Sotheby’s will host an auction titled Fashion Icons in Paris on July 10, and few items fit the description better than the Birkin Bag — especially when it happens to be the very first one ever made. The bag’s former owner was none other than singer and actress Jane Birkin (1946–2023), whose chance encounter on a flight led to the creation of what would become one of the most coveted handbags in the world.
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The story of the Birkin Bag is one of the most often retold in the fashion world, and rightly so. In 1981, Jane Birkin was flying from Paris to London. As she often did, she carried a woven wicker basket as her handbag. While trying to store it in the overhead compartment, its contents spilled out. Sitting beside her was Jean-Louis Dumas, the artistic director of Hermès at the time. The two began talking, and Birkin remarked that handbags were either too small or too impractical to carry all she needed.
Dumas listened carefully, and soon after, Hermès began developing a new design inspired by Birkin’s effortless style and practical needs. The prototype was completed in 1985 and sent to her, along with a request to name the bag in her honour. Birkin gladly accepted.
See also: It's Not a Bag, It's a Birkin: An Iconic Story
This first Birkin Bag, made from black box leather, includes several features that were never used in later versions. The most striking is a fixed shoulder strap. The bag’s width and height match the dimensions of today’s Birkin 35, but its depth corresponds to a Birkin 40. The hardware is made from gold-plated brass, which Hermès did not use again. The strap holders (known as pontets) on the front are closed, unlike those on later versions, which were open — first with the opening facing downwards, and since the 1990s, upwards. The four metal feet on the bottom are still relatively small, and the zip inside the bag was made by the company Éclair, which supplied Hermès until the 1990s, when it was replaced by Riri. The initials "J.B" are stamped on the front flap, and perhaps most distinctively, a nail clipper belonging to Jane Birkin still hangs from a chain on the bag.
For nine years, Birkin used the prototype regularly, personalising it with stickers from charities she supported, such as Médecins du Monde and UNICEF. In 1994, she parted with it for a good cause, auctioning it at a charity event in support of Association Solidarité Sida, one of France’s leading AIDS organisations. The bag changed hands again in 2000, and now, 25 years later, it is returning to the auction block as a true piece of fashion history.
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Sotheby’s has not disclosed the estimated price of this exceptional Birkin Bag. Jane Birkin had all five of her Birkin Bags, each a gift from Hermès, auctioned off for charity after years of use. One of these bags was sold at Bonhams in London in 2021 for £119,000 (around $162,000), far exceeding the estimated price of £15,000 to £20,000. The highest price ever paid for a Birkin Bag at auction remains HK$3 million (about $385,000), achieved at Christie’s in Hong Kong in 2020.
