The original Birkin bag (left) once belonged to British-French actress Jane Birkin, above. Hermès executive Jean-Louis Dumas is said to have designed the bag in the actress’s honour after seeing her struggle wiith her own purse on an airplane flight.ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images
A record-breaking sale set the auction world ablaze on July 10, when the original Hermès Birkin – once carried by Jane Birkin herself – sold at Sotheby’s for 7 million euros (over $11 million CAD). Scratched, stickered and stained, this well-worn icon required premium registration and proof of funds just to bid. Amid all the pomp surrounding the sale, what is it about the bag’s pedigree and cult status that makes it so coveted?
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Birkin and her husband, French singer and composer Serge Gainsbourg, pictured in December 1973.MICHEL CLEMENT/Getty Images
Jane Birkin was a fashion icon, yes – but never a trend devotee. Her nonchalant approach to dressing – rumpled T-shirts, flared jeans, casual LBDs and collar shirts borrowed from lovers such as composer John Barry, singer Serge Gainsbourg and director Jacques Doillon – left an enduring mark on women’s style equal to any piece of calculated couture. Arguably, Birkin’s influence signalled a U-turn from that 60s era of aspirational glamour circa Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood and Catherine Deneuve, and the Birkin bag feels like it was born of rebellion.
As the story goes, in 1983, Hermès executive Jean-Louis Dumas was on a flight with Birkin when the contents of her straw carryall – books, cosmetics, odds and ends tumbled onto the aisle. She complained she couldn’t find a bag big enough for her everyday needs. Dumas began to dream up a solution with her mid-flight. In 1985, Hermès offered her a prototype and asked to name it after her.
‘There is at least 40 years of history all over that bag,’ says Michael Tonello, author of memoir Bringing Home the Birkin.Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Birkin agreed. She used the bag until it looked like a protest sign, adding stickers in support of Médecins du Monde and UNICEF, hanging a nail clipper from the strap and never once sending it for cleaning to the Hermès Spa. That bag – the exact one sold this week – still bears her initials and scratches from years of daily wear.
The bag still bears Birkin’s initials and the scratches from years of daily wear.ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images
“It’s art and it’s her life,” says Michael Tonello, author of Bringing Home the Birkin, a memoir that was recently optioned for screen adaptation. “You can go and buy a $2-million Patek Philippe or a Rolex. Or you can go to Van Cleef and get something shiny. But this bag? This is a one-off. It’s Jane Birkin’s bag,” he says. Once used to carry everything from scripts to her children’s diapers, the Birkin holds more than just belongings. “There is at least 40 years of history all over that bag.”
Tonello, a former luxury goods reseller who once bought more than 130 Birkins in a single year (spending upwards of US$1.7-million), says the Birkin popularized a new kind of consumer frenzy: the waiting list. He recalls visiting an Hermès boutique in Monte Carlo, where there was a two-year wait just to get on the waiting list. After using three credit cards to buy thousands of dollars’ worth of scarves and clothes, he was finally offered a Birkin for purchase.
The pop culture moment that captured this insatiable craving for the Birkin happened during the early aughts in Season 4 of Sex and the City, when Samantha Jones name-drops her client Lucy Liu to skip the waitlist and score a bag. A decade later, Cate Blanchett’s Oscar-winning role in Blue Jasmine also brought the Birkin back into focus – her character clutching it as a last tether to her lost wealth.
For enthusiasts, the bag’s quiet mode of luxury speaks volumes. “The Birkin is always fashionable because it isn’t in fashion,” says Michael Tonello. “Like Jane, it’s cool because it isn’t flashy. No big logos. No design that looks dated or imposing.”
Will the next owner of this Birkin tuck it into a glass case, place it on a pedestal – or sling it casually over their arm and let it inherit the narrative of a new life?Tom Nicholson/Reuters
Even so, the Birkin remains an obsession, ironically among today’s lavish statement makers. Victoria Beckham famously owns dozens. Lady Gaga treats hers like a canvas, scribbling across its leather surface. Cardi B and Kim Kardashian have their own bags and gifted it their young daughters too.
And like those stars, through the years, the Birkin has had its share of drama. In 2015, Jane Birkin asked for her name to be removed after learning about the animal slaughter procedures behind the bag. Months later, once the luxury house put ethical practices in place, she agreed to reinstate her name. When Walmart dropped a legal dupe of the bag last year, fans renamed it the Wirkin or the Walmès – short for the “working-class Birkin” or “Walmart Hermès.” It flew off shelves, proving even a morally murky knockoff of the icon can cause a frenzy.
And now, with the original in new hands, one has to wonder: Will the next owner tuck it into a glass case, place it on a pedestal – or sling it casually over their arm and let it inherit the narrative of a new life? Wherever it goes, the Birkin will carry the legacy of a woman who never once cared for what was in, only what was purposeful.
