Birkin Mala -The Original -made for Jane Birkin in the 1980s
It wasn’t a Birkin. It was Birkin. Jane Birkin’s original suitcase was sold at auction for 8.6 million euros. He was in a hurry in a vomiting bag aboard an airplane to be a practical thing. It became the 2nd most valuable fashion article in the world.
A First Birkin suitcase in the world was sold in auction, this Thursday, in Paris, by 8.6 million euros.
The 7 million euros winning offering drew sighs and applause from the audience.
Price hit the previous record auction of a handbag – 513,040 dollars paid in 2021 by another Hermesa White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Retourne Kelly 28.
Now, the original Birkin bag, baptized in homage to the actress, singer and fashion icon to which Hermès created her – the deceased Jane Birkin -Made history.
Became the According to the most valuable fashion article Sold in auction, according to.
Only one fashion object was sold at auction for a higher value: a pair of Rubi Ruby Slippers from “The Wizard of Oz”, by 32.5 million dollars in 2024.
The Paris Auction Room was booing with expectation as the sale began, with the auctioneer reminding the crowd that the suitcase was “totally unique” and “The most famous suitcase of all time”.
The bidding started at 1 million euros, but quickly increased, with telephone bidder fighting at the end, with the Sotheby’s rates included, and the total price for the Japan winning bidder It was 8.6 million euros, according to the auction house.
Sotheby’s did not identify the buyer. Nine collectors who bids online, online and in the room competed in the 10 -minute battle of the auction, with the private collector of Japan to win the last remaining bidder at the end.
Drawn to hurry in a vomiting bag
Parisian fashion house Hermès ordered the bag exclusively to Birkin, born in London in 1984-marking it with its initials JB in the front tab, under the closure-and handed it the unique bag the following year.
The subsequent traded version of the Birkin bag became one of the world’s most exclusive luxury items, with an extravagant price and a waiting list that lasted years.
But the story is much better than that. Started well before, almost unintentionally, there “in the heavens”, after a (very small) disaster on a plane…
The bag was born from a Fortuito Meeting, on a flight to Londonin the 80s, between Jane Birkin and the then director of Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas.
Birkin counted on later interviews that the two started talking after she had some of her Things scattered across the cabin floor.
The (very small) disaster on the plane was Birkin to have dropped his belongings from a clumsome.
That’s when Birkin decided to ask Dumas why Hermès didn’t make a bigger handbag; and, Right there, he drew, in a vomiting bag, the type of suitcase I would like to have.
And that’s when Jean-Louis Dumas had a copy for her. Flattered, the singer agreed when Hermès asked her if she could market her suitcase with her name.
“There is no doubt that the original Birkin bag is truly unique – A unique piece of the fashion history that has become a phenomenon of pop culture that marks the luxury in the most refined way possible “ Morgane HalimiSotheby’s Director and Fashion Director.
“It’s amazing to think that a suitcase initially conceived by Hermès as a practical accessory for Jane Birkin became in most desired suitcase in history“He added.
The bag became so famous that before he died in 2023 at the age of 76, Birkin even thought that his obituaries would probably “say, ‘like the bag’ or something of the genre.”
