A 40-year-old purse that inspired the world’s most prestigious line of handbags sold at a Sotheby’s auction in Paris on Thursday morning for €8.6 million (AU$15.2 million) after fees to an unidentified Japanese bidder after more than 10 minutes of intense bidding by nine potential buyers vying for the very first Hermès Birkin bag ever made.
Key Takeaways
- The Birkin prototype, which was created specifically for actress and French style icon Jane Birkin, inspired a line of Hermès bags that are notoriously expensive—they commonly resell for tens of thousands of dollars—and hard to acquire.
- The bag is the most expensive handbag ever sold at auction, costing the buyer €7 million ($8.2 million) before fees, handily beating an Hermès Kelly 28 that fetched $513,040 in November 2021.
- The bag was sold to an unnamed private collector from Japan, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- The Birkin is now the second most valuable fashion item ever sold after a pair of Ruby Red Slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” which sold for $32.5 million in 2024.
- The original bag, which includes a non-removable strap and is stamped with Jane Birkin’s initials, differs from the purses later produced in its name in several ways: it’s a unique size between the 40 and 35 sizes later made for the Hermès line, it has gilded brass hardware instead of the gold-plated hardware used when the bag was officially launched and it has noticeably smaller bottom studs, or “feet,” than those used on production Birkin bags.
- The purse is also noticeably worn from use—Jane Birkin was known to treat the bag as any other, as opposed to keeping it in pristine condition as many collectors do today, and she famously personalized her bag with stickers and other accouterments.
- This particular bag has been sold twice before for undisclosed amounts: Birkin donated it to an auction benefiting Association Solidarité Sida, a French AIDS charity, in 1994 and it was sold again at auction in 2000 to Parisian collector Catherine Benier, who has had it since.
Key Background
The origin story of the Birkin bag has fallen into fashion legend. Jane Birkin, considered a French icon and muse thanks to her unique Parisian style, was reportedly carrying a plastic bag as a purse on a plane in the mid 1980s.
The bag broke, and she audibly complained that Hermès, the French design house, didn’t design a bag that would hold all her things. Jean-Louis Dumas, the CEO and head designer of Hermès at the time, happened to be sitting next to her. Birkin then sketched the design of the now-famous handbag on an airplane sickness bag, and Dumas went on to create a chic leather bag meant to be suitable for everyday use.
The first Birkin bags were released later that year and have since become a symbol of status. The bags range in price, but on average cost between $10,000 and $60,000 and waiting lists for rare bags can extend for months or years. Customers must be personally invited to purchase a Birkin by sales associates of Hermès, and the invitation often isn’t extended until a customer has spent thousands on other merchandise. Customers also aren’t usually permitted to request a specific bag—they’re offered what’s available on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.
Because of their scarcity, Birkin bags have a crowded resale market. Today, Sotheby’s has 239 Hermès Birkin bags listed for resale on its website ranging from an $8,000 orange Birkin 42 to a $220,000 white crocodile Himalaya Birkin.
Big Number
$2 million. That’s the price of the most expensive Birkin ever designed. The Sac Bijou Birkin bag, unveiled in Hermès’ 2012 collection, was designed by the brand’s fine jewelry director. The mini bag included 2,712 diamonds and was intended to be worn as a bracelet, according to Sotheby’s. Only three diamond Sac Bijou Birkin bags were made.
What We Don’t Know
Who placed the winning bid.
The auction was open to individual collectors and institutions, like museums. The largest known Hermès collection belongs to Singaporean socialite Jamie Chua, who keeps it in a fingerprint-secured, 700-square-foot closet. Her bags are kept behind glass and her collection includes what’s called a Himalayan diamond Birkin, which is estimated to be worth as much as $500,000. Stars like Victoria Beckham, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Jefree Star are also known to have large collections, while other high-profile lovers include Pippa Middleton, Kate Moss, Jennifer Lopez and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Tangent
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals U.K. has sent a letter to Benier asking she donate the proceeds from the auction to wildlife charities “to make up for at least some of the harm caused to animals by the production of Birkin bags.”
Hermes is one of a handful of luxury brands that have faced criticism for their use of exotic animal skins, particularly crocodile, alligator and snake, to make their products. PETA has said three crocodiles are killed to make a single exotic Birkin bag, and Jane Birkin herself once asked Hermès to remove her name from the bag, specifically the crocodile version, due to concerns about animal welfare.
She later dropped the request after Hermès responded by threatening to end its affiliation with a crocodile farm in Texas found to not be following international production standards.
