“It’s not a bag — it’s a Birkin!”
If you’re a fan of the 2000s phenomenon “Sex and the City”, you’d probably recall the episode where Kim Cattrall’s publicist character Samantha Jones used Lucy Liu’s name to skip a five-year-long waiting list for a $4,000 Birkin handbag.
The famous line above, spoken by an Hermès sales associate, still rings true to this day, as the iconic handbag named after late British-French actress and singer Jane Birkin remains one of the priciest and most coveted pieces in fashion.
So much so that it has become a status symbol and an alternative investment-grade asset for the über-rich and famous.
Le Birkin Voyageur
In December, one of the five Birkins once owned by the “La Belle Noiseuse” star will go under the hammer in a live auction at Sotheby’s Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates with a whopping price tag of between $240,000 and $400,000.
Named Le Birkin Voyageur, the classic black box leather piece served as Jane’s everyday bag and globetrotting companion from 2003 to 2007.
Measuring 40 centimetres wide, it features closed bridges to help fasten the bag and Jane’s handwritten notes, including one note in silver ink in the interior.
“Mon birkin bag qui a voyagé avec moi dans le monde entier,” reads the autographed note, which translates to “My Birkin bag that has accompanied me around the entire world.”
In 2007, the visibly worn Le Birkin Voyageur was first auctioned in 2007 to support the International Federation for Human Rights.
It has remained in a private collection since then.
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More than just a bag
The December 5 auction will follow the record-shattering sale of the original Hermès Birkin prototype bag for $10.1 million at Sotheby’s Paris in July.
“To present not one, but two of Jane Birkin’s personal Hermès bags in a single year is nothing short of historic,” Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global head of handbags and fashion, said in a statement on October 21.
“Following the record-breaking sale of the original Birkin prototype in July, this exceptionally rare example offers collectors an intimate connection to the woman at the origin of the world’s most iconic handbag.”
“This is not just a piece of fashion history, but a deeply personal artefact from a cultural and style icon whose legacy continues to inspire.”
Chance mid-air encounter
The Birkin bag was born out of necessity.
On a flight from Paris to London in 1981, Jane sat next to Jean-Louis Dumas, then-chairman of the French luxury house Hermès.
As she was putting her handwoven straw bag in the overhead compartment, her belongings fell out of the cabin floor and onto Dumas’ lap.
Dumas then told Jane she should have a bag with pockets, to which she replied: “The day Hermès makes one with pockets I will have that.”
Dumas responded: “But I am Hermès, I will put pockets in for you.”
She told Dumas that she needed a leather bag large enough to fit her daily essentials as a young mother.
In a 2012 interview with Vogue, Jane said she drew her very own handbag design on an aeroplane sick bag.
Dumas then promised to make Jane her dream handbag for free in exchange for lending her name to the design.
Jane told Vogue that Hermès paid her £30,000 in annual royalties in 2011 ($39,666 at today’s exchange rates), which she then donated to charities.
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Geoffrey H. Latayan