Can you put a price on owning a piece of fashion history? The answer is yes, and that price is an eye-watering €8.6million ($15.2 million AUD) with the sale of the original Birkin bag.
The 40-year-old Hermès Birkin bag, worn by its very muse, Jane Birkin, went up for auction at the famous Sotheby’s in Paris this week. The coveted item incited a 10-minute long bidding war before reaching the record-breaking sale price of $15.2 million dollars, selling to a private collector in Japan who bid via telephone.
The historic sale of the original Birkin bag made the iconic piece the most valuable handbag ever sold at auction.
Of the sale, global head of handbags and fashion at Sotheby’s, Morgane Halimi, said: “”The spectacular sale of the Original Hermès Birkin today at Sotheby’s Paris marks an important milestone in the history of fashion and the luxury industry more widely.”
The bag was last purchased at a Sothesby’s auction 25 years ago.
Of the sale, the bag’s previous owner reminisced, that the auction “made me relive my own bidding battle, 25 years ago, and how raw and indescribable the feeling of winning over this wonderful bag was.”
Singer, actress and style icon, Jane Birkin, inspired the first Hermès Birkin Bag in 1984.
The collaboration began after the head of the French maison, Jean-Louis Dumas, sat next to Birkin on a flight from Paris to London. Noticing Birkin struggling to keep the contents of her famous straw bag together as she revealed she could not find a sturdier, leather bag she liked, Dumas designed a piece to cater to her desire.
The design went on to become one of fashion’s most iconic, coveted and exclusive pieces, with an approximate starting price of more than $10,000 along with a vetting process to purchase – one simply can’t waltz into an Hermès store and pick up a Birkin bag.
