The original Hermès Birkin bag as soon as worn by late actor and singer Jane Birkin has been auctioned off in Paris for over $10 million, making it probably the most invaluable purse ever offered at public sale, Sotheby’s mentioned Thursday.
The bag offered for $10.1 million after greater than 10 minutes of “heated bidding,” the public sale home mentioned on social media. Sotheby’s didn’t say who purchased the leather-based purse.
Earlier than the public sale, the bag belonged to a non-public collector. It was briefly on show in New York Metropolis earlier than being sold in Paris as a part of Sotheby’s Style Icons public sale.
The unique Hermès Birkin bag was constructed particularly for Jane Birkin after an opportunity assembly in 1984. Whereas on an Air France flight, Birkin complained to then-Hermès chief Jean-Louis Dumas that she could not discover a purse large enough to carry every part she carried every day, Sotheby’s said. She was a younger mom and could not discover a bag that match her wants, in line with Hermès.
Dumas rapidly sketched a design, “with a devoted house for her child’s bottles!” Hermès says, and trend historical past was made.
Alaid Jocard/Jacques Demarthon/AFP
“The Unique Birkin bag is a real one-of-a-kind — a singular piece of trend historical past that has grown right into a popular culture phenomenon that indicators luxurious in probably the most refined means potential,” Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s world head of purses and trend, mentioned in a press release saying the public sale.
Within the a long time since, the Hermès Birkin has grow to be an iconic, extremely in-demand and expensive luxurious accent. The bag is now made in quite a lot of colours, sizes and leather-based sorts. Sotheby’s resells a range of Birkin luggage for between $5,000 and $220,000. Hermès creative director Pierre-Alexis Dumas told “60 Minutes” in December that only some craftspeople are skilled in make the bag, so there’s at all times extra demand than provide.
“No matter we have now, we placed on the shelf and it goes,” he mentioned.
