break down lingo like “quota bags” (premier styles, of which Birkins are an example and also Kellys, named after Monaco starlet Grace Kelly, which even preferred customers are only allowed to buy two of per year).
They also discuss the alleged practice of “prespending” – which suggests that SA (sales associates) push customers to buy other Hermes products like jewellery, scarves, and shoes, in order to prove themselves “worthy” of a Birkin. (Some members say a purchase history of $20,000-$30,000 is required; others say the practice is more important to show “appreciation” of different merchandise categories.)
Nicknamed ‘the Wirkin’, the Walmart Birkin knock-off went viral on TikTok and sold out on the online retailer before disappearing from the website altogether
Last year, two Californian consumers sued Hermès for exactly this, claiming that the company is violating antitrust law by “tying” the sale of one item to the purchase of another. Whether the “prespend” rumours are true or not remains a hot debate, but what is clear is that a large part of the appeal of owning a Birkin is the chase. It’s why there is such a huge resale market – and why Birkins bought in store can often fetch double the price.
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White glove service: Money isn’t the only obstacle when it comes to procuring a Birkin of your own (AFP/Getty)
Wherever there is demand, there are fakes: one Google search will yield hundreds of options. Earlier this year, the American superstore Walmart started selling a knock-off for around $80. Nicknamed “the Wirkin”, the style went viral on TikTok and sold out on the online retailer before they disappeared from the website altogether – likely because, as The Cut reported, they were probably illegal. Less sketchy is The Boatkin, a new handbag also released this year, by Philadelphia brand Hathaway Hutton, which boasts a canvas material bag with the same trapezoid shape and similar hardware to a Birkin. “Quiet luxury with a smirk” is how Hathaway Hutton’s founder, Jen Risk, described the bag to The New York Times. “I wanted to mess with the seriousness of it all and give it some personality.”
But buying a Birkin is serious business and that understated personality, an almost lack of personality, is the entire point. This brings me to the second time I touched a Birkin, which was five or so years ago. This one, also belonging to another family friend because no one my age can afford such a thing, was dove grey and dimpled with small black dots like peppercorns. I’d later learn it was ostrich leather. Much older than seven, by then, I could appreciate the craftsmanship of the bag and better understand its history. As to the question of whether a Birkin is ever worth it? Well, I wouldn’t say no – but I’d still take a puppy over a bag any day.
