An unique Jane ‘Birkin’ bag on show. Photograph: Reuters
PARIS:
The marketplace for Hermes Birkin baggage continued its extraordinary ascent this week, with a second purse as soon as owned by Jane Birkin promoting for $2.86 million in Abu Dhabi, simply as the unique 1984 prototype of the long-lasting design was publicly unveiled in Tokyo following its file 8.6 million sale earlier this 12 months.
The Abu Dhabi public sale, confirmed by Sotheby’s, comes solely months after the prototype Birkin was bought at a Paris sale by Japanese luxurious reseller Valuence Japan for roughly $10 million — the very best worth ever paid for a purse.
Hermes created the design in 1984 after Jane Birkin discovered herself seated beside then-Hermes government Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight. Annoyed by the shortage of a sensible but trendy purse, she described her must Dumas, who sketched the idea on the spot.
The ensuing prototype included area for a child bottle and different practical options, changing into the muse for what would evolve into one in every of style’s most coveted standing symbols. Birkin herself auctioned the prototype in 1994 to lift funds for French AIDS charity Sidaction.
Towards this backdrop of surging collector curiosity, the Abu Dhabi sale underscored the Birkin’s persistent attraction. The bag offered there — a ‘Birkin Voyageur’ gifted to Birkin in 2003 — reached a closing worth roughly six occasions greater than the pre-sale estimate of $230,000-$430,000.
The newly offered bag was one in every of 4 owned by the late singer and actor. “Jane Birkin’s purse legacy continues to captivate collectors,” Sotheby’s stated in a press release, noting an 11-minute contest amongst six bidders. The profitable purchaser participated by telephone and has not been recognized. This explicit merchandise carries a handwritten message in French from Birkin herself: “My Birkin bag, my globetrotting companion.”
The actor incessantly auctioned her Birkins to assist charitable causes. Produced in extraordinarily restricted portions, Hermes’ fashionable Birkins have retained their aura of exclusivity and stay favourites of collectors and celebrities alike, together with the Kardashians, Jennifer Lopez and Victoria Beckham.
Even with such excessive costs, they nonetheless fall in need of the most costly style merchandise ever offered at public sale: the ruby pink slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, which fetched $32.5 million in Dallas in 2024, based on Sotheby’s.
